rounded tip, has inflated alae nasi, and the plane of the nostrils directed upward.*

There is often marked prognathism of the dental variety, and the teeth are irregular and blackened, large and projecting— frequently growing outwards at an angle, like those of a rabbit.

The mouth is naturally large, and its shape is not improved by holding the betel-quid between the upper lip and teeth. The lips are moderately thick, and the lower is often pendulous and turned down, showing much of the mucous membrane. When at rest, the lips are kept apart.

The chin is usually rather retreating, small, with a rounded and pointed tip; but the jaw is somewhat heavily hung at the base, and the posterior angle is strongly marked.

The ears are well formed, moderately large, and lie close to the head, unless drawn out of shape by much use of ear-distenders. The Nicobarese have not always been given a good character by their acquaintances. They have been called lazy, inactive, and drunken, cowardly and treacherous, but this last must be taken as applying more to those bands of pirates-with a probable large foreign element-who committed so many crimes during a long period; otherwise, they are harmless and good-tempered, The accusation of cowardice is made with more truth, and it is a quality they frankly own up to.

Lazy and inactive they may be from our point of view, but hardly otherwise. Food is abundant all round them, weapons are not necessary, and clothing they do not really need. They show plenty of application and care when making their canoes, building their houses-which in construction are models of neatness-and in gathering the toddy, that with betel-nut is, perhaps, their only native luxury. Drunken they certainly are on many occasions, but the state with them is one that, fortunately, does not give rise to troublesomeness.

They are honest in their commercial transactions, and are most indignant should their integrity be impugned, while the

Besides the aquiline noses already mentioned, a distinctly Jewish or Papuan feature is occasionally to be met with.

accusation of untruthfulness brings them up in arms immediately.

Somewhat absent in manner, unemotional and apathetic, the more intelligent are yet extremely inquisitive towards strangers, and ask endless questions of a personal kind.

Although not remarkable for courtesy, or possessing any forms of salutation,* they are very hospitable, and always ready with coconuts, cigarettes, etc., for a visitor. It is customary for natives, when travelling, to enter without remark any house on their path, help themselves to food and drink, and depart in silence.†

They are exceedingly independent in manner and spirit, are of a somewhat commercial turn of mind, and are occasionally gifted with a distressing importunity, which is most common in those places where visits from Europeans have been most frequent.

Parents seem to possess great affection for their infants, and the number of men, especially, who may be seen about the villages carrying their children, or otherwise amusing them, is remarkable.

Six distinct dialects and languages are spoken in the Archipelago-one on Kar Nicobar, another on Chaura; Teressa and Bompoka together have one; the central islands of Kamorta, Nankauri, Trinkat, and Kachal speak a fourth; while Little and Great Nicobar with their adjacent islands have a fifth. Lastly, the Shom Pen of the interior of Great Nicobar employ a speech that is dissimilar to the others.

The language, which is somewhat harsh in sound, has, however, "an extraordinarily rich, phonetic system-as many as twenty-five * "They have terms answering to 'How d'ye do?' and 'Good-bye.' The following are said in the Central Islands :

A. Met chai-chachá-ka?-How d'ye do?

B. Pehárí (said in response).—The same to you.

A. Yáshe me ra.-Good-bye (said by the person leaving).

B. Tawátse me rakát.-Good-bye, lit., Thus you at present moment (said in response).

A. Pehárí.-The same to you.

At the other islands there are corresponding terms.”—E. H. Man.

+ V. Solomon.

LEGENDS OF ORIGIN

229

consonantal and thirty-five vowel sounds (it possesses a peculiar double series of nasal vowels)—is polysyllabic, and untoned, like the Malayo-Polynesian, and the type seems to resemble the Oceanic more than the Continental Mongol subdivision." *

This is the theory of the Kar Nicobarese with regard to their origin :

son.

A certain man, from some unknown country, arrived at the Nicobars on a flat, with a pet female dog, and settled in Kar Nicobar. In course of time he espoused the bitch, and begot a When this son was grown up, he concealed his mother by covering her with a ngong, a kind of petticoat made of coco-palm leaves, and, after killing his father in the jungle, took his mother to wife. From such parents the Nicobarese believe they originated, and it is their progeny who now people the island.

The two-horned head-dress-tá-chökla-worn by all males, they consider symbolic of their mother's ears; the end of the loin-cloth that dangles behind, they call her tail; and the piece of cotton reaching to the women's knees only, they compare with the ngong petticoat, which was her first dress.

Until comparatively recently, this ngong-a thick fringe of palm leaf about 15 inches deep, inserted in a band-was in universal wear (see Koeping, Hamilton, Lancaster, and others) and, even now, it is worn sometimes by the women when working in the plantations. It is also worn at Teressa, and still more at Chaura.+

Another version of the legend varies somewhat, making the father a dog and the mother a woman. It is owing to this belief that the natives say they are sons of a dog, and for this reason they treat their dogs very kindly, and never beat them: they quiet them by simply saying "Hush! hush!"

There is another tradition amongst the Nicobarese, to the effect that the first stranger who came to their islands, seeing something moving on the sand, perceived small people the size of * Professor A. H. Keane, "Man, Past and Present," Camb. Geog. Series, 1899.

+ Vide plate facing 248.