DRESS AND ORNAMENTS

coconut shells over the body.

249

Clothing gets a rinse in the

sea at intervals by way of cleansing.

At the present time the everyday dress is of red cotton, but for the first half and more of the last century the fashion ran all in blue. On ordinary occasions men wear a long strip of cotton, generally red, passing round the thighs and between the legs,* and women drape a fathom or two of cotton about the waist by twisting the ends together; but for other times there are cotton draperies, sarongs, Chinese coats and trousers, and also European garments, which, from top-hats to shirts, are in great demand.†

In the north a chaplet of areca palm spathe with loose ends (tá-chökla) is much worn, and the ear-lobes are pierced to retain short plugs of bamboo, half an inch in diameter, inlaid with silver and with silver pendants. From Kamorta southward the common head-dress is a similar chaplet of pandanus leaf (shanóang), or a coloured handkerchief or circlet of calico, and there is a plain ear-distender, one inch or more in diameter and three long, often shaped like a wedge: this is replaced on festive occasions by a large rosette of red and white cotton.

Other ornaments are bangles and anklets, made by twisting thick silver wire about the limb, and belts and necklaces made of rupees or smaller coins. Rings are worn, either of silver or shell.

Face and chest are sometimes covered with vermilion or saffron paint, but the natives do not employ any form of tattoo or scarification.

Hair is usually worn short by both sexes, but there is a more or less distinctive style or fashion at all the islands. On the occasion of a sudden or violent death at a village all its in

* Referred to in these pages as kissát, neng, or T bandage, for want of a more accurate expression.

+ For the dress used at various periods, refer to the authorities quoted in other chapters. The earliest clothing-apart from ornamental cords and string bracelets, etc., as are still used by the Andamanese-seems to have been, for the men a strip of bark cloth, and for the women a short petticoat of grass or coco-palm leaf (ngong).

habitants are required to shave their heads, and the women their eyebrows as well. Mourning for a relative is indicated in like manner as well as by other observances. With infants the head is often shaved for a time, and for the next few years the hair is kept short, in which way it is also worn by all ages and sexes. Boys as a rule have their heads cropped.

Fairly long hair is worn by many, but in no case is it ever permitted to grow below the shoulders; at that point it is cut across horizontally, and then, when bushy, the hair presents much the appearance represented in Assyrian and Egyptian records.

The Nicobarese possess no musical instrument of their own invention, but very occasionally some individual attempts to produce, without much success, a copy of something he has seen in the hands of foreigners-a violin, guitar, etc.

Two instruments are, however, in use among them: one, a seven-holed flageolet, which is Burmese, and the other, the danang, borrowed from the Indian "sitar," has three frets, a string of cane, and two sound-holes.+ "It is a hollowed bamboo, about 2 feet long and 3 inches in diameter, along the outside of which there is stretched from end to end a single string, made of the threads of a split rattan, and the place under the string is hollowed, to prevent it from touching. This instrument is played upon in the same way as a guitar" while rested on the knee.t

With the exception of dancing, singing, and feasting, there are hardly any organised amusements. The exact forms of the dances vary, but for special occasions new figures and songs are composed and assiduously practised. In the north-west, challenges for canoe races, or processions rather, circulate amongst the Kar Nicobar villages, and are taken part in by twenty or thirty men a-side. The large canoes are decorated,

* The idea being that the demon who caused the death may fail to recognise the survivors.

+ M. V. Portman, Jour. Royal Asiatic Soc., 1888.

G. Hamilton, Asiatic Researches, vol. ii.

and the course is a long one several miles along the coast from village to village. As the men sing at the top of their voices throughout the race, they are generally exhausted at the finish. The pace is not remarkable, and the canoes keep abreast throughout, neither seeming to mind which comes in first.

Wrestling is a favourite pursuit of the boys. There is no science or cunning displayed, and the rounds are very short, one or the other combatant going down at once.

Pig processions are a pastime indulged in by young men. A pig is tied beneath a pole, and, with one of their number seated astride of it, is borne, with songs, about the village by a party of youths in the evening.

In such villages as are situated near the calmer waters of harbours, little children amuse themselves by sailing models of canoes and junks.

The Nicobarese have no writing or pictography, and their attempts at ornamental work on articles of general utility are confined to the finials of the houses, the stem and stern posts of their canoes, and a little decorative carving on their wooden dishes.* Nevertheless, in the charms and talismans connected with their superstitious cult they betray a certain artistic ability, and their pictures, screens, and figures of birds, men, and animals, show not only good powers of observation, but a capacity and skill of no mean order, in interpreting and reproducing whatever may present itself to them.

As concerns metals, it appears that 200 years ago Jesuit missionaries discovered tin on Great Nicobar. Having regard to the proximity of the rich deposits of this metal in Sumatra and the Malayan Peninsula, it seems not improbable that the statement will some day be verified. At Kar Nicobar small quantities of iron pyrites are found. The art of working in iron is almost confined to Chaura, where the meráhtas and the best spear-heads are manufactured. The latter are, however, made at the other islands as well. Of weaving they have no knowledge, * Cf. "Dyak dishes," in Headhunters of Borneo, plate 19,