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American schooner-or still more heinous, laden with a cargo of spirits he offered every assistance in his power, and put the schoolhouse at our disposal, should we care to live ashore.

A flight of broad stairs, built against the cliff, led to its top, and then, after traversing two or three hundred yards of broad road, the agent's bungalow -"Temple Villa"-and the schoolhouse, both standing on an open piece of land purchased from the natives, were reached.

In the clearing were sheds for the meteorological instruments, a very deep well, the only one in Kar Nicobar, and enclosures for several Indian cows that were kept by the agent. The Nicobarese do not use milk, and a herd of cattle given to them when the settlement at Nankauri was abolished, are now roaming over Trinkat in a semi-wild state, very occasionally losing one or two of their numbers by the spears of the natives, to whom, at times, they afford a welcome supply of food. The common pigeon was introduced into Kar Nicobar in 1898, and numbers of them were to be seen in the vicinity of the bungalow.

The village lay just beyond, on the eastern shore, for this part of the island is merely a narrow arm projecting from the main portion in a northern direction.

Mūs has a population of 530, and covers about half a square mile of ground, the various groups of houses being scattered irregularly about in picturesque disorder amongst thickets of fruit-trees and fenced-in gardens.

All the buildings stand on thick piles,* about 7 feet high, but vary in architectural type. The living-houses (pati), roughly about 20 feet in diameter, and 15-20 feet in height from floor to apex, are in shape something between an inverted basin and a pie-dish, covered with a heavy thatch of lallang grass. Without windows or visible entrance, the interior is reached by a neatly - made ladder of bamboo, or notched pole, through a trapdoor in the floor, which works on hinges and * Of Barringtonia speciosa, Eugenia javanica, and Calophyllum inophyllum.

has an alarum attached, so that any nocturnal intruder will make his presence known.

The top of each pile is fitted with a large, circular, wooden disc, to prevent the entry of rats and reptiles,* and beneath the house, in the shade, there is generally a swing, and also a platform of springy cane that serves the native for a lounge. Baskets, bag-shaped and wide - meshed, hang from the piles, and in these the hens are put when it is laying-time.

Inside, the walls are generally neatly lined with thin battens of areca palm attached horizontally; up in the roof, a kind of attic is formed, by means of a light shelving of areca or other palm wood, having a square aperture left in the centre for entrance. On the floor, which is also grated, are the wooden clothes - chests that contain the family possessions, betel - boxes, the mats of areca palm leaf, and the wooden head-rests which are used when sleeping; and from the walls hang baskets, spears, crossbows, suspensory contrivances made from small branches with part of the twigs left on, and also some tobacco, coconuts, and a piece of pork-the offering to the spirits.

The other type of building (kamun telika) is used as a kitchen; it has a ridged but curved roof, an oblong floor, rounded at the back and in front, and a platform, and a semicircular projection of the roof to shade the doorway.

At the further end the fireplace is situated. A flat block of wood is hollowed out and covered with sand or clay, and huge clay pots-often with a capacity of many gallons-stand above it, on pieces of stone, raising them clear of the coconut husks which are the principal fuel. Around lie pandanus fruit, the boards and shells with which it is prepared for eating, and the thorn-armed leaf-stems of the rattan, which the natives use for grating up coconut. Up in the roof, are stuck, between the thatch and the rafters, hollowed-out wooden troughs, in which the food of the pigs, dogs, and other animals is prepared; flat wooden dishes, provision baskets, and fans for blowing up the fire, made of the sheathing petiole of palm trees, while, * The Dyaks of Borneo employ a similar protection in their rice granaries.

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