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"FRANK THOMPSON"

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Poor old "Friend of England"! his lines are no longer cast in pleasant places. His last wife, the widow of a friend, became blind, and he can no longer obtain another on account of his old age; he has become estranged from his son because of his too amorous conduct towards the latter's wife, and has had to pay several fines on account of similar behaviour towards other neighbours.

Our last glimpse of him as he made for the shore, after having been assisted to his canoe, generally caught him in the act of undoing his cherished necktie and restoring it, carefully folded, to his pocket.

One day when we had so far broken through our rule as to give him a bottle of rum and water to take ashore "for medicine after we had gone "-going a couple of hours later into the village, we found "Friend of England" tottering up a path, and tried to take his portrait. But the old scamp, who all his life had lived in the sun, refused on this occasion to come out of the shade, and was so afflicted with involuntary staggers, that the result of several exposures was a very qualified success, and lost much of the impressiveness of the original, through his unwillingness to don his necktie in the customary Byronic style.

One of our guides about the island was "Frank Thompson," one of Mr Solomon's "most promising pupils, and a sincere Christian"—a rather stupid-looking youth, who had spent some years at the Port Blair School. I fear that we regarded him with some contempt, for he seemed to have developed into nothing better than a hanger-on at the Agency, and although he spoke English fairly well, and could doubtless read and write a little, in the jungle he proved to be quite useless. Birds he could scarcely ever see; he did not know the way about, and after a few miles, he was blowing and panting, and groaning inquiries as to how much farther he was to go. Thompson however could beg as well as the rest, nor was he out of his element when the rum and cigars were being passed round.

A very different character was my shikari "Little John," native name unknown. This man was perhaps, on the whole, the best specimen physically of a Nicobarese that we came across. A handsome, rather scornful, face, with aquiline nose, was only spoiled by the occurrence of the Mongolian fold in the inner corner of the eyelids. His curly black hair was worn long, in a thick bushy mass, as far as his shoulders, where it was cut off straight across. Though only 5 feet 6 inches in height, he was splendidly built: was 40 inches round the chest, 131 inches round the biceps, and 15 inches round the calf. The natives admitted that he was about the strongest man in the village of Mūs.*

He was awfully keen on collecting; could creep noiselessly through the jungle, and saw birds that I took long to distinguish, even after he had pointed them out. He was also a good "pot-shot," and nothing delighted him more than to carry the gun, and after having it loaded with cartridge suitable to the occasion, to fire. occasion, to fire at and bring down the specimen, when he would hand the weapon to me and dash away amongst the undergrowth to retrieve his booty, bringing it back with the greatest care.

He was an unwearying hunter, and would often creep about for ten minutes at a time, under some tree, in order to point out for my approval, and get a clear shot at, some bird whose presence he had discovered in the dense foliage.

He used to accompany us on board the schooner, and after having breakfasted with the crew, would sit in the cabin with. a cigar, watching us as we worked at the skins, and improving his little English by constant inquiries: "How you call dis? What you call dat?"

The desire of the Nicobarese to learn words, and acquire the name of anything they do not know, is great, and their powers of memory are astonishing. The exercise of these linguistic abilities is most marked in the headmen, or “captains

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His portrait is, unfortunately, a failure, as he seems to have moved slightly during the time of exposure.

MISSION SCHOOL BOYS

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as they love to be called-a title inherited from the times when English skippers used to trade amongst these islands, and bestow by request their own names (and others less complimentary, but more pointed) on the natives they particularly favoured in their commercial transactions.

Nor were these our only acquaintances. "Sweet William" (who had a mouth and teeth like a shark's), W. L. Distant, Tom Noddy, Lady Clara, Sam Weller, and many others, came to see us. There was, too, Mr Corney Grain, who, many people may not be aware, is chief of a village in Sáwi Bay, and who dresses in two yards of pink ribbon.

In this way we were never at a loss for company, for when the above were engaged, there was always a reserve in the persons of Jack Robinson, Tom Tuson, Kingfisher, Young Edwin, James Snooks, Lorenzo, Lady-killer, and others.

Mr Solomon's efforts in education have received little support from the community; for by handing over their children to his discipline, the parents lose their assistance in the routine of daily work, no small portion of which falls to the younger generation, since almost all special work is done by small boys. These are very helpful in climbing the coco palms for the nuts required for barter, and they are of much assistance to the foreign traders also, who, to induce the boys to aid them, supply them with food, and give them presents of tobacco and other things. However, some fifteen or twenty boys, from 8 to 14 years of age, have now been given up to the mission school,* to receive a little daily instruction and drill, on condition that the onus of feeding and clothing them shall not fall upon the parents.

Out of school hours these boys make themselves generally useful by fetching and carrying, preparing food, etc., and acting as crew of the agent's canoe.

That such a life is not universally pleasing to the youngsters themselves, is witnessed by the fact that a short time ago one

This is partly supported by a small monthly subsidy from the Bishopric of Rangoon.

of them ran away to the jungle, where he remained, and was able to support himself, until caught and brought back after a three months' disappearance.

He was a mischievous-looking boy, who found it hard to refrain from grinning while his portrait was being taken, for I secured his likeness as affording a marked example of the features of prognathism and epicanthus as occurring among the Nicobarese.

We found the services of these boys most welcome on several occasions. Frequently the surf in the bay was sufficient to promise at the least a thorough wetting when leaving shore for the schooner in our own boat. It was, as a rule, simple enough to land, but the reverse proceeding was a less simple matter. In such a case, we used one of the native canoes and a crew of mission lads.

After loading the light hull with our impedimenta, it was an easy business to place it at the water's edge, and, at a suitable opportunity, run it out into waist-deep water, jump on the almost uncapsizable hull, and with quickly-grasped paddles -no troublesome operation of shipping lengthy oars in rowlocks-force the slender craft beyond the breakers. Arrived at the schooner, a biscuit apiece seemed to be considered ample reward by our young friends (biscuits, stale bread, and old crusts are in great request among the Nicobarese), who, after disposing of them, would return to their canoe and disappear into the darkness with cheery farewell cries: "Good-night; goodnight, sar; go-o-od-night."

Early in our visit, we one morning met with a mishap when landing in our stumpy dinghy through some more than usually heavy surf. The surroundings were scarcely such as one would connect our late Laureate with, but at the moment of catastrophe, some lines of his flashed into my mind:

"Courage,' he said, and pointed to the land,

'This mounting wave will roll us shoreward soon,'”

and indeed it did. A big breaker rose under the stern, and

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