"Scare-devil," or device for exorcising evil spirits. CHAPTER VIII NANKAURI The Harbour Shores-A Village-Kanaia-Canoe-Feeding the Animals- Burial Customs-Malacca Village-Houses-Visit Tanamara-Furniture ON the morning of the 5th we weighed anchor, and proceeded to Nankauri harbour. The entrance is about a quarter of a mile wide, and its northern coast, once the site of the Government settlement, is the only open grassy portion of the harbour shores. Just within the point stands the flag-staff, and above it, on the crest of a low hill, a little graveyard lies within the shade of casuarinas. A long jetty of coral blocks runs out from the shore, and near by is the house of the agent. Opposite, on either side of Mayo Point, are the villages of Malacca and Inúanga, and behind them the forest-clad slopes stretch to grassy uplands. We sailed into Spiteful Bay, which lies just behind the southern point of the harbour entrance, and anchored in 12 fathoms, mud and sand, close to a little village of a dozen houses standing above the beach. In front of these and planted in shallow water, rose a number of tall poles, each made of several spars bound end to end with rattan, and ornamented at intervals with bunches of palm leaves. These the natives call kanaia: they have, we were told repeatedly, no superstitious significance; one is put up for each inhabited house in the village, and renewed periodically.* Landing at the village (matai) is easy, for below the waterlevel the sandy shore slopes downwards at an angle of 45°, a condition made possible by the tranquility of the harbour water. The houses, (n'gi) are less solidly built than those of Kar Nicobar, possess a small side-wall about 4 feet high, of boards, and a pointed finial crowning the conical roof; but do not have the protective discs on the supports: the door, too, and a number of small windows open in the sides, and the latter are all supplied with shutters that swing freely on a wooden hinge. A new and very large canoe was lying on the beach, the dug-out portion, without additions, measuring 42 feet long by 3 feet wide and 3 feet deep. The hull was charred, and decorated by grooved bands running at short intervals from gunwale to gunwale round the outside. Canoes are fitted, according to size, with from one to four short bamboo masts, each supported by four wide-spreading stays of rattan, and on these are hoisted lateen sails with a short tack of about 12 inches, made of cotton or pandanus leaves. The masts are never stepped on the floor of the canoe, but always on one of the crossbars or thwarts. The people about the village were feeding their dogs and pigs with a kind of gruel in wooden troughs, and as the animals * Dr Scherzer (Cruise of the "Novara") states that they were used for frightening away the devil and driving him into the sea. Cf., however, the Ma-ya-kuv-ka-ma-ka of the Kar Nicobarese (p. 295); and also an old Kar Nicobarese custom: "In every village there is a high pole erected, with long strings of rattan hanging from it, which it is said has virtue to keep the devil at a distance" (Hamilton, Asiatic Researches, vol. ii.). On the other hand, Colebrooke (Asiatic Researches, vol. iv.), writes: "In front of the villages, and a little advanced in the water, they plant beacons of a great height, which they adorn with tufts made of grass or the bark of some tree. These objects are discernible at a great distance, and are intended probably as landmarks; their houses, which are overshadowed by thick groves of coconut trees, seldom being visible from afar." were judged to have enough, each was smacked on the head and sent off; no greediness nor crowding was allowed, and the pigs were far better behaved than the generality of their species. We found the jungle near the houses quite impracticable, both from its tangled nature and the steepness of the ground it covered. A walk along the shore produced only a whimbrel (Numenius phaopus), which, although not bad for the pot, is too wide-spread a species to be of much value ornithologically. Experiences next day on the opposite side of the bay were little more encouraging. Scrambling up a steep hill, we found a small stretch of flat land on the top, where ran one or two faint paths, along which the traps were placed. Birds were very scarce, and as it began to rain, we returned to the dinghy, and rowed round the bay, looking for kingfishers. The boat was paddled up all the creeks in the thick belt of mangroves that fringe the shores, but there was no sign of the bird we were after the large stork-billed Pelargopsis—and we had to be content with whimbrels. The creeks, which in many cases are only just broad enough to row in, often wind for long distances among the mangroves, and on a dull day are depressing places, with but little life in them. In the bay itself we saw many beautiful branching corals of kinds far too delicate to grow in the more disturbed water of the sea; much of the growth which spreads all over the bottom was, however, killed by the mud and fresh water that comes down through the mangroves. Our arrival in the harbour was coincident with the beginning of a feast, which was to continue for a week or so. Two new canoes, decked with most gorgeous banners, flags, and streamers flying from small poles,* were launched on the first day, and, to an accompaniment of singing, rowed across to the northern shore to obtain young coconuts for the coming festivity. These joyous occasions the natives call, in imitation of our English custom, "making Christmas"; and over the door of those houses * These flags are made by the natives, and some of them are a legacy from the Danish occupation-a white St George's cross on a red ground, with a double-ended fly. |