264 MAN : PAST AND PRESENT. [CHAP. VII. 



On the other hand they approach nearer to the Burmese in 

 their mental characters; in their frank, independent spirit, inquisit- 

 iveness, and kindness towards their women, who enjoy complete 

 social equality, as in Burma ; and lastly in their universal belief in 

 spirits called iwi or siya, who, like the nats of Indo-China, cause 

 sickness and death unless scared away or appeased by offerings. 

 Like the Burmese, also, they place a piece of money in the mouth 

 or against the cheek of a corpse before burial, to help in the 

 other world. 



One of the few industries is the manufacture of a peculiar 

 kind of rough painted pottery, which is absolutely confined to 

 the islet of Chowra, 5 miles north of Teressa. The reason of 

 this restriction is explained by a popular legend, according to 

 which in remote ages the Great Unknown decreed that, on pain 

 of sudden death, an earthquake, or some such calamity, the 

 making of earthenware was to be carried on only in Chowra, 

 and all the work of preparing the clay, moulding and firing the 

 pots, was to devolve on the women. Once, a long time ago, 

 one of these women, when on a visit in another island, began, 

 heedless of the divine injunction, to make a vessel, and fell dead 

 on the spot. Thus was confirmed the tradition, and no attempt 

 has since been made to infringe the "Chowra monopoly 1 ." 



All things considered, it may be inferred that the archipelago 

 was originally occupied by primitive peoples of Malayan stock 

 now represented by the Shorn Pen of Great Nicobar, and was after- 

 wards re-settled on the coastlands by Indo-Chinese and Malayan 

 intruders, who intermingled, and either extirpated or absorbed, 

 or else drove to the interior the first occupants. Nicobar thus 

 resembles Formosa in its intermediate position between the 

 continental and pelasgian Mongol populations. Another point 

 of analogy is the absence of Negritoes from both of these insular 

 areas, where anthropologists had confidently anticipated the 

 presence of a dark element like that of the Andamanese and 

 Philippine Aetas. 



1 E. H. Man, Jour. AntJirop. List. 1894, p. 21. 



