no OUR VISIT TO THE NICOBARS 



We took what opportunities we could 

 to obtain ethnological material by 

 bartering with the natives. 



And so as soon as everybody was aboard we weighed anchor and turned 

 north. Early the next morning, we anchored off the small island of Pulo 

 Kondul, which lies close to the north coast of Great Nicobar, in the strait 

 between this and Little Nicobar. There was a biggish native village on 

 the island and the Indians had established a field-telegraph station there. 

 With the station head's assistance, we succeeded in buying not only a fine 

 large canoe but also a number of valuable ethnological objects, such 

 as wooden statuettes and picture tables, and various utensils. All this 

 material has meant a considerable addition to the Nicobar collections in 

 the Danish National Museum. A comparison of the old and the new 

 collection shows an astonishingly small change in native culture over the 

 more than a hundred years which separate the two Galathea expeditions. 

 I had the opportunity of making an exciting collecting expedition in 

 the rain forest which covered most of the mountainous little island. 

 Following the coast for a short way, I came to another village whose 

 inhabitants seemed to be boat-builders, because several half-finished canoes 

 were lying about the shore. The tree-trunks from which they are made, 

 and which are about lo metres long, are first hollowed out with an axe 

 and then smoothed on the inside by burning. As I was walking along a 

 pass between overhanging rocks, I suddenly heard footsteps behind me, 

 and turning round I stood face to face with a tall, dark, almost naked 

 native with a large knife in his hand. I nodded and smiled to him, and 

 without a word he joined me, staying with me the rest of the way. He 

 helped me to find my way and the birds which I shot. Following a small 

 stream, we went deeper into the rain forest. Large fern trees grew on 



