26 Vojjage of the Novara. 



walls, as evidences of special prosperity, numerous cutlasses, 

 spears, javelins, and paddles. Besides, there are laid on the 

 floor plaited straw-mats, which, rolled up dm^ng the day, 

 are stretched out at night and, together with a small wooden 

 stool for a pillov/, serve as couches on which to repose. The 

 hut might furnish sleeping quarters for about ten men. As, 

 moreover, all the cookery is carried on therein, and there is no 

 means of ventilating from above, the interior is completely 

 satm-ated with smoke, and all articles are soon begrimed with 

 smoke and soot. The natives, however, apparently take no 

 precautions to get rid of the smoke, because it contributes to 

 keep them free of a far more subtle foe, the mosquito, who, 

 especially during the rainy season, becomes a formidable tor- 

 ment for their naked bodies. 



In the shady space beneath the hut, which sometimes serves 

 as a workshop,— if one may venture so to designate the in- 

 dustry of the inhabitants of the Nicobars generally, — Ca^itain 

 John had suspended upon a transverse beam a sort of swing, 

 in which he occasionally rocked himself, much to his own de- 

 light, while for his guests was jDrovided a wooden arm-chair, 

 which had evidently come into his possession in the course of 

 some barter with the captain of a merchant vessel. 



The old chief spoke with marked predilection of the cap- 

 tain of the barque Rochester of London, a gentleman named 

 Green, who, by his humane and strictly conscientious dealings 

 with the natives, seemed to stand in high respect, and af- 

 forded a striking example of what beneficial influence is exer- 



