Singula?' Native Festival. 3 1 



siuikc, or is otherwise wounded or dies, the Nicobarians 

 forthwith discontinue all work, and institute a fast, which 

 they term Uraka. With the commencement of the S.W. 

 monsoons or rainy season (when the wind comes from 

 '' yonder," quoth Dr. Crisp, and pointed with his finger to 

 the southward), the inhabitants of Kar-Nicobar hold their 

 chief festival, which lasts fourteen days, and is called Oilere. 



They have a similar festival at the end of the damp season, 

 or N.E. monsoon, to which the pigs, which play quite a con- 

 spicuous part in it, impart an entirely peculiar character. 

 Several weeks before the commencement of this fete^ a large 

 number of these unclean but useful animals are confined 

 in small stalls, whence they are released on the feast-day, and 

 set loose in a well-fenced space, where they are teased and 

 pricked with lances by all the courageous, or rather mis- 

 chievous, youth of tlie island. The Nicobarians seem to 

 attach special importance to the swine being driven wild, and 

 themselves engaged in a regular struggle with the infuriated 

 animal, in the course of which severe wounds are by no means 

 of rare occurrence. We ourselves saw several young natives, 

 who a few days previously had been severely injured in a 

 similar contest with some enraged pigs. When this any- 

 thing but aesthetic spectacle has lasted some time, the pigs 

 are killed, roasted on the fire, and devoured by the combatants 

 and spectators. 



A not less strange and even more barbarous festival is 

 that which is held about the same time as the one just men- 



