54 Voyage of the Novara. 



tortion of the mouth ; it is unquestionably only the abuse of 

 the betel (consisting of Areca-nut, betel-leaves, and coral 

 chalk) which causes these disgusting disfigurements. At this 

 settlement also the women and children had disappeared. 

 Only one native woman, married to a Malay from Pulo- 

 Penang, who was at the moment officiating as cook on board 

 one of the prahus lying at anchor in the bay, had the courage 

 to present herself before us. She was, according to the cus- 

 tom of the Malays, dressed in silk, but bore on her body all 

 the disagreeable traces of her Nicobar origin. She showed 

 no reluctance to talk with us, and, in her somewhat scanty 

 toilette, was the one solitary native woman with whom we 

 found an opportunity of communicating during our entire 

 stay at the various islands. 



From Enuang we visited the first settlement of the Moravian 

 Brothers, lying on the small neck of land between Enuang 

 and Malacca, where apparently the amiable Father Hansel 

 seems to have lived, for whose interesting memoir, narrating 

 his many years' residence upon the Nicobar Islands, we were 

 indebted to the kindness of Dr. Rosen of the Moravian Mission 

 at Genaadendal in South Africa.* At present all is once 

 more thick majestic forest ; a marvellous leafy dome, like a 

 green pantheon, encircles and overshadows the scene of the 

 once benevolent activity of the devoted missionary. Only a 

 ruined well and a few brick fragments of what was the oven, 



* See Vol. T., p. 240. 



