78 Voyage of the Novara. 



liollowed-out perfumed cocoa-nut shells suspended above the 

 fire-place, a pair of elegantly-plaited baskets, a boat's sail 

 made of pandanus leaves, some straw mats, and a couple 

 of marvellously finished figures, formed the very miscellaneous 

 inventory of this Nicobar household. The figures (cut in 

 wood) and a very neatly-executed basket attracted to them- 

 selves our special attention as interesting specimens of the 

 industry and taste of the natives of Nicobar. We could not 

 resist possessing ourselves of these, at the same time leaving 

 in recompense a quantity of shining six-penny pieces, fully 

 twenty times the utmost possible value of what had been taken 

 away, depositing them in one of the baskets which was sus- 

 pended in a conspicuous position in the middle of the hut. 



Adjoining this hamlet was a forest of cocoa-palms. We 

 penetrated into it, and suddenly found ourselves, to our great 

 astonishment, on the track of a well-worn foot-path, which 

 was probably, with the exception of the paths in Great 

 Nicobar and Pulo Milii, in better condition than any other 

 we had hitherto encountered in the Nicobar Islands. What 

 more natural than to suppose that a patli so well worn must 

 necessarily lead to an important settlement ? It passed first 

 through an extensive and splendid palm-plantation, and after- 

 wards through a very beautiful clump of leafy trees, fringing 

 a little brook, whose channel, it being then the end of the 

 dry season, was quite dried up. Frequently we were obliged 

 to clamljer over steep blocks of rock, with footsteps hewn in 

 them by the hand of man, for facilitating the passage, and at 



