Personal Appearance of the Natives. 109 



condition universally prevalent, to the small scope given to 

 the play of their affections, and to the frequent inter- 

 marriage, which must necessarily be the case where, as in 

 these islands, a couple of hundred human beings form the 

 whole population of an island, and where intercommunication 

 with the adjoining islands is so confined. 



The assertion by Fontana, that the natives never cut their 

 nails, but on the other hand shave off their eye-brows, we 

 have never found confirmed in any of the islands we visited, 

 although very possibly some few individuals, certainly so far 

 as we could find very scanty in number, may ape the customs 

 of their Malay and Chinese visitors, by letting their nails 

 grow. Of crij^ples, or at all events of individuals stunted in 

 their growth, we saw but two, the first case being that of a 

 native of Kar-Nicobar, who in consequence of a dislocation of 

 the radius at the wrist joint was entirely powerless of the left 

 arm ; while the second, a sort of dwarf, who was likewise an 

 inhabitant of that island, presented a well-marked corpulence 

 in the extremities, and fingers so swelled up and short, that 

 he was known among his neighbours by the nickname of 

 Kiiitakunti (short finger). 



Hitherto the natives seem to have escaped the ravages of 

 sy^Dhilitic diseases. As to any instances of ^dsitations of 

 virulent though temporary epidemics, we could not get any 

 information of such having occurred ; they have however in 

 their language a word (Mallok) for the small-pox, of 

 the existence of which we had convinced ourselves by 



