112 Voyage of the Novara. 



The means of subsistence of the Nicobar islanders are any^ 

 thing but abundant. As they are utterly ignorant of cultiva- 

 tion, they are entirely indebted for the very first necessaries of 

 life to the provision which a bountiful nature has supplied to 

 them, without the assistance of man's labour. Their chief 

 articles of food are the cocoa-nut and the pandanus fruit. As 

 with the natives of India, so among the natives of the Nicobar 

 group, the cocoa-palm is applied to the most various purj^oses, 

 although it would be difficult to make it fulfil all the ninety 

 and nine useful purposes which the Hindoo proverb assigns 

 to this noble individual of the royal race of palms. The 

 cocoa-palm likewise constitutes the chief article of export of 

 the entire group, while the profit from the Trepang (Biche de 

 Mar of the English, a sort of cockle), edible swallows' nests, 

 tortoise-shell, amber, and so forth, is of the highest importance 

 in the interchange of commerce. 



The betel shrub [Piper Betle), next to the cocoa-nut and 

 pandanus fruit, one of the most important necessities of the 

 inhabitants of these islands, is not indigenous, but has been 

 introduced hither from the peninsula of Malacca, and formed 

 for a long time an article of commerce and exchange. At 

 present this creeper, which spreads with hardly any particular 

 care, is found in such quantities that only a small proportion 

 of the leafy produce can be consumed by the sparse popula- 

 tion. It was always incomprehensible to us in whaF could 

 consist the great cliarm of betel -chewing, that a habit so 

 loathsome should be so extensively practised by the very 



