38 CURIOUS SCREEN. 



appeared to have been placed there singly at differ- 

 ent periods to commemorate the death of the heads 

 of famihes of the tribe. We saw another of these 

 curious funeral screens^ — like the first one it was 

 situated in a little g-lade in the forest, but unlike it 

 the front was covered or thatched with cocoa-nut 

 leaves, and it had a small door-like opening- in the centre. 



The natives must have left the island either on 

 account of its being* now the turtling' season, or else 

 from the want of water. A small deep well behind 

 the villag'e, apparently the only one in the place, 

 was almost entirely dried up. From the old man I 

 procured the names of some of the neig'hbouring- 

 islands, and also a few other Kulkalega words which 

 are so similar to those of the Kowrareg-a language as 

 to corroborate Gi'om's assertion that both have many 

 words in common. By way of illustration I may g*ive 

 a few examples. Thus muto^ small bird ) kudiilugy 

 dove j geinoiv, pigeon ; kakdr, eg'g* ; hurda, grass ; 

 wardha, cocoa-nut j 7noda, enclosure round the huts. 



At one place I saw indications of an upheaval of 

 the northern side of the island in a bed of coral con- 

 glomerate six feet thick, Avith its raised wall-like 

 edge towards the hill as if tilted up, and the re- 

 mainder sloping down towards the sea. A similar 

 appearance on a small scale exists on most of the 

 coral islands which I have visited, but I had not 

 before seen these sloping beds above the influence of 

 the salt water, or at least beyond reach of the spray, 

 still less supporting luxuriant vegetation, consisting* 



