"BABIES' HOUSES^ 51 



Burmese traders, some buildings which are equivalent to the 

 hospital of civilisation, and several maternity houses, where 

 women take up their residence shortly before confinement.* 



The starting-point in life, and also the place of departure, 

 is for the Nicobarese of this village one and the same, for next 

 to the house appointed for his birth is another — the " House of 

 Pollution " — to which he is carried to die ; and yet a (e\v paces 

 further is the burial-field, with its group of grave-posts, where 

 his body will be bestowed for a time. Not for long will it rest 

 even there, for in a few years the skeleton will be disinterred 

 and cast into the jungle — the skull alone, if he has been a man 

 of some importance in life, being allowed to find in the grave 

 an abiding place. 



The shores of Kar Nicobar are in places very low, and 

 during bad weather the waves have been known to roll up 

 the beach and flood Elpanam a foot in depth, carrying away 

 canoes, etc. To subdue the sea on these occasions, tainibianas 

 (medicine - men) and their followers, adorned with garlands, 

 walk in procession along the beach, with devil-destroying 

 rods and leaves, with which they strike the water, and then 

 surround Elpanam with palm leaves, and perform other 

 ceremonies. 



On the outskirts of the village, we saw here and there small 

 huts called Talik n'gi — the place of the baby. To these, 

 mothers come from Elpanam with the newborn child, and spend 

 several months in solitude, attended only by their husbands, 

 before returning to the village — a very sensible proceeding, 

 and one worthy of imitation in more civilised communities. It 

 seems only common justice that any unpleasantness caused 

 by ourselves in our earliest moments should be confined to those 

 most responsible for our appearance. So the Kar Nicobarese 

 appear to think, and have accordingly taken measures to pre- 

 vent new arrivals becoming a nuisance to their future com- 



* At delivery a recumbent position is assumed, and the mother is 

 attended by the nearest neighbours, who assist by pressing and kneading the 

 abdomen. 



