OUR METHOD OF LANDING 61 



flung the boat, its contents, and ourselves, far up the beach. 

 Fortunately our guns and cartridges were made up into bundles 

 with waterproof canvas, so no harm was done beyond losing a 

 rowlock. 



From the incident we learned a lesson, and thereafter, had 

 the proverbial New Zealander been on the beach in the early 

 mornings, he might have seen a little boat approach the shore^ 

 with a blue-clad, brown-skinned Malay and a couple of white 

 men in pnris natnralibns. Outside the belt of surf, the latter 

 would jump overboard, and, seizing favourable opportunities, 

 wade to and fro with sundry bundles. Presently the dinghy 

 would return, with a solitary occupant, to a schooner in the 

 bay, while the others, after assuming a simple toilet and a 

 peculiar sporting equipment, would disappear from his view, 

 leaving the Antipodean observer alone on the shore. Although 

 a little farther from the village, the best landing-place when 

 the sea is rough is on the stretch of sand next to that adjacent 

 to Mus, and just to westward and inside the rocky point that 

 separates the two strips of beach. 



Sometimes we shot in the scrub and plantations surround- 

 ing the village, and sometimes we went a few miles along the 

 bay towards Sawi, now walking on the beach, now along the 

 brow of the cliffs. The view from these last was very beautiful : 

 on the one hand a forest of palms, pandanus and casuarina 

 trees, on the other a line of waving grass ; and below, the blue 

 sea breaking in snowy rollers on a golden beach. 



At times we met parties of natives proceeding from village 

 to village in picturesque groups — the men carrying nothing 

 but a ddo, their warm-brown stalwart figures relieved only by 

 the red kissdt and white chaplet of pandanus with which 

 their hair was bound ; and the women draped in scarlet cotton, 

 and adorned with chains of rupees and numerous silver 

 bangles. 



All would stare stolidly, and pass in silence ; for in the 

 Nicobars, where one man is as good as the next, and no 

 degrees of rank are known, there are no words of greeting 



