124 LITTLE NICOBAR AND PULO MILO 



the central group, there is a great falling-off both in the elabora- 

 tion and in the abundance of the instruments employed in 

 exorcising them. In none of the houses was there either a 

 large figure or a picture, or more than one or two of those 

 minor charms which are met with in such abundance at Nankauri, 

 while outside the dwellings the only representative of the signs 

 and warnings to demon trespassers to " Keep off the grass," so 

 numerous in that place, was a rudely-carved post daubed with 

 paint. 



The dead here, once buried, are left to rest in peace, and 

 the somewhat loathsome process of digging up and cleaning 

 the bones is not gone through. 



It is probable that all this is a case of desuetude rather 

 than the original absence of custom, and that such decay of 

 ceremonial is due to the little value of public opinion, which is 

 of no weight now that the population is so small. Taking into 

 account that such religious accessories as they do possess, and 

 that similar articles in Great Nicobar, together with the archi- 

 tectural type, etc., occur also at Nankauri, it is to be inferred 

 that there was a time when these people in no way differed in 

 observances from the inhabitants of that locality, who still retain 

 in full the paraphernalia by which they outwardly mark the 

 practice and maintenance of their superstitions. 



Concerning the Shom Pen, we heard that though resembling 

 the Nicobarese in appearance, they use a different language. 



They are fairly numerous, and those living near the shore 

 are on friendly terms with the coast people, bartering jungle 

 produce and rattans. It is not wise, however, to go into the 

 interior of Great Nicobar, as the wild men (orang utan) will 

 murder strangers for the sake of their clothes and ornaments. 

 They themselves are clothed in bark apparel. Their houses are 

 either light shelters, the materials of which they carry about in 

 their journeys, fitted with bunks one above the other, beneath the 

 lowest of which a small fire smoulders ; or are of a more substan- 

 tial construction, with a fence * surrounding each house cluster. 



* These fences were met with by de Rciepstorff on the cast coast {Jour. Asiatic 



