COCONUTS 139 



— all that were caught — were both undescribed varieties, and have 

 been named Mus pulliventer, and Mus burrcscens. 



Having filled up with water — obtained from a little stream 

 trickling down a cool rocky ravine at the inner corner of the bay — 

 we made sail early on the i6th, and returned to Kondul. 



Two hours' run before the wind brought the schooner to our 

 former anchorage, where we were immediately joined by a junk 

 from the north, and shortly afterwards by our companion of 

 Ganges Harbour. After breakfast we reached the village, subse- 

 quent to a hard pull in the whaleboat against wind and tide, and 

 found the junks' crews busily loading their boats with bundles of 

 rattan ; and by a chat with one of the skippers, supplemented the 

 scanty information of the Sailing Directory anent the west coast 

 of Great Nicobar. 



Very few people were about, and the headman, suffering from 

 an attack of inflammation of the eyes, had wisely confined himself 

 to the shade of his house. Four jolly little boys, however, bestirred 

 themselves to get us a supply of coconuts. One, after putting a 

 loop of fibre round his ankles, climbed a palm tree and hacked off 

 all the fruit, and then we all set to and carried the plunder down 

 to the boat — a very awkward task, unless one knows the correct 

 method, for the coconut is both heavy and bulky. With a ddo a 

 notch is made in the husk and a strip of fibre pulled out, with 

 which the nuts are tied together two by two, and slung across a 

 pole, to be comfortably balanced on the shoulders. To the owner 

 of the tree we gave a bucket of rice, and to our juvenile assistants 

 a length of bright cotton, which one, a bald-headed youngster, 

 immediately annexed and wrapped round his shaven pate. 



Towards evening they came to the schooner with an old man, 

 bringing some more nuts and a few fowls ; they joined the crew 

 at the evening meal, but were very nervous, and one bo\', whom 

 the men wickedly pressed to stay, eventually took refuge in his 

 canoe. 



That night quite a small fleet — the two junks and ourselves — 

 lay in the quiet anchorage. The cook and boy, smartly attired in 

 black oiled calico, went off in the dinghy to visit their compatriots. 



