THE SHOM TEN 143 



the coconuts that lay about. When purchasing these, they 

 give a bag of rice for 530 nuts, which sell at Singapore for Si 5. 

 Barter worth $1 is given for half a dozen bundles of rattan, 

 which fetch about $12 in the same market. The trade of this 

 island is mostly in canes, for very few more coconuts are pro- 

 duced than suffice for the wants of the inhabitants. 



" The one beehive hut in the village was occupied by an old 

 man named Awang, with his wife and child. A large charm 

 hung in the centre of the house — a frame about 8 feet by 6 feet, 

 covered with palm leaves, across the top a row of birds, and 

 at the foot a line of wooden men, each supplied with a ration 

 of fat pork. 



"Our persistent inquiries about the Shom Peri seemed to amuse 

 Awang excessively ; but we were delighted to find we had arrived 

 in their neighbourhood at last. The aborigines live a short 

 distance in the interior, and often come down to the coast ; as 

 they would do on the morrow, when we should have an oppor- 

 tunity of meeting them, since notice had been sent that the 

 traders were waiting to purchase their stock of rattan. 



" The inland tribe is split into two main divisions. The larger 

 inhabits the interior proper, and is still hostile (there was a man 

 in the village with some ugly open wounds beneath the shoulder- 

 blades, who had been speared by them close to the houses a year 

 ago) ; the members of the other division, who form small settle- 

 ments near the coast villages, are known as " mawas Shom Peri " 

 (quiet, or tame Shom Peri), and are on intimate terms with the 

 Nicobarese, fearing equally with them the wilder natives. When 

 the latter are out on the warpath, the friendlies come down to the 

 shore, and, with the coast people, leave the district by canoe until 

 it is safe to return. 



" The village is surrounded by open scrub and jungle, in which 

 large numbers of screw-pines flourish. The little scarlet-breasted 

 Aethopyga was common here, and numbers of them were flitting 

 about the crowns of the coco palms, searching the fruit-stalks and 

 bases of the leaves for insects. 



" Good paths ran through the jungle, and following one to the 



