156 GREAT NICOBAR— W. AND S. COASTS 



We arrived off the village at 1 1 A.M., and worked in to an 

 anchorage against a land breeze. The junks in whose company 

 we had been at Kondul were already in the harbour — a square 

 indentation, fringed with coral. With a look-out at the mast-head 

 we got in without accident, and anchored in a fairly sheltered 

 position, but some distance outside the other vessels. Small 

 streams debouch in either corner of the bay ; but the village, 

 which consists of a dozen or more houses, and is the largest on 

 the west coast, lies to the south of the harbour, with the usual 

 accompaniment of numerous coco palms. 



As a hea\y surf was breaking on the reef fronting the houses, 

 we rowed up the bay and landed by a small hut, beside which 

 was a well of good water, and from thence reached the village 

 by a path leading through scrub and many screw-pines. 



Interviewing the headman, we learnt that a Shorn Pen settle- 

 ment lay half a day's journey in the interior, and having arranged 

 with Nyam (the headman) to guide us on the morrow, we set 

 out, accompanied by his brother Puchree, on a stroll through 

 the village. 



This really consists of two settlements — that nearest the bay, 

 Pulo Rotan or Koe, and the other to the south, which at high 

 tide is cut off from the mainland by a marshy channel — Pulo 

 Babi or Kanal. There are more houses, both round and square 

 than appear from seawards, but several are uninhabited and 

 falling to pieces. Graves, placed between the houses, were marked 

 by peeled sticks and young saplings, on which a foot or so of 

 the branches had been left. 



The land on which the village stood was of very recent 

 formation, consisting entirely of sand, coral blocks, and debris 

 of the roughest kind. 



It would seem that the Nicobars are not only an area of 

 elevation (as shown in Kar Nicobar, Trinkat, etc.), but also one 

 of growth, as appears to be the case in the islands where there 



the two wounded men. I have never heard of Shorn Peii venturing to attack 

 the coast people unless they were in superior numbers and could take them by 

 surprise," — writes Mr E. H. Man, however. 



