THE SHOM PEN 215 



Although the inhabitants of the Nicobar Islands were origin- 

 ally all of the same stock, various causes have contributed to 

 bring about a distinction amongst them, and they are now 

 separated into two distinct ethnical groups, — the Shom Peri of 

 the interior of Great Nicobar, and the coast people, or Nicobarese, 

 who are found in all the inhabited islands. 



Of the Shom Peri but little is known, as, with the exception 

 of a few families who have friendly intercourse with the coast 

 villages, they have, as now constituted, always been persistently 

 hostile to the Nicobarese, but it is probable that they number at 

 most between 300 and 400 individuals. 



It was for long believed that the interior of Great Nicobar 

 was inhabited by a race of Negritoes akin to the Andamanese, 

 but the Shom Peri are an isolated group of primitive Malayans, 

 and although they must be regarded as the aborigines of the 

 islands, many features amongst them point to the fact that they 

 are no longer racially pure. 



Not only does the facial appearance vary greatly, but the hair, 

 which is universally regarded as an almost infallible indication of 

 race amongst primitive peoples, occurs in all the grades between 

 curly and straight. 



To account for this latter difference, and for the dull brown 

 colour of the skin — far darker than is usual amongst Malays — one 

 may of course suggest remote Negrito admixture. Possibly the 

 Andamanese, on one of the predatory voyages which it seems they 

 were not unaccustomed to make in this direction,* may have 

 reached the island, and for some reason unable to return, have 

 intermixed with the inhabitants. 



But I think it more probable that these peculiarities are due 

 to a Dravidian strain, and that some mariners of this race, who, 

 from before the time of Solomon, were accustomed to make 

 trading voyages to the Eastern Archipelago,f became stranded 



* "The people of Kar Nicobar hav'e a tradition among them, that several 

 canoes came from Andaman many years ago, and that the crews were all 

 armed, and committed great depredations, and killed several of the Nico- 

 barians." — Hamilton, Asiatic Researches, vol. ii 



t Achin, at the north-west extremity of the neighbouring island of Sumatra, 



