THE SHOM PEN 219 



pandanus fruit they cook in a well-made vessel of sheets of bark, 

 carefully protected with green leaves and luted with clay, in 

 which we can, perhaps, see one of the origins of pottery ; for 

 it is quite admissible that, in course of time, the leaves should 

 be discarded, more clay added, and at length the effect of fire on 

 the latter having been observed, the bark also would be done 

 away with, or only used as a mould for a clay vessel, from which 

 more suitable shapes would finally be evolved. 



The domestic animals are dogs, cats, chickens, and pigs> 

 which are generally caught when young in the jungle, and 

 apparently not permitted to attain any respectable size. All 

 find a refuge in the houses, up to which a sort of inclined plane 

 is arranged for their convenience. 



Their manufactures are very few. They make canoes ; 

 construct a spear out of a single piece of wood, baskets, 

 both of rattan and palm spathe, and a rough cloth from the 

 inner bark of a tree.* 



The friendly Shom Pen are energetic collectors of rattan, 

 which they trade with the Nicobarese, and so obtain garments, 

 beads, knives, parangs, axes, and tobacco, which is smoked in 

 the form of cigarettes. They are great consumers of betel-nut, 

 in combination with lime and sireh. 



Amongst these friendly families, the clothing worn is similar 

 to that of the Nicobarese, with necklaces of beads, and they 

 employ a large wooden ear-distender an inch and a half in 

 diameter. + The sheets of bark cloth are used as pillows and 

 coverings at night, and amongst the hostile aborigines it is 

 said the women wear short petticoats of this material, while the 

 men go entirely clothesless. 



Amongst those met with, there was generally one man in 

 each party, who, by virtue possibly of superior intelligence or 

 knowledge of the coast language, seemed to have some slight 

 authority over the remainder. 



* Ficus brcvicitspis. 



t A similar ornament is worn in Sumatra, and also among the Dyaks 

 and Punans in Borneo j vide Carl Bock's Headhunters, plates lo and 21. 



