220 NICOBAR ISLANDS AND ABORIGINES 



They are monogamous, and, unlike the Nicobarese, marry 

 for life. The position of the women is apparently a satisfactory 

 one, for they are regarded as little or in no way inferior to 

 the men. The men obtain the food, the women prepare it. 

 Rattans are collected in the jungle by the men, and by them 

 carried to market ; both sexes together prepare it, by scraping 

 and splitting, for sale. When bringing articles for barter, the 

 men bore the spears, and the baskets and cloth were carried 

 by the women, and generally such things as were obtained in 

 exchange were immediately handed over to the latter. 



All those met with seemed quiet, stolid, and timid in dis- 

 position ; but a cupidity for the goods of their neighbours at 

 times overcomes the latter characteristic amongst the less 

 accessible of the aborigines, and many are the murderous 

 attacks they are said to have made on the Nicobarese for the 

 purpose of loot. 



No infants or young children were seen, although surprise 

 visits were paid to several of the villages, neither were any 

 old people en evidence, but the ages were judged to vary between 

 ten and forty-five years. 



The language differs from all others in the islands, but here 

 and there are individuals who know sufficient of the coast 

 speech to hold converse with the Nicobarese.* 



Their carelessness with regard to their water-supply — for 

 any muddy pool or stagnant brook is made use of — is probably 

 sufficient reason for the large number of cases of elephantiasis 

 occurring among them ; the only other affection besides this, 

 that seems to be in anyway chronic, is the common body ring- 

 worm of the tropics. 



* " Each community of the tribe appears to possess a dialect more or less 

 distinct, but this is what might be expected when we consider the isolation of 

 the several encampments and the difificulty of inter-communication, apart even 

 from the hostile relations in which they stand towards one another." — E. H. 

 Man, Jour. Anihrop. Inst., vol. xv. 



