230 THE NICOBARESE 



an ant. He took care of them until they attained the common 

 size of men — and this was the origin of the natives.* 



To account for the coconut trees that grow in such abundance 

 on the island, the Kar Nicobarese version runs thus : — 



Once upon a time there was a scarcity of water, and a certain 

 man then produced it from his elbow by means of magic arts. 

 The people therefore considered him to be a devil-man — wizard — 

 and beheaded him. On the spot where the head fell there 

 sprang up a tree, and after a time it became very big, and 

 began to bear fruit, and the fruit resembled the head of the 

 slain man. 



For a long time the people were afraid to approach the 

 tree or to taste the nuts, because they had grown out of a 

 human head, and so, by the falling of the ripe fruit, there grew 

 up a dense grove of coconut palms. 



At last some wise men brought to the trees an old man 

 who was dying, and made him taste of the nuts, to find out 

 their qualities ! The old man accordingly ate one, and found it to 

 be very delicious, and from continually eating nuts he became 

 very strong, and grew to look like a young man. 



Thenceforth the people began to make use of the coconut ! 



In the old days it was the custom to kill men for any 

 offence, grave or simple. But at length the elders, finding that 

 the population had greatly diminished thereby, held a council, 

 and introduced the system of killing pigs, burning houses, felling 

 trees, breaking canoes, and destroying clothes, etc., and this method 

 is continued at the present day side by side with the former. 



The people seldom have open fighting among themselves, 

 neither do they use their fists, or flog. In extreme cases only 

 (witchcraft) do they commit murder. 



The Nicobarese have no conception of a Supreme Being, 

 or a future state, but there is a universal belief in evil spirits, 

 who are in part ghosts of the wicked, and who can be propitiated 

 by offerings and kept away by exorcisms. 



* P^re Barbe, Joitr. Asiatic Soc, Bengal.^ vol. xv. 



