AMUSEMENTS 251 



and the course is a long one — several miles along the coast 

 from village to village. As the men sing at the top of their 

 voices throughout the race, they are generally exhausted at 

 the finish. The pace is not remarkable, and the canoes keep 

 abreast throughout, neither seeming to mind which comes in 

 first. 



Wrestling is a favourite pursuit of the boys. There is no 

 science or cunning displayed, and the rounds are very short, one 

 or the other combatant going down at once. 



Pig processions are a pastime indulged in by young men. 

 A pig is tied beneath a pole, and, with one of their number 

 seated astride of it, is borne, with songs, about the village by a 

 party of youths in the evening. 



In such villages as are situated near the calmer waters of 

 harbours, little children amuse themselves by sailing models of 

 canoes and junks. 



The Xicobarese have no writing or pictography, and their 

 attempts at ornamental work on articles of general utility are 

 confined to the finials of the houses, the stem and stern posts 

 of their canoes, and a little decorative carving on their wooden 

 dishes.* Nevertheless, in the charms and talismans connected 

 with their superstitious cult they betray a certain artistic abilit)', 

 and their pictures, screens, and figures of birds, men, and animals, 

 show not only good powers of observation, but a capacity and 

 skill of no mean order, in interpreting and reproducing what- 

 ever may present itself to them. 



As concerns metals, it appears that 200 years ago Jesuit 

 missionaries discovered tin on Great Nicobar. Having regard 

 to the proximity of the rich deposits of this metal in Sumatra 

 and the Malayan Peninsula, it seems not improbable that the 

 statement will some day be verified. At Kar Nicobar small 

 quantities of iron pyrites are found. The art of working in iron 

 is almost confined to Chaura, where the merdhtas and the best 

 spear-heads are manufactured. The latter are, however, made 

 at the other islands as well. Of weaving they have no knowledge, 

 * Cf. "Dyak dishes," in Headhunters of Borneo^ plate 19, 



