AN OLD ACCOUNT OF KAR NICOBAR 281 



with lids, which were made, as I have already said before, 

 from the partitions sheaths of the young chamoerops leaves. 

 These little boxes had been tied to a bamboo, which was 

 fastened right across the room, and was therefore at some 

 distance from the roof 



" There was great cleanliness as regards the floor, and the 

 air also was very pure, not the faintest disagreeable odour 

 could be detected. The upper storey consisted only of bamboo 

 sticks, they were thin, not tied together, and resting on the 

 cross beams ; they had turned somewhat brown through the 

 smoke of the lamps, but I could not see that they kept any 

 provisions there, and on the whole they do not collect many 

 provisions. I saw some piles erected near some of the houses, 

 they were more than man's height, two cross piles were 

 fastened to them, and here they stewed some yam roots in 

 the open air. They had no gardens, their houses and also 

 their outhouses stood among Carica papaya. Their weapons 

 consisted of small lances somewhat shaped like pikes, which 

 were made of smooth round sticks about as thick as a finger 

 and three yards long.* I saw some of them return with 

 these kind of weapons. They had been in. the wood to fetch 

 provisions for one or two days. I did not see any fishing 

 implements. 



" There were two ships there, one of them an English three- 

 master, the second one lying further south with two masts, 

 it was a French ship. They were both loading coconuts, 

 which they bought here very cheaply in order to take them to 

 Pegu, and to sell them there with great profit. 



" Their women have almost the same appearance as their men, 

 being strong and muscular, but most of them had their hair 

 shorn off. Their clothing consisted of a blue cloth wound round 

 their loins, or they wore an apron made of leaves, which was 

 cut in strips hardly one line wide, and reached down to the 

 knees ; they were plaited together at the top and hung round 

 their bodies in layers almost two inches thick. These strips 

 * Cf. Shorn Pen spears. 



