300 CUSTOMS OF THE KAR NICOBARESE 



the houses and pathways with various kinds of shrubs and grasses. 

 They also prepare huge images in human form, by twisting palm 

 leaves round logs of wood, and place these about their houses. 



An old man lost his teeth, and to celebrate the fact, gave 

 a great feast to a large body of people who came to it from 

 other villages. The giver was adorned with silver wire from 

 head to foot, and made to sit in a kantera {inafai's chair) in 

 honour of his departed grinders. 



A man was bitten by a snake, with serious consequences. 

 When he recovered, he invited his friends to a feast, and 

 performed the ceremony of Ke luing alaa, which consisted in 

 waving a lighted palm-leaf torch round his head. 



The natives apparently possess the right to assume various 

 social distinctions at will. 



There is a class of men termed Sanokuv which numbers 

 many individuals in its ranks. Sanokuv seems to mean a 

 bashful or delicate person. 



These men will not eat any food cooked by others, neither 

 will they use well-water, nor partake of pigs and chickens reared 

 in the village, as they consider these unclean. The water they 

 require they obtain either from a jungle stream, or by collecting 

 rain. They will not drink toddy made from trees near the 

 village, but draw it from distant palms. Everything is partaken 

 of from special vessels ; toddy is sucked from a bamboo through 

 a reed, of which the mouth-end is capped with a larger as soon 

 as the drink is finished. They are, however, willing to accept 

 bread, biscuits, and rum from others, but the latter is drunk 

 from a new coconut shell, and never from a glass. 



The whole proceeding seems to be a variant of the Hindu 

 institution of caste. 



The Mafai is another peculiarity of the Nicobar social organ- 

 isation. 



The Kar Nicobarese take great interest in the creation of 

 mafais^ and in conducting mafai performances. They give much 

 of their property, time, and labour to a mafai, and look on him as 



