308 CUSTOMS OF THE KAR NICOBARESE 



a tremendous din, and shout, " Alas ! alas ! do not devour it, 

 let the moon alone and go away." 



In the buying and selling of the larger canoes the natives of 

 Chaura act as middlemen — seeming to possess a monoply of 

 intermediation in this business as they do of pottery making.* 



The canoes are not made at Chaura ; there are no suitable 

 trees on that small island to construct them from. The Chaura 

 people obtain them — very cheaply — from the central groups 

 (where many are made, and where others, obtained from the 

 southern group, are also sold), and sell them again to the Kar 

 Nicobarese, making four or five times in the transaction what 

 they themselves pay.f 



" As the Kar Nicobarese are timid, and allow themselves to be 

 bullied by the natives of Chaura, who assume an overbearing 

 manner towards them, as well as towards their southern neigh- 

 bours — all of whom are dependent on them for pots, which cannot 

 be made at any of the other islands — the feeling predominant 

 among the Kar Nicobarese as regards the people of Chaura is 

 one of fear, and they evince every desire to avoid incurring their 

 ill-will and resentment," I even to the point of submitting to be 

 flagrantly cheated in their canoe barter ! The extortionate price 



* This monoply is due to their geographical position. The Kar Nicobarese 

 find it as much as they dare venture to do, to go so far as Chaura for their large 

 canoes and pots. As it is, many lives are lost at sea. (In 1899 at least 29 

 were drowned in returning from this island, and more recently 12 or 13 

 were similarly lost.) Chaura is situated midway between Kar Nicobar and 

 Nankauri Harbour and Kamorta, where the principal purchases are made by 

 the Chaura people. 



t " I was present on a certain occasion at Miis . . . having brought 

 Tanamara with me from Nankauri. In strolling through the village we caught 

 sight of a fine large canoe, which he recognised as having been sold by him to 

 a certain native of Chaura. Offandi proved to be the owner, and he, on being 

 questioned, said that he had bought it from the same man. On further enquiry 

 it was found, that while the Chaura middleman had promised to give 25 rupees 

 in kind to Tanamara (only part of which had yet been paid), he would not let 

 Offandi have it till he had delivered to him a long list of articles (^.,^. cloth, 

 spoons, tobacco, etc.), which, on being totalled up, were found to amount to 

 about 105 rupees in value." — E. H. Man. 



+ E. H. Man. 



