CANOE-BUYING 309 



they have to pay may have something to do with the high value 

 the Kar Nicobarese set on their large canoes. 



The business of purchasing these is accompanied by its 

 peculiar ceremonies. In an instance at Mus, after busy bargain- 

 ing for pots and a large canoe, the Chaura people, in the evening, 

 feasted, each man in his friend's house, and then at midnight 

 assembled at the Elpanam, with the chief men of Mus, and 

 amused themselves singing songs in turn, and partaking of betel- 

 nut and toddy. There they got through the preliminaries to 

 purchasing the canoe, and the articles intended as its price were 

 exhibited. After the bargain was closed the Mus people returned 

 to the village, leaving the Chaura men at the house in Elpanam. 



The articles agreed on were handed over. 



Next evening a great feast was given to the people of Chaura 

 by those of Mils ; in each house a young pig was killed for the 

 purpose. At night all the people assembled in a house in ElpmtaDi, 

 and after dining, amused themselves singing songs by turns. 



The Chaura people then left the island in the canoe they had 

 sold, for it is the custom to do this, and bring the canoe back 

 on a later occasion. They were provisioned for the voyage by 

 the village of Mus. 



The dances of the Kar Nicobarese are always held at the 

 open ground of Elpanam. With a mafai, a fire, or a trophy of 

 spoons and forks as a centre, the people form large circles, or 

 parts of circles, according to their number, and move slowly round 

 to left and to right. The sexes dance separately, the one ring 

 within the other, or join the ends of their chains to form one 

 large circle, but form up very compactly, each person grasping 

 his neighbour's shoulder with outstretched arms intertwined. The 

 dance is somewhat monotonous, and consists of two or three steps 

 sideways, and a pause, with a stamp with the foot or a swing of 

 the body, and then the same movement in the reverse direction, 

 and so on, over and over again, to the accompaniment of the 

 performer's songs.* 



* " In the morning dances commenced in the open air. Two immense 



