THE ISLANDS OF THE BAY OF BENGAL. 99 



been found more expert in barter than their neighbours, these 

 have come to entrust them with their c mercantile'' transactions ; 

 but these a Captains" can no more give an order, or enforce or 

 prevent a certain line of conduct on the part of their fellows, than, 

 fly. As for the Mowanahs or Doctors, they have not the seni- 

 blauce of any sort of authority. They are mere Fetish men, 

 who by divinations tell the others what to do to avert fever, 

 to keep devils from their houses, to obtain or prevent rain ; the 

 most famous of them would never dream of interfering with any 

 secular matter. 



The idea of paying any tribute, or, in fact, of doing anything 

 except follow his own devices, without let or hindrance, so far 

 as this in no way interferes with each or all of his neig-hbours 

 doing the same, never enters the mind of a Nicobarese. 



They are not at all bad people on the whole ; very honest 

 amongst themselves, good-natured, lazy creatures, with consi- 

 derable aptitude for civilization ; desirous of all things to learn 

 English, (some few words of which almost all grown-up men 

 know,) and to wear English clothes. The least civilized will, 

 if they can, wear a black hat, or an old dress coat, and, I fear 



1 must admit it, nothing else ; but Captain London, for instance, 

 is dressed from top to toe in English costume, and keeps his 

 white shirt, trousers, and jacket as clean as any Englishman. 

 Except at Katchall, and near where our settlement now is, I 

 never heard of their illtreating ship-wrecked people ; and now 

 that our settlement exists this will not, I think, be heard of 

 again. 



No land is claimed by any one unless he has trees or crops 

 on it. The people (very few they are, all counted) live, except 

 in Car Nicobar, in circular houses raised on poles, just above 

 high-water mark, with a greater or smaller number of cocoanut 

 and often Pandanus trees round about them. 



Except in Car Nicobar and the north of Trinkut, the cocoa- 

 nuts are almost exlcusively confined to the beach. Nowhere is 

 there any cultivation to speak of except in Car Nicobar, Teressa, 

 and Bompoka. But in many of the islands you meet far in the 

 jungle, tiny isolated patches of a few square yards, planted with 

 tobacco, plantains, j^ams, and more rarely oranges and limes, 

 which patches are strictly private property and respected as 

 such. 



They don't care one straw about money ; will always take a 



2 or 4-anna piece in preference to a rupee, the former being 

 used for earring heads, the latter being useless. Rum is the 

 only thing that they want and cannot make for themselves, and 



