638 
eral districts to increase their popula- 
tion. Madras Presidency reports a total 
gain of 8.3 per cent, as against 7.3 per 
cent for the previous decade. As in 
other countries, cities have gained far 
more than rural communities. 
The Madras Mail reports the follow- 
ing interesting incident: A detailed cen- 
sus of the inhabitants of the Nicobars 
was made for the first time this year. 
All the people of the islands were enu- 
merated except the Shom Pen, a wild, ~ 
irreclaimable tribe in the center of the 
islands. It was feared that no ‘census 
could be taken of them, but by a fortu- 
nate coincidence the people themselves 
supplied the information upon which a 
fairly accurate estimate could be made. 
Just before the census party arrived at 
their island they had sent a message to 
the people living on the coast, saying 
that they were intending to attack them. 
These tribes, being friendly to the Eng- 
lish, handed over to them the two tally- 
sticks on which notches had been cut to 
show the number of the attacking party. 
Notches had been cut to show the num- 
ber of fighting men in each settlement, 
the settlements being divided off by lat- 
eral notches. 
One of the enumerators discovered a 
marriage party at one of his houses, and 
instead of the six persons reported in 
the preliminary survey, there were now 
over a score. In another village there 
had been a large fire and a whole section 
of the town was burned down, but the 
people were found in improvised sheds 
not far away, and were counted as if 
nothing had happened. 
Plague and cholera accounted for 
many decreases in the number in any 
given house. A few days. before the 
census three bodies were carried out of 
one house in Madura as a result of chol- 
WAS ZS 
THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 
era. In the plague-affected areas whole 
districts in the cities were depopulated 
and the people required to live in booths 
and tents outside the city. 
In some places the enumerators had 
great difficulty in getting men to give 
the names of their wives, or wives those 
of their husbands. It is considered un- 
lucky to speak the name of one’s help- 
meet in this land. 
The crowding of some of the wards 
of the cities is illustrated by the follow- 
ing story from Bombay: An enumerator 
found a building with 150 rooms, in each 
of which thirty people were living. An- 
other building, a kind of improved tene- 
ment, in each room of which four people 
were supposed to live, was found to have 
an average of thirteen in a room. The 
enumerator was asked in this case to act 
the part of a confidential friend and re- 
port only four to a room. The home- 
less and wanderers, in which each city 
abounds, were gathered together in suit- 
able places where the necessary details 
were taken. 
The final returns will be awaited with 
a great deal of interest. All the sections 
of the community will want to know how 
they stand with reference to the last 
census. The Christians then rejoiced in 
a 28 per cent gain. Have they made as 
great progress in the last decade? ‘The 
Hindus lost in the closing decade of the 
last century. Have they made up that 
loss or not? The past has been a decade 
of wonderful progress in politics and 
commercial affairs, and all will look 
eagerly to the disclosures of the present 
census to see what bearing the figures 
gathered may have on these subjects. It 
may take a year before the final returns 
are published, but when they appear they 
will have significant facts to relate to 
those who know India and her people. 
Li OAD aA SDI 
Crys Se 
Co 2 < 
O72 
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