144 F. A. de Eoepstorff, — On tJie InTiaMtants oftlie Nicobars. [July, 



tree and over wliicli for protection were sjDread dhunny and rattan leaves or 

 sheets of bark for roofing. Such a sheet of bark also formed the substance 

 of their cooking pot which stood on a stand formed of four little sticks 

 with cross sticks, under which the fii-e was laid. ... We found some wooden 

 spears and some pieces of cloth pressed from the cettis bark, but they were 

 very ragged. On the ground were thrown some used caldeira fruits and 

 in one of the huts we found a j)iece of prepared pandanus bread. Finally 

 we found in the forest, close to the railing, a big tree that had newly been 

 felled, from which we concluded that their tools must be pretty good. 

 Everything seemed to show that the inhabitants of this establishment 

 were of the same kind of people as the coast Nicobarese." 



I hope I may be excused this long citation, but in it is contained the 

 only information that existed regarding these inland tribes. No one had 

 ever seen these people ; but of their existence there could be no doubt. The 

 conclusion by Admiral Bille that these people were something like the 

 coast people, was however not adopted. Wallace, in his exhaustive work on 

 the Malay Archipelago, includes the Nicobars in the Archipelago and con- 

 cludes that there are nigritos at Great Nicobar. Professor Owen, F. R. S., 

 when addressing the ethnological section of the Congress of Orientalists in 

 London, 1874, says that fragments of the dwarf Nigrito stratum may be 

 picked up — at the Nicobar Isles. When such an authority in science as 

 Prof. Owen, beheves this, and Wallace, the great traveller of these parts, 

 supposes that Nigritos are found here, it is time that this error should be 

 corrected. Wallace meets Nigritos in the Malay Archipelago, Jagor describes 

 them in the Philippines and fui'ther north are found the Andamanese, so 

 it would form a link if they were also found in Great Nicobar. From an 

 intimate knowledge with the Andaman islands I became quite convinced 

 that no tribe of Nigritos in the same stage of existence (I dare not say civi- 

 lisation) as the Andamanese could exist in the Andaman jungles. The 

 Andamanese live quite close to the sea and wander along the shore getting 

 their subsistence in shell fish from the coral reefs and in fish from the sea. 

 Quite subsidiary is their hunting the pig. The 8us And. has increased in 

 number since fields of sugarcane and grain have sprung up near the Settle- 

 ment, but even now they are scarce at certain seasons and could never be 

 relied on to supply a steady and regular subsistence ; and beyond the wild 

 hog there is very little else to feed on. A few sour berries and perhaps 

 eatable roots, but this latter I do not believe. The state of the jungle 

 being such, I was a couple of years ago astonished at hearing it proclaimed 

 that there should be an inland tribe quite close to the Settlement at Port 

 Blair. Thousands of runaway convicts have trodden all over the jungles, 

 and there is not, I believe, a spot where these luckless travellers have not been. 

 Starvation brings them back and of all those that have returned, not one 



