164 F. A. de Roepstovff — A Nicoharese Tale. [Dec, 



Roepstorff was well known to them all as a constant and valued contribu- 

 tor to the Society, and it would be remembered that only last year he had 

 been elected an Associate Member, on the recommendation of the Council, 

 as an acknowledgment of the good work he had done. He had now fallen 

 by the hand of an assassin, the murderer being a havildar under his com- 

 mand, who apparently wished to revenge himself for some punishment 

 which it had been found necessary to inflict upon him. He (the President) 

 was sure he had the concurrence of the meeting in expressing his sense of 

 the loss the Society had sustained by Mr. de Koepstorff's death. 



2. Translation of a Nicoharese Tale. — By P. A. de Roepstoefp. 



(Abstract.) 

 Both racial characteristics and the historical traditions of a people are 

 commonly found embedded in their religious rites and in their popular 

 tales. This is especially true in the case of uncivilised tribes. Mr. de 

 Roepstorff has therefore, while pursuing his studies in the Nicobar language 

 with the object of reducing it to writing, made it a point to note down the 

 characteristic religious usages of the Nicobarese and also to chronicle the 

 tales in vogue amongst them. Mr. de Roepstorff has prepared a paper on 

 the funeral rites and ceremonies of the Nicobarese, and he has no difficulty 

 in discovering the meaning and significance of these rites, but he finds the 

 case is very different with regard to any historical references and traditions 

 that may be hidden in the tales of the Nicobarese. He ascribes this diffi- 

 culty to a most singular custom which prevails among the people which 

 must effectually hinder the " making of history " or at any rate the trans- 

 mission of historical narrative. By a strict rule which has all the sanction 

 of Nicobarese superstition no man's name may be mentioned after death. 

 To such a length is this custom followed that when, as is frequently 

 the case, the man's name happens to be the Nicobarese equivalent for such 

 words as Fowl, Hat, Fire, Road, &c., the use of these words is carefully 

 eschewed for the future not only in their particular sense as being the 

 personal designation of the deceased, but even as the names of the articles 

 they represent. The words die out of the language and either new words 

 are coined in their place, or substitutes for the disused words are found in 

 other Nicobarese dialects or in some foreign language. Owing to this very 

 peculiar custom it is not to be expected that much can be gathered from 

 their tales as to the past history of this people. Still they are, as a rule, 

 worth preserving, for they exhibit traces of religious ideas which prevailed 

 in former times, of great conflicts and of Nicobarese humour. It is possi- 

 ble that the Tale of Tiomberombi may be of foreign, perhaps of Malay, 

 origin. If so, it must have been introduced generations ago, for it now 

 abounds with the peculiarities which characterise the Nicobarese people 



