1881.] F. A. de Roepstorfr* — On the inhabitants of the Nicolars. 105 



uninhabited village and in opening communication with a Shombeng in Octo- 

 ber last, Colonel Cadell visited Galathea bay in December with the special 

 intention of visiting the inland tribe on the Galathea river, which had 

 been proved to be there by the members of the Danish Expedition in 1845. 

 The weather was, however, very boisterous, and the coast people could not 

 be prevailed on to act as guides, and the attempt had to be given up. 



In March last Colonel Cadell went on another inspecting expedition 

 to the Nicobars, and I was attached to it. After visiting Little Brother, 

 Andamans, Car Nicobar, we anchored at Nancowry and provided ourselves 

 with a guide from there. Next day we visited Pulo Condul, and I pre- 

 vailed on one of the principal men there to come with us : here we bought 

 a canoe. On the evening of the 15th March, we anchored near the village 

 Laful and at once made arrangements with the natives that they should 

 next day conduct us inland, but this time right up into the country of the 

 Shombengs. During the night we had some heavy showers, and when we 

 started in the early morning it was with doubt as to whether we would be 

 troubled with rain. The rain did not fall and the clouds made our ascent 

 cool and nice. As there was a little surf, we had to land in a canoe that the 

 guides had brought on board the evening before. The Coast-people are as 

 a rule not quick in their movements, but this morning they were very 

 punctual, and within ten minutes after landing we had the luggage deposit- 

 ed on a canoe and we with our two men and five Laful guides were carrying 

 the canoe over the bar at the entrance to the creek. The ascent we made was 

 over the same ground that I had gone over in October and mentioned in my 

 paper of January. The only difference was that we had then ascended 

 the stream in a pouring rain, the stream was swollen, the boulders slippery, 

 I was then panting with fever, and we were neither provided with food nor 

 with clothes. Now the stream was dry, the sky clouded, we were well 

 provided with all we needed ourselves, and, although we left too quickly to 

 provide our guides with any thing, we trusted to the gardens of the Shom- 

 bengs to supply them. 



We passed up the creek, landed, saw the village of the Coast-people, 

 went through the same deserted village of the Shombengs that I visited in 

 October, struck the dry stream and ascended it as on my former visit. 

 Near the spot where we then halted, we came across a little new clearing of 

 the Shombengs which was not there in October. There was only one hut, 

 and here we saw for the first time the very curious cooking arrangement of 

 the Shombengs, which the Galathea Expedition in 1845 came across and 

 describes as follows : " 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 fire was laid." Under the little hut in this place 

 there was a bark-pot. It was formed of one sheet of bark bent together. 



