110 F. A. de Roepstorff — On the inhabitants of the JVicohars. [June, 



nor any to get rid of the branches. They do, however, cultivate deeply, 

 for I got in 1876 from the Shombeng in Ganges harbour a very big yam 

 and some Gunya which must have been carefully grown. One great clearing 

 Col. Cadell and I went over. It was fenced all round, evidently to keep out 

 pigs. The clearing stretched over a small valley from hill top to hill top. 

 The only road across the confused masses of debris lying on the ground 

 was a continual bridge of fallen logs, which seemed well suited to Shom- 

 beng feet but less so to boots, and we found it rather difficult to cross. 

 On the top of the other hill we came to two huts. The one was circular 

 and 8i' from the ground. They were very dilapidated and did not look 

 fit to withstand the heavy storms of the S. W. Monsoon. Col. Cadell 

 went alone with Koal down a precipice with just space here and there for a 

 naked Shombeng foot and he saw there another big clearing. To me it 

 appeared as if the Shombengs with these clearings were making prepara- 

 tions for next year's operations, and that they leave any occupied piece of 

 land when the virgin-soil fertility is exhausted. As the only domestic 

 animal they keep is the pig, they have no means of manuring the exhausted 

 soil, and they would therefore have to go to new grounds. The little 

 villages near the stream below the hills seemed to me intended for the 

 rainy season as they were in sheltered places and were newly made. 

 After the meeting with Koal the first time, I thought that my idea that 

 the Shombengs were not a Papuan or Negrito race was erroneous. I 

 therefore made haste to publish a report of my meeting and of my doubts. 

 Now that I have met the Shombengs in greater numbers, I beg to revert 

 to my old theory that they are a race different from the Coast-people, with- 

 out any Papuan or Negrito blood, and I beg again to suggest that they 

 may be the same race originally as the inhabitants of the little Island of 

 Schowra, who live by cultivation whereas all the islanders around them 

 are keen fishermen. They are also supposed to be fairer than the Coast- 

 people and have a Mongolian cast about their eyes. 



I would have preferred that the report of our visit to the Shom- 

 beng country had come from the pen of Colonel Cadell, who would have 

 given a better description of all we saw and heard, especially as the Expedi- 

 tion was originated and carried through by him, but he has suggested that 

 I should write it. 



Mr. Ball said : " The proverbial difficulty of proving a negative is 

 well illustrated by Mr. de Roepstorff's paper, which is a further contribu- 

 tion on the subject of the inland inhabitants of the Great Nicobar. His 

 researches do not disprove the supposed existence of a race in the interior 

 of that Island having Negrito affinities ; though it must be confessed 

 that they render it less probable than it was thought to be before. 



