1S46.] Notice of the Nicobar Islands. 351 



branches, with young cocoanuts. Should the person be in his last extremi- 

 ty, the Minloven gives a song of farewell. Friends and relations never cry 

 at the death of a person : their mourning is in the shaving of their heads : 

 the villagers go to the house where the corpse is, and there they drink 

 till they are intoxicated. A coffin is made of a boat cut in two, and some 

 hours after the death, the body is carried to the grave, on which they 

 put cocoanuts and plantains ; the Minloven, taking wooden poles, goes to 

 the sea- shore, and fixes them in the sand in such a manner, that when left 

 to themselves, they fall ; he then takes them again and throws them in 

 the sea : when he reaches the village, he makes a great noise, and the 

 villagers throw out immediately the ashes they have in their houses. 

 If the dead be poor, a few days after the burial the corpse is taken out 

 from the grave ; they bring it to all the houses of the village, and from 

 thence to the place where are the bones of the persons who died before 

 him. They hang the coffin between two trees, six or seven feet 

 from the ground : when the string is rotten, the coffin falls, and the bones 

 are partly eaten by the pigs. Should the dead be one of the captains, 

 the corpse remains in the grave for three or four months. Some people 

 in their best dress go to call relations and friends from the other vil- 

 lages to remove the bones ; the pigs of the largest size are killed, and 

 singing, dancing, and particularly drinking, are kept up for several days. 

 When a person dies, the villagers cannot go on that day to the jungle, 

 fearing to be killed by the Hivie or spirit : they abstain also from the 

 food to which the deceased was partial. 



The Nicobarians give credit to dreams ; and are much addicted to 

 superstition. They will not cross a jungle carrying any box, nor will 

 they use nails in the construction of their houses. They never bathe 

 alone ; nor will they go to the burial ground ; nor will they cut large 

 trees in the forest, before offering to the spirit, who resides there ; nor 

 will they eat at the same meal, pork and turtle. When in their 

 boats, after drinking the water of young cocoanuts, they are very 

 careful not to throw into the sea, the shells. Before they build a house, 

 the Minloven is called to choose the spot, and by different ceremonies, 

 he compels the Hivie to leave the place. When a new canoe is to be 

 launched, a fire is lighted round it to compel the spirit to quit the boat. 

 These people have the idea, that some have it in their power to cause a 

 person's death merely by thinking of it ; and should a villager dream 



