352 Notice of the Nicobar Islands. [No. 173. 



that such a one is doing so, there is no other means to escape but by 

 going immediately to another island. The greatest part of persons 

 seen in islands where they are not born, have been compelled to leave 

 their own on this account. If the dreamer mention his dream to no 

 one but to the heads of the village, the sentence is passed, and the 

 eaters of men, as the Nicobarian call them, are taken and fastened to a 

 tree close to the village, leaving them to perish by hunger : no friend, 

 no relative, would give them any thing to eat. Some years ago, a young 

 woman of Teressa was starved on that account, and it was but on the 

 seventh day that death put a stop to her sufferings. 



The Nicobarians never use any thing taken from a vessel on which a 

 murder has been committed, before the Minloven has, by prayers 

 and supplications, purified the articles ; being under the persuasion, that 

 if they did not resort to such expedients, the spirit of the murdered 

 person would inevitably kill them. 



In Nicobar, every one is his own master, even children. Persons who 

 have been in foreign countries, are respected, and have some authority over 

 their countrymen. Such is the case also with aged people, and persons 

 who have a great number of cocoanut trees and many pigs. But there is 

 not a single person in all the Nicobars, who has it in his power to exercise 

 controul over, I will not say one of the islands, but even a single village, 

 should a person be guilty of a grievous offence, or of repeated thefts, he is 

 compelled to leave the island. Some years ago, a person who had been 

 sent out of Teressa for robbery, returned thereto ; and as he was follow- 

 ing again his old trade, he was stabbed to death by the order of the head 

 people of the village. I think that such occurrences are very rare, as it 

 appears that there is a general good understanding and union amongst 

 them. 



The prevailing food of the Nicobarians are pigs, poultry, turtle, fish, 

 cocoanuts, yams, ika and fruits. 



The pigs, which appear to be derived from the Chinese breed, being fed 

 on cocoanuts, are very fat, and their flesh is of a superior flavour. Al- 

 though they are to be found in every island, Teressa is the place where 

 they abound. Some of the villagers of Laxis, have as many as sixty or 

 seventy. They are let loose in the jungle ; the owner calls them every 

 day by striking on a plank with a stick ; on their hearing the noise, 

 they run instantly in the direction of the shed where the cocoanuts are 



