the Fruit oe the Mellori. i^i 



The inhabitants of the Nicobar Iflands are of a copper colour, with 

 fmall eyes obliquely cut, what in ours is white being in theirs yellowifh; 

 withfmall flatnofes, large mouths, thick lips, and black teeth; well pro- 

 portioned in their bodies, rather ftiort than tall, and with large ears, in the 

 lobes of which are holes, into which a man's thumb might be introduced 

 with eafe : they have black ftronghair, cut round; the men have little or 

 no beard j the hinder part of their head is much flatter and comprefled 

 than ours ; they never cut their nails, but they fliave their eye -brows. * 

 A long narrow cloth made of the bark of a tree round their waift and; 

 between their thighs, with one extremity hanging down, behind, f 

 is all their drefs. The women and men are of the fame copper colour, 

 and very fmall in ftature : a bit of cloth made with the threads of the 

 bark of the cocoanut tree fattened to the middle and reaching half way 

 down the thigh, forms all the covering of the women,. Both fexes are; 

 however, very fond of drefs; and, when the men go into the prefence 

 of Grangers, they put on hats and old clothes, that had been given them 

 by Europeans ; but among themfelves they are almoft naked. 



They live in huts made of cocoanut leaves of an oval form, fupported 

 on bamboos, about five or fix feet high from the ground y the entrance 

 into the huts is by a ladder; the floor is made partly of planks, and 

 partly of Iplit bamboos. Oppofite to the door in the furthermolt part of the 



* It is a cuftom among them to comprefs with their hands the occiput of the new born child, in 

 order to render it flat ; as, according to their ideas, this kind of fliape conftitutes a mark of beauty, 

 and is univerfally efleemed fuch by them : by this method, alfo, they fay that the hair remains clofe to the 

 dead as nature intended it, and the upper fore teeth very prominent out of the mouth. 



+ A traveller, called Keoi'Ing, a Swede, who went to the Ea/i Indies on board a. Dutch fhip in the 

 year 1647 which anchored off the Nicobar Iflands, relates that they difcovered men with tails, like thofe of 

 cats, and which they moved in the fame manner. That having fent a boat on fhore with five men> wiio did 

 not return at night, as expected, the day following a larger boat was fent, well manned in queft: of 

 their companions, who, it was fuppofed, had been devoured by the favages, their bones having been found 

 {{revved en the more, the boat taken to pieces, and the iron of it carried away". 



