JJ4 ® N THE NlCOBAR 'IsLES, AND 



■This people like other fivage nations dread the evil genius ; fome among 

 them give themfelves the air of divination and prefume to have fecret confa- 

 bulations with him : fuperftition mull ever be in its full dominion, where 

 ignorance is fo grofs. 



Some of the-natives, having begun to fabricate earthen pots, foon after 

 died ; and, the caufe -being attributed to this employment, it has never been 

 relumed ; fmce they prefer going fifteen or twenty leagues to provide 

 them, rather than expofe themfelves to an undertaking attended, initheir opi- 

 nion, with fiich dangerous confluences. 



Whenever they viiit one another, no fort ..of compliment or (Mutation 

 takes place betvveen them ; but when the vifitors take leave, they are pro- 

 fufe in good wifhes, that laft for fome minutes, with different inflections of 

 ^oice, to which the other co . ftantly anfwers, by repeating the words Calld 

 calla condi condl quiage, which may be rendered mftnglj/b thus : " very well, 

 -very well ; go, go and.return foonv J 



Behind or clofe by their huts the dead are buried: all the relations and 

 acquaintance cry for fome hours before the corpfe is put into the grave, 

 where it is interred with all pofiibje folemnity, and in the beft drefs they 

 can mufter, and with abundance of food. After the body is cover- 

 ed with earth, a poflis caifed and fixed in. the ground overthe head of the 

 deceafed, about four feet high, -to the top of which they fufpend flrips of 

 cloth with meal and areca nuts, and ftrew cocoa nuts all around. 

 This fupply of ; food for the deceafed is ever after continued; a cocoa 

 tree is alfo cut down for every pcrfon that dies. As foon.as a man is dead 

 .his, name is never mentioned, even if. repeatedly aiked; every one of the 



