272 
A FEW PARTICULARS RESPECTING 
She throat came out through the nose, and that the tongue, 
tlie usual instrument for producing distinct sounds, had very 
limited functions in their language. Young boys, as speaking 
generally more distinctly than grown up persons, were my 
teachers at first, until my ears had been practised to the 
hearing of such confused sounds. 
The chief food of the Nicobarians is the pulp of the cocoa- 
nut, yams, plantains, papayahs, fowls, and above all pigs, 
which abound iu those Islands, It is not uncommon to see 
round a single hut, 40, 50, or 60 of them. The quantity of 
pigs killed and eaten is almost incredible, yet the Nicobarians, 
however voracious, separate the grease from the flesh, and keep 
it separately for culinary purposes; they never eat, or rather 
devour anything, but the flesh, and that for a single festival 
day. To satisfy my curiosity I saw and counted 75 large 
pigs killed for satiating the wolf-like appetite of the inhabi¬ 
tants of a inconsiderable district cf my Island, In this respect, 
the Chinese could not be a match for the Nicobarians. 
Notwithstanding this immoderate use of food, the natives 
are seldom to be seen with those nasty and disgusting ulcers 
so common amongst the Chinese who belong to the poorer 
class. They are attacked with many cutaneous diseases, but 
not of the worst kind. I do not recollect having ever met with 
a single individual marked with the small pox, a circumstance 
which induces me to believe that that disease is quite un¬ 
known in those Islands. Twice a year almost all the inhabi¬ 
tants are attacked with a severe cough accompanied with 
fevers. The Nicobar islands are famous as a place where 
strangers are inevitably attacked with a most violent fever. 
My u nfortunate companion fell a victim to its malignity, I 
very narrowly escaped, and at last was compelled to go to 
Mergui on the Tenasserim Coast for the recovery of my most 
debilitated health, yet, I believe that, with a stock of good 
medicines and especially quinine, one can live in those islands 
and successfully check the fever. The probable cause of the 
unhealthiness of the country is its uncultivated state, the 
number of streams stopped in their course by fallen and 
decayed trees and plants, and forming many swamps and 
marshes. Should the country be cleared of its jungle, so far 
as to afford a free circulation to the air, I have no doubt that 
the Nicobars would not prove a more unhealthy place than 
other countries situated under the same latitude. Although 
fever seems to spare partly the natives to a certain extent, the 
period of their existence is confined between narrower limits 
than that of Europeans,—it is exceedingly rare to see men 
living beyond 60 years, and women 50« frrom what I heard 
