Nicobar Islands

“ The mission of the United Brethren in the Nicobar Islands, was undertaken in the year 1758. A person of high rank at the court of Denmark, having intimated to the directors of the Brethren's missions, that it would give particular pleasure to the King, if some of their missionaries would settle on the Nicobar Islands, and endeavour to instruct the inhabitants in the principles of the Christian religion ”

“ The natives of the group number at present a few short of 6000 (to which should be added a possible 300-400 Shom Peṅ) , and there are generally some 200 foreigners resident in the north during the trading monsoon. The islands increase in size as they are passed towards the south, but the contrary is the case with regard to population, which decreases regularly, island by island, with one or two exceptions, from Kar Nicobar in the north with 3451 inhabitants, to Great Nicobar with only 87. ”

“ Tilanchong, for instance, is uninhabited, and it is questionable whether such forestless islands as Kar Nicobar, Chaura, or Kamorta, etc., could be suitable habitats for such a primitive people. In Kachal, Nankauri, and Little Nicobar we have islands of a similar character to Great Nicobar, although in them no traces of a rude people are to be found. It is probably on account of the smallness of these areas that the immigrants succeeded in eradicating the first inhabitants, who, in the other island alone, hostile causes notwithstanding, [135] have preserved for themselves a separate existence. ”

“ We were here so much crossed by contrary winds, that we could not get up to the city, which stands twenty leagues within the bay; and, being in great distress for provisions, we made sail for the Nicobar islands, hoping there to find relief. We anchored at these islands on the 12th November, in lat. 8° N. when the people brought us off great abundance of poultry, oranges, lemons, and other fruit, with some ambergris, which we paid for in pieces of linen cloth and table napkins. ”

“ One of the most formidable animals with which these islands abound, is the crocodile, or alligator. Kar Nicobar is overrun with them, as are all the other Nicobar islands, which have fresh-water lakes and streams. They are of two kinds, the black kayman, and the proper crocodile. The latter is said never to attack live creatures, but to devour only carrion, and is therefore not considered dangerous. Of the correctness of this opinion I had once ocular proof. I was walking at Queda along the coast, and looking at a number of children swimming and sporting in the water. ”

“ Equally fortunate as in the straits was our passage through the labyrinth of islands, through which a vessel must wind in order to reach Singapore. And this roadstead itself, what a contrast it presented to the lovely beach of the Nicobar Islands! Here were thousands of ships of all sizes and rigs, and the flags of nearly all sea-faring nations in the world. We found at anchor the English frigate Amethyst, and the 136screw corvette Niger; and having warped ourselves into their vicinity, by 2 P.M. we had cast anchor in 13 fathoms water. ”

“ For instance, my living in Kindram has caused the intensely hot weather we have experienced of late." The unusually heavy rains which happened to follow the English survey of the Nicobar Islands in the winter of 1886-1887 were imputed by the alarmed natives to the wrath of the spirits at the theodolites, dumpy-levellers, and other strange instruments which had been set up in so many of their favourite haunts ”

“ Every single country listed in the Plan within the confines of every continent of the globe, with the exception of those within the Soviet Orbit, are now opened to the Faith. All islands figuring in that Plan, over seventy in number, situated in the Pacific, the Atlantic, and the Indian Oceans, in the Mediterranean and the North Sea, have, likewise been opened except Nicobar Islands, Chagos Archipelago, Hainan Island, Sakhalin Island, Spitzbergen and Anticosti Island. ”

“ From Goa to Malacca it is 1800 miles. We passed without the island of Ceylon and went through the channel of Nicobar, and then through the channel of Sombrero, past the island of Sumatra, called in old times Taprobana. [153] Nicobar, off the coast of Pegu, consists of a great multitude of islands, many of which are inhabited by a wild people. These islands are likewise called Andemaon or Andaman. [154] The natives are savages who eat each other, and are continually engaged in war, which they carry on in small boats, chiefly to make prisoners for their cannibal feasts. ”

“ Passing the north-west end of Sumatra, the pirates steered for the Nicobar Islands, to the south of the Andamans. Here the ship was again careened, in order that she might be thoroughly cleaned, and thus sail faster.
The natives were a well-looking people, of a dark colour, the men being almost naked, but the women wore a short petticoat. After the ship was again floated, Dampier, finding that he could not get off by stealth, insisted on being landed. At last the captain agreed, and, getting up his chest and bedding, he induced some of his shipmates to row him on shore. ”

“ Concerning the island of Necuveran, when you leave the island of Java the less (Sumatra) and the kingdom of Lambri, you sail north almost 150 miles and then you come to two islands, one of which (Great Nicobar) is called Necuveran. In this island they have no king nor chief, but live like beasts. And I tell you they all go naked, both men and women, and do not use the slightest covering of any kind. They are idolaters. Their woods are all of noble and valuable kinds of trees; such as Red Sanders, and Indian-nut, and Cloves, and Brazil, and sundry other good spices. ”

“ Andaman—The Andaman Language is monosyllabic, and allied to the Burmese of the opposite continent.
Nicoaar &c.—The statement that there are Blacks in the Nicobar Islands is inaccurate. The tribes further from the coast are the rudest. ”

“ Caloenas nicobarica, which extends from the Nicobar Islands through the Malay Archipelago to the Solomons, is a metallic-green bird, with bronzy reflexions and blackish head, neck, and upper breast, most of the remiges being black, and the tail with its coverts white. The long narrow neck-hackles, the roughly-scaled legs, and the black knob at the base of the bill are also remarkable features. Partly but not entirely terrestrial, it walks at a great rate, feeds mainly upon the ground on seeds, utters a croaking note, often builds in societies on trees, and lays one white egg. ”

“ They have remarkably short legs, and are unable to rise, if they once fall or settle on the ground. I caught many in this state, and after examining them, threw them up into the air, when they immediately flew away; they cannot therefore, as some suppose, obtain their materials on the coast, or from rocks in the sea. My opinion is, that the nests are made of the gum of a peculiar tree, called by some the Nicobar cedar, and growing in great abundance in all the southern islands. Its wood is hard, black, and very heavy. ”

“ Parents seem to possess great affection for their infants, and the number of men, especially, who may be seen about the villages carrying their children, or otherwise amusing them, is remarkable.
Six distinct dialects and languages are spoken in the Archipelago—one on Kar Nicobar, another on Chaura; Teressa and Bompoka together have one; the central islands of Kamorta, Nankauri, Trinkat, and Kachal speak a fourth; while Little and Great Nicobar with their adjacent islands have a fifth. Lastly, the Shom Peṅ of the interior of Great Nicobar employ a speech that is dissimilar to the others. ”

“ The most of these islands are hilly, and some of the mountains of considerable height: but Tricut, Tafouin, and Kar Nicobar, are flat, and covered [28] with forests of cocoa trees. The other islands have likewise a large proportion of cocoa and areca palms, and an immense quantity of timber trees of various kinds, some of them of enormous size. All the vallies and sides of the hills, to a considerable height, are thickly covered with them, insomuch, that the light of the sun has not been able for ages to penetrate through their foliage. ”

“ From these descriptions it appears, that the islands and coasts of the Indian ocean are peopled by men widely different from each other. The natives of Malacca, of Sumatra, and of the Nicobar islands, appear to derive their origin from those of the peninsula of Indus, and those of Java from the Chinese, the white men excepted, who go by the name of Chacrelas, and who must have sprung from the Europeans. The natives of the Malacca islands seem also in general to have originated from the Indians in the peninsula ”

“ It would appear that in Kar Nicobar, Teressa, and Chaura, where the superstitious practices are nearly alike, some idea is entertained of spirits not altogether inimical to mankind; but in the other islands, whose beliefs are all homogenous, the Iwis are all harmful to human beings, and are kept at a distance by a redundancy of charms and talismans that does not occur in the north. ”

“ It was for long believed that the interior of Great Nicobar was inhabited by a race of Negritoes akin to the Andamanese, but the Shom Peṅ are an isolated group of primitive Malayans, and although they must be regarded as the aborigines of the islands, many features amongst them point to the fact that they are no longer racially pure.
Not only does the facial appearance vary greatly, but the hair, which is universally regarded as an almost infallible indication of race amongst primitive peoples, occurs in all the grades between curly and straight. ”

“ There they abound to a remarkable extent, and their eggs furnish a luxurious repast to the natives. They have also reached many of the smallest islets, and have spread beyond the limits of the region to the Philippines, and North-Western Borneo, as well as to the remote Nicobar Islands. ”

“ They are of a middling stature, their visage long, their eyes black, their noses of a moderate size, their lips thin, and their teeth are blackened.
In the island of Pugniatan, or Pissagan, within 16 leagues of Sumatra, the natives are tall, and of a yellow complexion, like the Brazilians; their hair is long, and they go completely naked. Those of the Nicobar islands, which lie northward of Sumatra, are of a tawny or yellowish colour, and they also go naked. In speaking of these last islanders, Dampier says, that they are tall and well proportioned ”

“ The inhabitants of these islands generally eat vegetables only, the use of meat being for the most part restricted to festive occasions. The use of salt is as yet unknown to them. They only use sea-water for the purpose of seething their pigs and hens, by which process the flesh gets a slight flavour of salt. During our luncheon, which had made the natives yet more confiding than ever, we found an opportunity of hearing something about the various festivals of the Nicobar islanders. ”

“ A crude instance is afforded by the Wukas of New Guinea, already cited. A hideous rite susceptible of no other interpretation is performed by the Kingsmill Islanders immediately upon the consummation of a marriage; and a similar one is mentioned by a Chinese traveller at the end of the thirteenth century as taking place in Cambodia.355.2 On Teressa, one of the Nicobar Islands, a pig is killed and the faces of the guests are smeared with its blood.355.3 Here the pig’s blood is doubtless a substitute for that of the bridal pair. ”

“ It is not difficult for the sorcerers thus to impose upon the poor ignorant people, for they really do possess superior cunning, and astonishing dexterity, being the most expert jugglers on earth. Every one who has visited the East Indies, well knows, with what unaccountable exhibitions and slight of hand tricks the jugglers endeavour to amuse the people; but in the Nicobar [53] islands, these arts being applied to what they consider as religious exercises, the deception is so great, that I have myself often stood astonished, being unable to account for what I saw. ”

“ Another English captain, named Iselwood, seems once to have carried over some natives of Teressa to Kar-Nicobar, and afterwards taken them back again. There does not exist, however, any regular commercial intercourse between Kar-Nicobar and the remaining islands of the Archipelago. The boats of the natives are much too small, and unsuitable to admit of their undertaking voyages to any distance, unless for some very important purpose, such, for instance, as bringing pottery ware from the island of Chowry, or Chowra, where alone in the Archipelago that manufacture is carried on. ”

“ Leaving this coast, we returned in sight of Sumatra, and went thence to the islands of Nicobar, which we found inhabited by Moors. After we came to anchor, the people came daily on board in their canoes, bringing fowls, cocoas, plantains, and other fruits; and within two days they brought ryals of plate, which they gave us in exchange for calicut cloth. They find these ryals by diving for them in the sea, having been there lost in two Portuguese ships not long before, that were cast away when bound for China. In their language the cocoa-nut is called calambo ”

“ From the forest-covered slopes of Tillangschong also, small streams of fresh 90water are continually trickling. The insignificant brooks and rivers of the large well-wooded islands lying further to the south of Great and Little Nicobar, are in like manner kept full the whole year by the blessed abundance of the watery element. On the other hand, the northern islands, so far at least as the marl-formation extends, seem to be but scantily supplied with water, especially on Kamorta, Nangkauri, Tringkut, and apparently Teressa and Bampoka as well. ”