Nicobarese people

“ They were provisioned for the voyage by the village of Mūs.
The dances of the Kar Nicobarese are always held at the open ground of Elpanam. With a mafai, a fire, or a trophy of spoons and forks as a centre, the people form large circles, or parts of circles, according to their number, and move slowly round to left and to right. The sexes dance separately, the one ring within the other, or join the ends of their chains to form one large circle, but form up very compactly, each person grasping his neighbour's shoulder with outstretched arms intertwined. ”

“ The Nicobarese have no conception of a Supreme Being, or a future state, but there is a universal belief in evil spirits, who are in part ghosts of the wicked, and who can be propitiated by offerings and kept away by exorcisms. ”

“ The Nicobarese are a totally different race from the Andamanese aboriginals, and a solitary missionary lives among them obeying the letter of the Christian Law with more spiritual optimism than horse-sense.
A ship takes his mails from Port Blair every three months, and, once a year, the Chief Commissioner inspects the tin church on bamboos, the dozen beehive huts and the wooden shanty which constitutes the Settlement of Car Nicobar. The missionary has a luxurious wooden house of three or four rooms and a verandah. ”

“ To the workers of the Mission at Car Nicobar, one of whom it is well-known spent twelve years in the islands translating the Prayer Book into Nicobarese, I would say that little Jellybrand is only the portrait of a type I have met—of which is the Kingdom of Heaven, and which neither looks for nor will find recognition on earth for much simple heroism. ”

“ Throughout the Nicobars there is an inherent belief that should anyone—other than a native of Chaura in Chaura—attempt to make a vessel of clay, he is doomed to almost immediate destruction. This fate was formerly supposed to follow the act of even eating food cooked in any pottery other than manufactured on the island, but this part of the superstition is now losing force, and the Nicobarese freely provide themselves with pots made at Port Blair. ”

“ The people of Kar Nicobar ought to be among the most contented in the world. Everyone lives on terms of perfect equality with his neighbours. Beyond occasional illnesses, they have no cares or troubles, and there is absolutely no struggle for existence, coconuts and pandanus, their staple foods, being in such profusion that a child old enough to climb a tree could support himself without exertion. ”

“ There is often his own native appellation, an English one, another by which he is known to the Indian traders, and a fourth under which he does business with the Burmese!
[213] G. Hamilton, Asiatic Researches, vol. ii.
[214] This monoply is due to their geographical position. The Kar Nicobarese find it as much as they dare venture to do, to go so far as Chaura for their large canoes and pots. As it is, many lives are lost at sea. (In 1899 at least 29 were drowned in returning from this island, and more recently 12 or 13 were similarly lost.) ”

“ The larger inhabits the interior proper, and is still hostile (there was a man in the village with some ugly open wounds beneath the shoulderblades, who had been speared by them close to the houses a year ago) ; the members of the other division, who form small settlements near the coast villages, are known as "mawas Shom Peṅ" (quiet, or tame Shom Peṅ) , and are on intimate terms with the Nicobarese, fearing equally with them the wilder natives. ”

“ After exploring the neighbourhood, we found a good patch of flat jungle on the east shore of the bay, and near the sandbar across the mouth discovered a faint path leading inward. Following this across some damp ground, we saw numerous tracks of men and dogs, which certainly pointed to the presence of Shom Peṅ, as the Nicobarese said they themselves never went [Pg 135] inland; but although we searched the locality thoroughly, we failed to obtain more pronounced signs of occupation.
The forest abounded in life. ”

“ The teeth of the Nicobarese are both large and prominent, and the continuous use of betel and tobacco stains them a brown and black colour that is much admired.
OLD NICOBARESE SKIRT, "NGONG."
In person, the natives, although generally clean, are less particular than tropical races as a rule: there are none of the fenced-in wells (panchurans, or bathing-screens) on the stream banks that one sees near all the villages of the Malays, but an occasional bath is taken by pouring the contents of a dozen [Pg 249] coconut shells over the body. ”

“ Marriage amongst the Nicobarese is of a class that is considered to be a modification of the matriarchal system, and [Pg 236] that exists widely spread in this portion of the world amongst the Malayan and Indo-Chinese peoples.
Until he marries, a man considers himself a member of his father's household, but after that event he calls himself the son of his father-in-law, and becomes a member of his wife's family, leaving the house of his own parents, or even his village, if the woman dwell elsewhere. ”

“ The Kar Nicobarese take great interest in the creation of mafais, and in conducting mafai performances. They give much of their property, time, and labour to a mafai, and look on him as [Pg 301] somewhat sacred. He is a man who, recovering from a serious illness, decides to do no work for some time to come; in fact, he continues to be an invalid, and henceforth neither obtains nor cooks food, but is supported by the community. ”

“ The Kar Nicobarese have a deeply rooted aversion to the settlement of strangers in their midst, and more than once have expelled from their island intruding missionaries. Nowadays, great discontent is caused by the traders leaving agents to carry on business during the south-west monsoon, when the weather is not suitable for vessels to remain amongst these islands.
The habit the natives have of using their crossbows in the immediate neighbourhood of the villages is sometimes productive of fatal accidents. ”

“ What is alleged of a custom the Nicobarians have of filing down their teeth and rubbing them with some corrosive substance, rests exclusively upon conjecture, and is confirmed neither by personal observation nor by the account given by the natives themselves, nor by the Malay traders who frequent Great Nicobar and Nangkauri.
In social as well as in religious matters, we must consider the inhabitants of this Archipelago as among the child-races of the world. They consider it a duty to marry very young and take but one wife, but they age with uncommon rapidity. ”

“ An Italian doctor, John Francis Gemelli, who made a voyage round the world, touched at the Nicobars in 1695, and refers incidentally to the neighbouring group. "Friday the 3rd, we were in sight of the island of Nicobar. The island pays an annual tribute of a certain number of human bodies to the island of Andemaon, to be eaten by the natives of it. These brutes rather than men, use, when they have wounded an enemy, to run greedily to suck the blood that runs. ”

“ We were told that they are taller, more powerful, and darker-skinned than the other Nicobarese, and also dolichocephalic.
Through an exaggerated reputation for magic, they are greatly feared throughout the group, and have for this reason [Pg 107] developed a most independent and overbearing demeanour. Various circumstances assist the cultivation of these traits—the value in which their canoes [60] are held throughout the Archipelago, for one; but the most important of all is the monopoly [61] which the island of Chaura possesses in the manufacture of pottery. ”

“ Then he summoned Nicodemus and the twelve God-fearing Jews, and said to them: What do you say that I should do? because the people are in commotion. They say: We do not know: do as thou wilt; but what the people do, they do unjustly, in order to kill him. ”

“ Many tyrants have reigned undoubtedly more criminal than Nicephorus, but none perhaps have more deeply incurred the universal abhorrence of their people. His character was stained with the three odious vices of hypocrisy, ingratitude, and avarice: his want of virtue was not redeemed by any superior talents, nor his want of talents by any pleasing qualifications. Unskilful and unfortunate in war, Nicephorus was vanquished by the Saracens, and slain by the Bulgarians; and the advantage of his death overbalanced, in the public opinion, the destruction of a Roman army. ”

“ The Indian trembled, but dared not protest.
"Fill up the sea with milk in fourteen days from now and your reward [128] shall be all that even you can desire;—fail to do so and you shall die by all the tortures possible within an hour. Do as I say and your place shall be the very highest here: your power shall be well-nigh limitless, your name shall be on all lips; men shall crouch at your feet; you shall have a finer palace and greater wealth than any in the land. Save myself, you shall be great and free, while those whom you love shall be raised also."
Nicomar salaamed silently. ”

“ The natives of Teressa are probably not greatly wrong when they say that the inhabitants of Nankauri are Malays, who when out fishing lost their boats and settled there, and the Kar Nicobarese are descendants of the Burmese who, in a revolution that took place in their country, were obliged to leave the Tenasserim coast. ”

“ Theodore Lascaris sent the most part of his force into the land of Nicomedia. And the people of Thierri of Loos, who had fortified the church of St. Sophia, and were therein, besought their lord and the emperor to come to their relief; for if they received no help they could not hold out, especially as they had no provisions. Through sheer distress and sore need, the Emperor Henry and his people agreed that they must once more abandon thought of going to Adrianople, and cross the straits of St. George, to the Turkish side, with as many people as they could collect, and succour Nicomedia. ”

“ All the same he did not believe that Nicodemus was serious in his passionate demands for the Hebrew language, which had not been spoken since the Jews emerged from the pastoral stage. We should do well, Nicodemus said, to engage others to look to our flocks and herds, so that we may have leisure to ponder the texts of Talmud, nor do I hesitate to condemn my own class, the Sadducees, as the least worthy of all; for we look upon the Temple as a means of wealth, despising the poor people, who pay their half-shekel and bring their rams and their goats and bullocks hither. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It costs a trader about 30 rupees to transport one cartload of goods from Mūs to Malacca.
When this work is done, the Nicobarese are employed in erecting huts, to serve the traders as bazaars. Each hut is built by contract by one man with the help of friends, and on its completion the owner has to give the contractor 14 to 20 yards of red cloth, a Burmese betel-box and a dáo, and besides this, has to supply the men with food until the work is finished. ”

“ By the taste of the monarch, and at the expense of the people, Nicomedia acquired, in the space of a few years, a degree of magnificence which might appear to have required the labour of ages, and became inferior only to Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch, in extent or populousness. ”

“ They are monogamous, and, unlike the Nicobarese, marry for life. The position of the women is apparently a satisfactory one, for they are regarded as little or in no way inferior to the men. The men obtain the food, the women prepare it. Rattans are collected in the jungle by the men, and by them carried to market; both sexes together prepare it, by scraping and splitting, for sale. When bringing articles for barter, the men bore the spears, and the baskets and cloth were carried by the women, and generally such things as were obtained in exchange were immediately handed over to the latter. ”

“ The population, he told us, was decreasing: formerly each house was occupied by a number of people, as is still the condition of things in Kar Nicobar, but now there are at most three or four to a hut. [34] He and many other men have no children, the usual number of which is but one or two in each family. Occasional polygamy and easy arrangements for divorce prevail here, and the custom of the husband residing at his wife's house is also in vogue, but in the case of an influential man, or a headman, it is otherwise. ”