CHAPTER II
THE NICOBAR ISLANDS AND THEIR ABORIGINES
The Nicobar Islands and their Aborigines—The Islands—Coral Banks—Nankauri Harbour—Population—Geology—Earthquakes—Climate—Flora—History—The Shom Peṅ: their Derivation, Appearance, Houses, Gardens, Cooking-vessel, Domestic Animals, Manufactures, Trade, Clothing, Headmen, Position of Women, Disposition, Diseases.
The Nicobars lie 80 miles south of the Andaman group and 110 miles from Sumatra proper, and constitute a chain of islands 160 miles long, lying in a N.N.W. ½ W. direction, with a branch forking out from their centre N. by E. The area of the group is about 600 square miles, and it consists of some twenty islands, of which the principal are, Kar Nicobar, Batti Malv, Tilanchong, Chaura, Teressa, Bompoka, Kamorta, Trinkat, Nankauri, Kachal, Little Nicobar, and Great Nicobar.
Besides these, there are several small satellite islands: Great Nicobar possesses Kondul and Kabra; Little Nicobar, Milo and Menchal, with Treis, Trak, and Meroë further off; and lastly, near the south extremity of Tilanchong, there is the rocky islet named "Isle of Man."[109] There are villages on Kondul and Milo, but Batti Malv and Tilanchong are uninhabited.
Two large isolated coral banks occur—one near Chaura, with only 1½ fathoms of water; and another, far more extensive, in the Sombrero Channel, with 11 fathoms of water above it.
Although the Nicobar Islands are scarcely ever heard of, the China Mail boats and other great ocean steamers pass almost in sight of them nearly every day, and they possess in the central group one of the finest harbours in the eastern seas. Nankauri Harbour has not only entrances on the east and west, that make it practicable for any sort of vessel in both monsoons, but these are further protected by the islands of Trinkat and Kachal respectively, which give sheltered anchorage outside the mouth of the harbour itself.
By any other nation than the British it would be highly valued at the present time as a coaling station, but, owing to its proximity to the Straits Settlements, and the failure of the small islands around to produce anything more valuable than coconuts, it is completely neglected by its possessors, from both commercial and strategical standpoints.
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.[110]
"The Nicobar Islands belong to an area of elevation which can be traced from the Bay of Bengal far into the southern seas,[111] and is characterised by two phenomena: first, the activity of the interior of the earth, showing itself in volcanic action; and secondly, the activity of the coralline animals, disclosing itself in the formation of that kind of coral reefs known as fringing or coast reefs. The islands occupy a gap without volcanoes between the volcanic ranges of Sumatra, and Barren and Narkondam Islands, and the occurrence of young volcanic rock in them is improbable. They are distinctly characterised as a portion of the chain of oceanic elevation which began in former geological periods and still continues, by the upheaved coral banks, and by the continuous formation of coral reefs. The synclinals and anticlinals in the geological structure of the islands are coincident with the direction of the great geological line of elevation which connects the northern part of Sumatra with the Andamans.
"Among the geological formations of the Nicobars, three are the most important:—(1) An eruptive serpentine, with gabbro formation. (2) Marine deposits, probably of a younger Tertiary age, consisting of sandstone, slates, clay marls, and plastic clay. (3) Recent coral-reef formations.
"The serpentine and gabbro formation is characteristically of an eruptive nature. The Tertiary sandstones, slates, and clay marls appear forcibly broken through; their strata is partly inclined, partly bent in flat, parallel, wave-like undulations. These rocks are accompanied by coarser and finer breccias, composed of angular fragments of these same rocks, and they can partly be regarded as friction breccias, partly as sedimentary tufas, in which beds of an argillaceous marl are interstratified. The eruption of these plutonic masses appears therefore to fall in a time when the formation of the marine deposits was partially completed, partially still in progress. They broke through on lines of fracture, of which the principal strike from S.S.E. to N.N.W. agrees with the longitudinal extension of the islands. On the middle islands the serpentine and gabbro attain their greatest development: on Tilanchong, Teressa, Bompoka, Kamorta, and Nankauri, they form bare hill ranges of 200-500 feet, and their configuration often marvellously resembles that of younger volcanic formations. The elevatory power has, however, acted most strongly on the southern islands, and has here upheaved sandstones and slates to heights of 1500-2000 feet above sea-level; on the northern islands the same power was, on the contrary, weakest.
"The clay marls of the northern and central islands (Kar Nicobar, Teressa, Bompoka, Kamorta, Trinkat, and Nankauri) and the sandstones and slates of the southern (Kachal, Little and Great Nicobar) appear to be only petrologically different products of one and the same period of deposition. There are, at the same time, very few materials from which the age of the marine formation could be determined, as the only fossil remains which have been found in their strata are fragments of driftwood changed to brown coal, plants resembling Fucoids, Foraminifera, and Polycistinæ. All these indicate more or less distinctly a young Tertiary age.
"We find a repetition of the geological condition of the Nicobars on the southern coast of Java and the south-west coast of Sumatra.
"The third principal formation of the Nicobars are coral formations belonging to the most recent or the present period. Coral banks of great thickness are found on Kar Nicobar, Bompoka, Trinkat, and other islands. They consist partly of compact coral limestone, partly of a coral and shell conglomerate upheaved 30 or 40 feet above the present level of the sea. On all the islands the original area is to be observed enlarged by coral land which is only separated by the higher sand-dunes along the shores from the still continuing formation of the coral reefs surrounding all the islands in the character of fringing reefs. Although these raised coral banks are decided evidence of the long-continued upheaval of the islands—that, in connection with the eruption of the serpentines and gabbros—the formation of the flat coral lands elevated a few feet only above the sea, can, on the other hand, be explained by the accumulation of coral fragments, of sand and shells, by the waves and breakers on the shallow surface of the fringing reefs."[112]
Coal of a brown variety has been found in Little Nicobar, Treis, Milo, and Kondul, but everywhere in isolated masses and single fragments, showing traces of rolling, met with here and there without order, in sandstone and slate, and evidently derived from driftwood.
The only traces of minerals discovered have been ores of copper and iron pyrites, finely disseminated through dioritic and serpentine rocks. The possibility of the occurrence of copper ores in the eruptive formation cannot be denied, but no discovery has yet been made which would indicate it. On the other hand, the islands are rich in useful building materials. The sandstone of the southern islands must give excellent working stones; the plastic clays of the north could, doubtless, be worked into bricks or pottery; the natives of Chaura largely employ it in their earthenware manufactures.
Although the islands are generally beyond the sphere of cyclonic disturbances, they have more than once experienced the effect of earthquakes. One of the most remarkable of these is said to have occurred from October 31 to December 5, 1847, when fire is reported to have been seen on one of the mountains of Great Nicobar. Part of the northern coast of the latter, especially in the vicinity of Ganges Harbour, sank beneath the sea, and for long the locality was deserted by the aborigines.[113]
On December 1881, an earthquake, felt also at the Andamans and throughout the Bengal Sea generally, caused extensive damage in Kar Nicobar to the coconut groves and huts of the natives. Vents were opened in the sandy soil; inland, trees were overthrown; sea-waves broke on the island, and at the village of Mūs, water rose into the houses of the Burmese traders, which stood on platforms 2½ feet high.
There was another earthquake at Kar Nicobar in November 1899, when strong, but not alarming, shocks, lasting ten minutes, were experienced. The last occurred on September 18, 1900, when two heavy and severe shocks, each lasting five minutes, were felt throughout the island, but caused no damage.
The climate of the Nicobars is more uniform than that of the Andamans, for it is less diversified by wet and dry seasons, heat and cold, and in this respect resembles that of the Malay Peninsula at the same latitude. The prevalence of malaria renders the group unhealthy alike for foreigners and, in certain localities, for the natives, and all the attempts at settlement have resulted in great mortality from this cause, although where jungle exists an improvement is said to have taken place when the land has been cleared.
The average mean annual temperature is about 82.5°, the maximum in the shade between 93° and 94° and the minimum 73°. March and April are the hottest months, with means of 82° and 83° and a maximum of 89°, while August to December—when the mean temperature is 79°—is the coolest part of the year. The mean annual temperature at Nankauri is 80°, and while the highest reading recorded is 99°, the lowest is 70°. The mean diurnal range there varies between 9° and 11° only.
Although the seasons of the monsoons are the same, they are not so well defined among the Nicobars as on the coast of the Bay of Bengal generally; but heavy rains occur in May, June and July—when the south-west monsoon is at its height—and rains rarely cease until December. March is the driest month, and while from May to December there is an average monthly rainfall of 12 inches, with twenty wet days per month, for the rest of the year the monthly average is only 2.9 inches, with showers on twenty-six days only.
At Nankauri the mean humidity is 79 per cent, and the annual rainfall 110 inches; while, as regards the southern group of islands, there is good ground for the belief that much more rain falls, probably not less than an average of 150 inches annually; this is doubtless attributable to the forest-clad mountains of Great and Little Nicobar.
The prevailing winds are the monsoons—the south-west from the beginning of May till mid-October, followed by variable winds to the end of the year; the north-east monsoon from January until April, with an interval of more variable winds before the other sets in. Hurricanes seldom visit the islands, but in March 1892 the central group was subjected to a cyclone which caused much destruction in the forest. During the south-west monsoon frequent thunderstorms and gales of wind occur, especially in the vicinity of Great Nicobar. The north-east monsoon brings fine weather, but sometimes blows with considerable strength.
A remarkable feature of the Nicobars is the manner in which the general botanical appearance of the islands coincides with the geological division, for, while the southern group (Great and Little Nicobar with Kachal) are wooded from beach to summit, the forests of the other islands are restricted to the plutonic rocks and the slopes and dells of the older alluvium, while the hilly plateaux and ridges are covered with park-like grass heaths.
The most prominent features of the flora are, perhaps, the quantities of Barringtonia speciosa, which, with their large shiny leaves and beautiful crimson-tipped tassel-like blossoms, grow all along the coasts; the tall screw-pines (Pandanus larum), bearing the immense fruits that provide the main food of the natives; and the graceful Nicobar palms (Ptychoraphis augusta), which occur in all the forests. Giant bamboos are extremely scarce, but the climbing species (Dinachloa) is common everywhere in the jungle, and beautiful tree ferns (Alsophila albo-setacea) grow in the forest and along the river banks of the south.
A mangosteen (Garcinia, sp.) and a cinnamon (Cinnamomum obtusifolium) grow wild, as do the pepper vine (Piper betel) that supplies the sireh leaf, and the betel palm (Areca catechu). These two are also cultivated, and it is said that the latter is not indigenous.
The large numbers of milky climbers leads to the hope that some rubber-yielding varieties may be discovered capable of supplying a sufficient quantity of raw material for export. The vanilla orchid occurs, and the southern forests produce quantities of rattan, both as a small variety that is exported, and a large cane two inches or so in diameter, which the natives use for the horizontal rafters in the circular framework of their houses.
Semecarpus heterophyllus, Morinda citrifolia, Artocarpus lakoocha, and A. chaplasha, Cordia mixa, Mallotus philipenensis, and Amomum fenzlii, may be mentioned specially as species capable of yielding commercial products; but their sparseness, coupled with the fact that it is easier and cheaper to cover the soil with coconuts and areca palms, puts out of the question the possibility of utilising the species to any profit.
The Nicobars produce few trees of any commercial value as timber, and those probably not in large quantities: the best of these are Myristica irya and Terminalia bialata, and of secondary value in this respect are Mimusops littoralis, Hopea odorata, Artocarpus chaplasha and lakoocha, Calophyllum spectabile, Terminalia procera and species of Garcinias.
Evergreen forest predominates, and mixed forest appears only occasionally, but pure leaf-shedding forest is not met with; and as regards species, there is a marked absence of Dipterocarpus trees.
It is in the writings of Ptolemy that we find the first probable reference to the Nicobars, for after the Andamans, the next group mentioned by him is the "Barussae," which seems to be the Lankha Bálús of the older Arab navigators, since these are certainly the Nicobars.[114] The islands were also known to the same voyagers under the names of Megabalu and Legabalu.
The Chinese, another race of great navigators in these seas, have records of the Nicobars for a thousand years and more.
The next reference of any importance is that of an Arab trader who came into contact with the group during a voyage to Southern China in 851 A.D.[115] "Nagabalus, which are pretty well peopled: both the men and women there go naked, except that the women conceal their private parts with leaves of trees. When shipping is among these islands, the inhabitants come off in embarkations, and bring with them ambergris and coconuts, which they truck for iron, for they want no clothing, being free from the inconveniences of heat or cold."
Rashuddin writes of the islands in nearly the same terms, under the name of Lákvárem, opposite Lamuri (a kingdom of Sumatra), and the very imaginatively-minded author, Friar Oderic,[116] compiled a chapter on Nicoveran which is a mass of the wildest fable, utterly unworthy of credence, containing, as it does, details of people with faces like dogs, who are stout in battle (not a characteristic of the modern Nicobarese) and worshippers of the ox, while their king possessed strings of pearls, and the largest ruby in the world.
"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. There is nothing else worth relating," says Marco Polo, who probably only passed near the islands in or about the year 1293, but who gathered fairly accurate information about them.
After the Cape of Good Hope was doubled in 1497, the islands were frequented by voyagers, as expeditions to the East became more numerous.
"It was the Nicobar custom in 1566," says Master Cæsar Frederike, that "if any ship come near to that place or coast as they pass that way, as in my voyage it happened, as I came from Malacca through the channel of Sombrero, there came two of their barques near our ship, laden with fruit, as with monces (which we call Adam's apples, which fruit is like to our turnips, but is very sweet and good to eat). They would not come into the ship for anything we could do, neither would they take any money for their fruit, but they would truck for old shirts or old linen breeches. These rags we let down with a rope into their barque unto them, and look what they thought their things to be worth; so much fruit they would make fast to the rope, and let us hale it in: and it was told me that sometimes a man shall have for an old shirt a good piece of amber."[117]
In his East Africa and Malabar,[118] Barbosa refers shortly to the Nicobars. "In front of Sumatra, across the Gulf of the Ganges, are five or six small islands, which have very good water and ports for ships: they are inhabited by Gentiles, poor people, they are called Niconbar; and they find in them very good amber, which they carry thence to Malacca and other ports."
Captain John Davis, of Arctic fame, the inventor of the "back-staff," the earliest form of quadrant, piloted a Dutch ship to the East Indies, and touched, in 1599, at the Central Nicobars. He wrote that "... the people brought in great store of hens, oranges, lemons, and other fruit, and some ambergris which we bought for pieces of linen cloth and table napkins. These isles are pleasant and fruitful, lowland, and have good road for ships. The people are most base, only living upon fruits and fish, not manuring the ground, and therefore having no rice."[119]
During the reign of Elizabeth, Sir James Lancaster made several voyages to the East Indies, and touched at the Nicobars. Two of his officers, Barker and May, have chronicled a visit to the islands in 1592, in a description that would apply more accurately to the Pulo Wai group. "The islands of Nicobar," says Barker, "we found inhabited with Moors, and after we came to an anchor, the people came aboard us in their canoes with hens, cocos, plantains, and other fruits, and in two days they brought to us royals of plate, giving us them for calicut cloth, which royals they find by diving for them in the sea, which were lost not long before by two Portugal ships which were bound for China and were cast away there. They call in their language the coco, calambe (Malay, klapa); the plantain, pison (Mal., pisang); a hen, iam (Mal., ayam); a fish, iccan (Mal., ikan); and a hog, babi (Mal., babi)"; and May, the other writer, says that the natives were in religion Mohammedans.
Lancaster's own account of the "Islands of Nicobar" is more interesting, and is based on his experiences there in 1602. Of either Pulo Milo or Kondul he writes:—
"Here we had fresh water and some coconuts, other refreshing had we none. Yet the people came aboard our ships in long canoes which would hold twenty men in one of them, and brought gums to sell instead of amber, and therewithal deceived divers of our men: for these people of the east are wholly given to deceit. They brought us hens and coconuts to sell, but held them very dear, so that we bought few of them. We stayed here ten days....
"We were forced to go to the island of Sombrero (the Portuguese name for Chaura) some 10 or 12 leagues to the northward of Little Nicobar. Here we lost an anchor, for the ground is foul and groweth full of counterfeit coral and some rocks, which cut our cable asunder.
"The people of these islands go naked, having only the privities bound up in a piece of linen cloth, which cometh about their middles like a girdle and so between their twist. They are all of a tawny colour, and anoint their faces with divers colours: they are well limbed, but very fearful: for none of them would come aboard our ships, or enter our boats.
"The General reported that he had seen some of their priests all apparelled, but close to their bodies, as if they had been sewed in it; and upon their heads a pair of horns turning backwards (tá-chökla), with their faces painted green, black, and yellow, and their horns also painted the same colour. And behind them, upon their buttocks, a tail hanging down very much like in the manner as in some painted clothes we paint the devil in our country. He demanding wherefore they went in that attire, answer was made him, that in such form the devil appeared to them in their sacrifices, and therefore the priests, his servants, were so apparelled. In this island grow trees which for their tallness, greatness, and straightness will serve the biggest ships in all our fleet for a mainmast, and the island is full of these trees." This description of the island cannot be said to be applicable at the present day.
"Here likewise we found upon the sand by the seaside a small twig (Virgularia mirabilis?) growing up to a grand tree, and offering to pluck the same, it shrunk down into the ground, and sinketh unless you hold very hard. And being plucked up, a great worm is at the root of it: and look how the tree groweth in greatness the worm diminisheth. Now as soon as the worm is wholly turned into the tree it rooteth in the ground, and so groweth to be great. This transformation is one of the strangest wonders I saw in all my travels. For the tree being plucked up little, the leaves stripped off, and the pill by that time it was dry, turned into an hard stone, much like to white coral; so that the worm was twice transformed with different natures: of these we gathered and brought home many."[120]
Towards the middle of the century, Koeping, a Swede, touched at one of the islands in a Dutch vessel and thought he perceived men with tails, "like those of cats, which they move in the same manner," but he was deceived by the peculiar clothing. He further credits the Nicobarese with cannibalism, for a boat's crew of five men that went ashore never returned, but next day their bones were found strewn over the beach![121] Next, Dampier was put ashore by the privateer he piloted on the N. W. coast of Great Nicobar, and after a short sojourn left with his companions in a native canoe, and succeeded in reaching Sumatra.
The first recorded murder of a European by the natives seems to be that of Captain Owen, who was wrecked on Tilanchong, and from thence taken to Nankauri, where he was put to death on account of his ill-judged behaviour towards the inhabitants. This incident is related by Hamilton in his account of his own experiences in the East Indies from 1688 to 1723,[122] where he gives a little information about the Nicobars.
The first attempt at a settlement on the islands was made by Jesuits on Kar Nicobar in 1711, but they succumbed to the climate, and the effects of such results as they had attained to soon disappeared. Hitherto no efforts had been made to convert the natives, although missionaries of the same denomination were well acquainted with the group.
In 1756 Tanck took possession of the Archipelago in the name of Denmark, and under the designation of "Frederiks Oerne," and founded a colony on the north coast of Great Nicobar, which in 1760 was transferred to Kamorta, and there came to an end owing to the unhealthy climate.
In 1766 fourteen Moravians were installed on Nankauri, with a view to extending the influence of the Danish East India Company, but in a dozen years nearly every member of the settlement was dead. They are said to have made no conversions.
A Dane, named Koenig, who was a doctor of the same religious body, voyaging from India to Siam in 1778, spent several hours on Kar Nicobar, and in his diary left some account of his visit; and almost contemporaneously a vessel under the Austrian flag, the Joseph and Theresa, Captain Bennet, anchored off the northern island: her voyage was made to obtain plantations and trading stations in the East for the Austrian Empire. This was the scheme of a Dutchman, named Bolts, who entered the Austrian service in 1775, and who accompanied the ship, a chartered English vessel with an English crew. The expedition spent five months in the group: a fort was erected on the island, and ships purchased to trade between Madras, Pegu, and the Nicobars. War in Europe ruined the company, and it was suspended after an existence of seven years.
In 1779 two more Moravians settled on Nankauri, in an attempt to found a fresh Danish Mission, but eight years later this was abandoned, and the survivor returned to Europe.
With the commencement of the nineteenth century, English traders from India began to visit the islands for coconuts, and, through contact with their crews, the custom and life of the natives seems to have undergone much growth and alteration.
In 1831 Denmark made a last attempt to colonise the group by missionary enterprise, and Pastor Rosen was sent out. He dwelt on Nankauri, in the middle of the north side of the harbour, and for a time also lived on Trinkat; but after three years he returned to Europe, and some time later published his experiences.
The year Rosen left, two Catholic missionaries arrived at Kar Nicobar from Malacca, and lived on Teressa and Kamorta, but after a time one of them, Borie, died of fever, and the survivor left. This was the last of the series of missionary endeavours to found a settlement and convert the inhabitants.
In 1845, Mr Mackay, Danish Consul at Calcutta, chartered a schooner and made a voyage to the group in search of coal, which was prospected for without success.[123]
A year later the Danish corvette Galathea,[124] voyaging round the world, spent some months among the islands, and her commander, Steen Bille, took possession of the central group for Denmark, and invested two natives with the insignia of chief magistrates. Two years afterwards, however, the Valkyrien was sent to the islands to bring away the flags and bâtons, and the last of several ineffective annexations came to an end. The Galathea expedition surveyed much of the coasts, sought for coal and other minerals, and named the principal river the "Galathea."
In 1858 the Austrian frigate Novara[125] spent a month in the group, during which, half the time was passed at sea. Many parts hitherto unsurveyed were charted by them, and valuable knowledge as to the ethnographical and geological conditions of the islands was obtained.
The islands were finally taken possession of by the Indian Government in 1869—the British had officially annexed the group in 1807, but not occupied it—and a settlement was formed at Nankauri Harbour to check the piratical proceedings of that place, and although this was given up in 1888, after it had served its purpose, the history of the Nicobars is now bound up with that of the Andamans, to which they are affiliated.
MEN OF THE SHOM PEṄ;
MEN OF THE SHOM PEṄ (in profile).
Although the inhabitants of the Nicobar Islands were originally all of the same stock, various causes have contributed to bring about a distinction amongst them, and they are now separated into two distinct ethnical groups,—the Shom Peṅ of the interior of Great Nicobar, and the coast people, or Nicobarese, who are found in all the inhabited islands.
Of the Shom Peṅ but little is known, as, with the exception of a few families who have friendly intercourse with the coast villages, they have, as now constituted, always been persistently hostile to the Nicobarese, but it is probable that they number at most between 300 and 400 individuals.
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.
To account for this latter difference, and for the dull brown colour of the skin—far darker than is usual amongst Malays—one may of course suggest remote Negrito admixture. Possibly the Andamanese, on one of the predatory voyages which it seems they were not unaccustomed to make in this direction,[126] may have reached the island, and for some reason unable to return, have intermixed with the inhabitants.
But I think it more probable that these peculiarities are due to a Dravidian strain, and that some mariners of this race, who, from before the time of Solomon, were accustomed to make trading voyages to the Eastern Archipelago,[127] became stranded on these islands, and incorporated themselves with the people they found there.
In this way, not only would the nature of the hair, colour of the skin, and occasional definiteness of feature, be accounted for, but the aborigines would be left as we now find them, unreduced in height, while mixture with the Andamanese would probably have the effect of lessening their stature.
Furthermore, I have, since my acquaintance with these people, occasionally met Tamils, whom, if I had seen similarly garbed in the forests of Great Nicobar, I believe I should have been unable to distinguish from Shom Peṅ.[128]
WOMEN OF THE SHOM PEṄ;
WOMEN OF THE SHOM PEṄ (in profile).
On the other hand, they much resemble, in appearance and mode of life, descriptions of many of the primitive Malayans who have intermixed with Negritoes. Of these the Kubus of Sumatra are an instance,[129] and of the Jakuns of Johore, who are believed to be of Negrito origin, but much interbred with Malays. Mr H. Lake[130] writes: "The true Jakun is of short stature, 5 feet 2 inches is a fair average height. They are much darker in colour than the Malay, and, as a rule, not so well set up. The hair, which in the pure Negrito curls closely, is here in most cases simply wavy, or even straight. They live in small communities, and subsist miserably on fruits, roots, etc. They seldom remain many weeks in the same spot, but wander from place to place, living under scanty shelters built on rickety poles at a considerable height from the ground. It is not uncommon to find a dozen in company, with a tame monkey or two, cats and dogs, living in perfect harmony under the same roof."
We may therefore consider the Shom Peṅ to be the aborigines of the group, who, although everywhere else either exterminated or absorbed by settlers from outside, have in Great Nicobar found a refuge in the forest depths, and by long-standing hostility to the intruders, arising from some unknown cause, have preserved to a great extent their natural traits and existence, although somewhat degenerated, both on account of the less favourable circumstances in which they live and of the interbreeding that the smallness of their numbers compels.
Although the Shom Peṅ are by measurement as tall in the average as the coast people, to the eye they appear smaller, and they are less robust, with lean though bony figures (average chest measurements, 35.2 inches), sinewy rather than muscular.
Fourteen measurements of adult males gave a maximum height of 67¾ inches, a minimum of 62⅛ inches, and an average height of 64 inches. Of eight women measured, the tallest was 65¼ inches in height, and the smallest 57⅜ inches, while the average stature of that number was found to be 60.8 inches.
The colour of the skin is a dark muddy-brown or bronze (several shades deeper than the coast natives), but it is liable to slight variation, and is generally a little paler in the women and girls, who resemble far more distinctly the coarse Malayan type than the men do.
The hair of the head is very luxuriant, and of all varieties between wavy and curly, but is not crisp or frizzly to any degree. No hair grows on the face, or on the body, save about the armpits, etc.
The outline of the face is an oblong rectangle, and the forehead is somewhat retreating, but occasionally high and rounded, though narrow; the supraciliary arch is prominent, but the eyebrows are light. The eyes, with black pupils, are both oblique and horizontal, and when the latter, are often accompanied by the Mongolian fold, which occurs most frequently among the women.
The nose is broad and flattened, with rounded tip and rather rounded nostrils, the plane of which is upward. It is generally of medium size and straight, but now and again has a pronounced bridge, or a slightly concave outline.
The cheekbones and zygomatic arch are prominent, and a degree of prognathism is prevalent. The teeth are large, irregular, and discoloured, and project outwards. The mouth is large, the lips thick, with the upper very curved from centre to ends; they are generally closed. The lower jaw is commonly large and heavy, and the chin is pointed, as the bones converge directly from the basal angle. The ears lie close to the head, and are hidden by the hair, but the lobes are much distorted with plugs of wood.
The huts in which the Shom Peṅ dwell, although always built on piles, show considerable differences, and vary from a well-built floor with a carefully constructed roof of palm leaf attap, to a rough platform often placed against the side of a tree and sheltered by two or three palm branches fastened to the corners.[131]
WOMEN OF THE SHOM PEṄ;
WOMEN OF THE SHOM PEṄ (in profile).
They are said to possess gardens enclosed in zigzag fences, where they cultivate bananas, yams, and other tubers. The pandanus fruit they cook in a well-made vessel of sheets of bark, carefully protected with green leaves and luted with clay, in which we can, perhaps, see one of the origins of pottery; for it is quite admissible that, in course of time, the leaves should be discarded, more clay added, and at length the effect of fire on the latter having been observed, the bark also would be done away with, or only used as a mould for a clay vessel, from which more suitable shapes would finally be evolved.
The domestic animals are dogs, cats, chickens, and pigs, which are generally caught when young in the jungle, and apparently not permitted to attain any respectable size. All find a refuge in the houses, up to which a sort of inclined plane is arranged for their convenience.
Their manufactures are very few. They make canoes; construct a spear out of a single piece of wood, baskets, both of rattan and palm spathe, and a rough cloth from the inner bark of a tree.[132]
The friendly Shom Peṅ are energetic collectors of rattan, which they trade with the Nicobarese, and so obtain garments, beads, knives, parangs, axes, and tobacco, which is smoked in the form of cigarettes. They are great consumers of betel-nut, in combination with lime and sireh.
Amongst these friendly families, the clothing worn is similar to that of the Nicobarese, with necklaces of beads, and they employ a large wooden ear-distender an inch and a half in diameter.[133] The sheets of bark cloth are used as pillows and coverings at night, and amongst the hostile aborigines it is said the women wear short petticoats of this material, while the men go entirely clothesless.
Amongst those met with, there was generally one man in each party, who, by virtue possibly of superior intelligence or knowledge of the coast language, seemed to have some slight authority over the remainder.
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.
All those met with seemed quiet, stolid, and timid in disposition; but a cupidity for the goods of their neighbours at times overcomes the latter characteristic amongst the less accessible of the aborigines, and many are the murderous attacks they are said to have made on the Nicobarese for the purpose of loot.
No infants or young children were seen, although surprise visits were paid to several of the villages, neither were any old people en evidence, but the ages were judged to vary between ten and forty-five years.
The language differs from all others in the islands, but here and there are individuals who know sufficient of the coast speech to hold converse with the Nicobarese.[134]
Their carelessness with regard to their water-supply—for any muddy pool or stagnant brook is made use of—is probably sufficient reason for the large number of cases of elephantiasis occurring among them; the only other affection besides this, that seems to be in anyway chronic, is the common body ringworm of the tropics.
HUTS OF THE SHOM PEṄ.
Iron Buffalo and Pig Spears.