These variations occurring in size, features, and hair, show that the Nicobarese are a thoroughly mixed race, for the points do not coincide with each other; that is to say, curly hair does not always go with a prominent nose, or straight hair with Malayan features.
It is hardly possible to describe a representative specimen who combines all the prominent prevalent characteristics, but they seem capable of division into two classes, the smaller of which is superior in appearance to the other, and is often strikingly Caucasian, with oval face, straight eyes, aquiline nose, and thin lips.[147]
The result of about forty measurements shows that the maximum height of an adult male Nicobarese is 70¾ inches; the minimum, 59¼ inches; and the average stature, 63.9 inches.[148] While thus somewhat under middle height, they are well built (average chest measurement, 35.3 inches) and proportioned, muscular, and on the whole a sturdy-looking race.
The colour of the skin is a brown much resembling in colour the tint of a sun-burnt, weather-beaten Malay, such as a sailor; it is darker than the ordinary native of that race, and has less of the olive or yellow about it.
The hair is of a rusty black, but generally glossy with oil: it is thick and luxuriant, and reaches to the shoulders, varying between a slight waviness and pronounced curls. It is somewhat coarse, and when kept short with boys, is almost bristly, and stands up stiffly all over the head. In about 5 per cent. of the men there are traces of moustache and beard, otherwise the faces are smooth, but the axillæ and elsewhere, and often legs and thighs, are profusely covered with hair.
The form of skull is brachycephalic, with an index of about 80.5, and the back of the head, among the natives of the central and southern groups of islands (excepting the Shom Peṅ), is noticeably flat.[149] The face is broad, and, but for the cheek-bones, which are generally prominent and developed laterally, approaches the oval type. Often, however, it has a somewhat rectangular outline, owing to the squareness of the lower jaw in the rear. The features are somewhat flat. The forehead is slightly rounded and even well-formed, but it is often compressed at the temples, and falls away somewhat suddenly.
The supraciliary arch is prominent, and the eyebrows are generally fixed in a permanent scowl; the pupil is black, and the eyes often—though not as a rule—slightly oblique, with the Mongolian fold at the corner.
MAN OF KAR NICOBAR; WOMAN OF KAR NICOBAR;
KAR NICOBAR BOY (Showing Epicanthus);
KAR NICOBAR BOY (in profile, Showing Prognathism).
The nose is generally broad, and coarse in outline, is straight, and of medium length, depressed at the bridge, flattened, with rounded tip, has inflated alae nasi, and the plane of the nostrils directed upward.[150]