Another version of the legend varies somewhat, making the father a dog and the mother a woman. It is owing to this belief that the natives say they are sons of a dog, and for this reason they treat their dogs very kindly, and never beat them: they quiet them by simply saying "Hush! hush!"
There is another tradition amongst the Nicobarese, to the effect that the first stranger who came to their islands, seeing something moving on the sand, perceived small people the size of an ant. He took care of them until they attained the common size of men—and this was the origin of the natives.[155]
To account for the coconut trees that grow in such abundance on the island, the Kar Nicobarese version runs thus:—
Once upon a time there was a scarcity of water, and a certain man then produced it from his elbow by means of magic arts. The people therefore considered him to be a devil-man—wizard—and beheaded him. On the spot where the head fell there sprang up a tree, and after a time it became very big, and began to bear fruit, and the fruit resembled the head of the slain man.
For a long time the people were afraid to approach the tree or to taste the nuts, because they had grown out of a human head, and so, by the falling of the ripe fruit, there grew up a dense grove of coconut palms.
At last some wise men brought to the trees an old man who was dying, and made him taste of the nuts, to find out their qualities! The old man accordingly ate one, and found it to be very delicious, and from continually eating nuts he became very strong, and grew to look like a young man.
Thenceforth the people began to make use of the coconut!
In the old days it was the custom to kill men for any offence, grave or simple. But at length the elders, finding that the population had greatly diminished thereby, held a council, and introduced the system of killing pigs, burning houses, felling trees, breaking canoes, and destroying clothes, etc., and this method is continued at the present day side by side with the former.
The people seldom have open fighting among themselves, neither do they use their fists, or flog. In extreme cases only (witchcraft) do they commit murder.