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. Two men were shooting at Sáwi, and one of them having shot at a bird and missed, the arrow in falling pierced the chest of his friend, who had run forward to recover it. Several similar mischances have occurred recently in Mūs; in the latest, a lad named Sinkin shot at a bird, and his arrow, glancing from a tree, struck a man, Ka Noe, and entered his side, causing a serious, but not fatal, wound.
The not infrequent mishaps that occur on the annual canoe voyages undertaken by the Kar Nicobarese to Chaura have much to do with the stationary condition of the population of the island. Canoes containing thirty to forty men are regularly sent out by the villages of the island, and when they meet with bad weather a total loss is not an uncommon occurrence.
During the months of October, November, and December—the first half of the north-east monsoon—or fine season, the people of Kar Nicobar live a busy life.
At first they are engaged in husking the coconuts which are to be exported to Calcutta and Moulmein. The wages they obtain for this work are the value of 100 nuts for husking 1000 nuts. They are generally paid in cloth, or two-anna bits, which are utilised by manufacture into head—or neck—ornaments.
Next they are employed in landing the goods of the Burmese kopra-makers, and in carrying the same to their villages, for as no ships can anchor on the north-east coast during the season, everything has to be transported by the natives. The people of Mūs carry the things of those traders who own stores in their villages; in like manner the villagers of Malacca go to Sáwi Bay, and carry the goods of those Burmans who dwell amongst them. They are remunerated according to the following scale:—
For carrying a 3-maund bag of rice—
| China tobacco. | Rice. | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| (a) | From Hog Point (N.-W. | of Sávi Bay) | |||||
| to | Elpanam at Mūs | 2 | packets | and | 2 | lbs. | |
| (b) | Kenmai | 3 | " | " | 2 | " | |
| (c) | Lapáti | 4 | " | " | 4 | " | |
| (d) | Tapoeming Chokchuácha Kenyúaka | 5 | " | " | 4 | " | |
| (e) | Tamálu | 6 | " | " | 4 | " | |
| (f) | Perka | 7 | " | " | 4 | " | |
| (g) | Malacca | 8 | " | " | 4 | " | |
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.