Sometimes we shot in the scrub and plantations surrounding the village, and sometimes we went a few miles along the bay towards Sáwi, now walking on the beach, now along the brow of the cliffs. The view from these last was very beautiful: on the one hand a forest of palms, pandanus and casuarina trees, on the other a line of waving grass; and below, the blue sea breaking in snowy rollers on a golden beach.
At times we met parties of natives proceeding from village to village in picturesque groups—the men carrying nothing but a dáo, their warm-brown stalwart figures relieved only by the red kissát and white chaplet of pandanus with which their hair was bound; and the women draped in scarlet cotton, and adorned with chains of rupees and numerous silver bangles.
All would stare stolidly, and pass in silence; for in the Nicobars, where one man is as good as the next, and no degrees of rank are known, there are no words of greeting or graceful salutes such as one would meet with amongst strange Malays or natives of India.
The forest at Sáwi was open, and although of a heavy description, grew on land that seemed of very recent formation. It contained some of the finest specimens of urostigma trees we had ever seen, whose many aëreal roots, springing from a wide expanse of ground, met far overhead in support of immense masses of foliage.
In this heavy jungle we obtained specimens of Astur butleri, a little forest hawk with back and wings of a beautiful dark grey, allied species to which are found in several of the other islands. Here, too, we met with Carpophaga insularis, a variety of a widely-spread fruit-pigeon, C. ænea, from which it differs only in having a plumage slightly less bright. We made acquaintance also with Palæornis erythrogenys, an exceedingly pretty parrot, and the only bird of its kind occurring in the Nicobars until P. caniceps is reached in the southern islands; but of the mound-building megapodes we had expected to find, there was no trace, although it was said they occurred in the middle of the island.
We obtained in the jungle one specimen of a hitherto unknown fruit-bat (Pteropus faunulus); but of rats, although they are probably numerous, one only was trapped (Mus burrulus, sp. nov.); crabs in nearly every instance making off with the baits.
As a rendezvous after our collecting excursions, we generally chose "Temple Villa," where we could sit and chat with the agent on the manners and customs of the natives among whom he lived, and drink the water of young coconuts freshly plucked from the trees surrounding the bungalow.
The coconut of the Nicobars, although small, is nowhere excelled for sweetness and flavour, and on reaching the schooner, drenched with perspiration after a morning's wandering in the forest, and perhaps a long row under the hot midday sun, we daily made appreciative trial of them the moment we stepped on board.
The natives are very expert in opening them with the dáo. Holding the nut in the palm of the left hand, they slash off a portion of the husk, toss it round and remove another slice, until, with three or four cuts, the tender shell at the upper end is exposed, and only requires a slight tap to be broken through and allow the delicious water inside to reveal itself with a spurt.
The life of the Nicobarese is full of curious observances and ceremonies, of which, perhaps, no man knows more than Mr Solomon, who has spent five years among the people, and is engaged in the preparation of a vocabulary of their language.