CANOE AT PULO NYUR, GREAT NICOBAR.
According to our informant, the Chinese pay the coast natives one packet of tobacco (value 2½d.) for three bundles of rattan, while the Nicobarese, who act merely as middlemen, and have the export trade in their hands, only give the Shom Peṅ one packet for six bundles! The bush aborigines have no settled dwelling-places, but wander about, although they have good gardens established in various localities. Their language is quite distinct from the Nicobarese,[81] but each knows enough of the others' speech to make themselves mutually understood. Asked, however, whether further south we could get a man who knew the Shom Peṅ language, Domeat replied: "When one of us sees a Shom Peṅ he runs away, and when a Shom Peṅ sees a Nicobar man he spears him!"[82]
Misunderstandings frequently occurred when we talked to him about the various places on the coast. The name given on the chart is often not known to the natives: the Chinese have another name, which is not given on the chart, and the natives have a third, but are generally familiar with that used by the traders.
I believe the following to be correct:—
| Chart. | Trade Name. | Native Name. |
|---|---|---|
| Pulo Kunyi, | Pulo Kunyi, | Pulo Kunyi. |
| Casuarina Bay, | —— | Teh-hmeul. |
| Dagmar R., | —— | Ta-tí-al. |
| Kópenhéat, | Telok Bintang, | Kópenhéat. |
| Táeangha, | Pulo Nyur, | Kassandun. |
| Koé, | Pulo Rotan, | Koé. |
| —— | Pulo Bábi, | Kánal. |
| Henpoin, | Pulo Bharu, | Henpoin. |
| Megapode Island, | Pulo Kotah, | —— |
| Henhóaha, | Pulo Paha, | Henhóa. |
| Chang-ngeh, | Pulo Chaura, | Chang-ngeh. |
| Galathea R., | —— | Sakheer. |
| —— | —— | Badói. |
We arrived off the village at 11 a.m., and worked in to an anchorage against a land breeze. The junks in whose company we had been at Kondul were already in the harbour—a square indentation, fringed with coral. With a look-out at the masthead we got in without accident, and anchored in a fairly sheltered position, but some distance outside the other vessels. Small streams debouch in either corner of the bay; but the village, which consists of a dozen or more houses, and is the largest on the west coast, lies to the south of the harbour, with the usual accompaniment of numerous coco palms.
As a heavy surf was breaking on the reef fronting the houses, we rowed up the bay and landed by a small hut, beside which was a well of good water, and from thence reached the village by a path leading through scrub and many screw-pines.
Interviewing the headman, we learnt that a Shom Peṅ settlement lay half a day's journey in the interior, and having arranged with Nyam (the headman) to guide us on the morrow, we set out, accompanied by his brother Puchree, on a stroll through the village.