But I have detained you already too long with this unsavoury subject, and will, in my next, proceed to answer your inquiries concerning the habits and customs of the natives of the Nicobar islands.
LETTER V.
The natives of these islands are a free people, perfectly independent, but have a captain in every village. There are, indeed, several who claim the rank of captain, as being more sensible and clever than their neighbours, but only one of the number is considered as the Omjah karru, or the great master of the house. Yet no one is bound to obey him, for all of them, male and female, consider themselves under no control whatever; and the captain must take care, that he does not offend, by pretending to command. He is sure to be disobeyed, unless they are pleased to listen to friendly representation. All the preference given him, consists in this; that when a ship arrives, he is allowed to go first on board, and to make the bargain, if they have any thing to barter. They are commonly good-natured men, disposed to make and preserve peace among the common people. In every other respect they live and act like the rest, get drunk, commit fornication, and, when there is, as they say, a necessity for it, murder; and are equally lazy and unclean. But they can use their tongues more glibly than their neighbours.
Their houses are generally spacious, and built upon pillars, six or more feet from the ground, resembling those of the Malays, but round, not square, like the latter. The inhabitants ascend by a ladder, which they can draw up after them. The house has only one room, but generally contains more than one family. Parents and children, guests, young and old of every description, pig here together, lying naked on the floor, with nothing but a hetfat, the leaf of a species of palm, under them, in lieu of a mattrass, and very few have any covering. The furniture of such a house consists in a few pots, made by the women, some highly polished cocoa-nut dishes, to hold water, some hatchets, a sabre or two, a few sailor's knives, and a good many spears. A family generally possesses two or three palongs, or boats.
Their chief food is melory bread, made of the fruit of a kind of palm-tree[5], which is very palatable; yams, several other good roots, and great plenty of fruit from various trees and shrubs; all which grow in great abundance. Of pigs and common fowls they have a vast profusion. These are fed with cocoa-nuts, and their flesh is remarkably good. The sea furnishes them with various kinds of fishes, and an abundance of crabs and other shell-fish, so that they may easily enough serve their god, which is their belly.
The clothing of the men consists of a narrow piece of cloth, about three yards long. This they wrap twice round their waist, then passing it between their legs, and through the girth behind, leave the end of it to drag after them[6]. The women wear a piece of cloth, commonly of a blue colour, about a foot wide, fastened round their waist, so as to hang down like an apron, reaching not quite to their knees. They pride themselves upon their fine skin, which indeed they keep very clean, and do not in general use any paint. Both sexes live from their infancy without any restraint, and commit every kind of abomination, often to the utter ruin of their health and constitutions, in very early life. In general they do not live regularly in the married state, till they are past their prime; though I have known some who had married early, remain faithful to each other, and keep their families in good order.
As savages, they may be justly esteemed a good-natured race, being always ready to do a kind action, to their friends; of which I will relate one instance. We used to buy of them what we wanted, and pay with tobacco, the current medium. Even when they had nothing to sell, they would come and fetch their portion of tobacco, which we never refused them, as long as we had any, till, by the non-arrival of the ship, we were left entirely without it. We therefore told the captain of the village, that, as we had no more tobacco, the people need not bring us any more provisions, for we had nothing to give in exchange. The captain did as we desired, yet, on the very next day, we were supplied more plentifully than ever, with the things we wanted. They would not even wait for pay, but hung up their fruit and meat about the house, and went away. We called after them and told them how we were situated. Their answer was: "When you had plenty of tobacco, you gave us as much as you could spare; now, though you have got no more of it, we have provisions enough, and you shall have as much as you want, as long as we have any, till you get more tobacco." This promise they most faithfully performed. Such kindness we did not expect from such people; but they always showed great affection for us.
As to religion, they are in a state of deplorable ignorance. Their notions of a Divine Being seem most oddly perplexed, insomuch that it is difficult to make out any thing among them like a fixed opinion of His existence and attributes, nor do they seem to possess any curiosity to know more about Him.
But they are not professed idolaters, like most of the other oriental nations. They have not even a word in their language to express their idea of God. They use the word Knallen when they speak of Him, but it only signifies, "above, on high:" for instance, they say, Knallen maade, "on the hill;" Knallen uniga, "on the top of the tree;" Knallen gamalee, "on the surface of the sea;" speaking of something swimming. However, they believe that this "unknown God" is good, and will not hurt them; but wherein His goodness consists, they neither have, nor seem to wish to have, any understanding, nor ever trouble themselves about Him. Therefore, when we endeavoured, as well as we could, to explain to them the goodness of God, in pitying the lost condition of man, and providing the means of our redemption; and spoke to them of Jesus Christ our Saviour, and of what He has done and suffered to purchase for us salvation, they heard us indeed with astonishment and silent submission; but that they should be at all interested in it, and become virtuous and happy if they believed and turned to Him, and after this life enter into everlasting bliss by His merits, was more than they could possibly comprehend. When we told them, that we were come hither for no other purpose, but to make them acquainted with their Creator and Redeemer, and to bring them the glad tidings of salvation; and begged them only to take it to heart, and reflect upon what we thus made known to them in the name of God, they laughed at us. They observed, that they could not believe that the sufferings of one man could atone for the sins of another; and that therefore, if they were wicked, what we told them of a crucified Saviour would not help them: but they insisted, that they were good by nature, and never did any thing wrong, as we well knew. When we replied, that we knew, that they had but lately murdered some people, and afterwards abused the dead bodies, each thrusting his spear into them, mutilating them in the most wanton manner, and at last cutting them to pieces, and asked them, whether this was a proof of their natural goodness, their answer was: "That you do not understand, those were people not fit to live, they were Gomoy, cannibals!"