zygoma has a rather bold curve. The ears are small, but the flaps on the other hand are so broad, that when pierced they are ornamented with a piece of bamboo an inch thick.
Some of the natives make use of this broad aperture to store away cigars. The thin eye-brows do not curve over the whole of the superior arch of the eye. The hair for the most part is beautiful, thick, black, and soft, in many instances depending low on both sides. The beard is universally very thin, and instances of mustachios or goatees are very rarely encountered. However a beard does not seem to be classed among those objects which add to the Nicobar ideal of beauty. At least, as often as they found an opportunity of seizing a pair of scissors from our dressing-cases, we used always to see the natives eagerly setting about extirpating the few hairs, which despite all their endeavours would persist in appearing upon the upper lip on either side of the mouth. The expression of their face is grave, tranquil, and rather insouciant. We never saw in their features any expression of emotion, such for instance as might have been imparted by delight at having obtained some coveted object, not even when they had manifested the utmost eagerness to possess it. The only excitement which their ordinarily impassive countenances were however many a time called on to indicate, took the form of an expression of pain and anxiety, as often as they saw a number of strangers make a descent upon their islands. The singularly marked similarity of feature in each and every individual, may safely be ascribed to the similarity of
condition universally prevalent, to the small scope given to the play of their affections, and to the frequent intermarriage, which must necessarily be the case where, as in these islands, a couple of hundred human beings form the whole population of an island, and where intercommunication with the adjoining islands is so confined.
The assertion by Fontana, that the natives never cut their nails, but on the other hand shave off their eye-brows, we have never found confirmed in any of the islands we visited, although very possibly some few individuals, certainly so far as we could find very scanty in number, may ape the customs of their Malay and Chinese visitors, by letting their nails grow. Of cripples, or at all events of individuals stunted in their growth, we saw but two, the first case being that of a native of Kar-Nicobar, who in consequence of a dislocation of the radius at the wrist joint was entirely powerless of the left arm; while the second, a sort of dwarf, who was likewise an inhabitant of that island, presented a well-marked corpulence in the extremities, and fingers so swelled up and short, that he was known among his neighbours by the nickname of Kiutakuntí (short finger).
Hitherto the natives seem to have escaped the ravages of syphilitic diseases. As to any instances of visitations of virulent though temporary epidemics, we could not get any information of such having occurred; they have however in their language a word (Mallók) for the small-pox, of the existence of which we had convinced ourselves by
personal demonstration in the case of a Malay, whose face was frightfully disfigured by the marks of this appalling disease.
Although in a climate the annual average of which is 81° Fahr., clothes are all but unnecessary, the natives nevertheless manifest an extraordinary passion for European clothing, and when it seemed impracticable by any other means to elicit an expression of pleasure on their calm, indifferent, emotionless countenances, it was always possible to succeed by presenting them with a shirt, a coat, or a black silk round hat. As however the natives have seldom been presented with more than one such article at a time, and many a year is apt to elapse ere he gets another, by which he might succeed in gradually completing his dress, the Nicobarian makes his appearance before strangers attired in the most extraordinary fashion, almost entirely naked, sometimes with only a black hat on his head, or pluming himself on being spruced up in a frock coat (but without shirt, stockings, or head-gear), which on the plump naked brown skin of this child of nature has far more the appearance of a straight-waistcoat than a comfortable article of dress.
The natives show infinitely more vanity in the selection of a piece of clothing, than calculation as to its real necessity or suitability. A large low-crowned white hat with broad rim, which we presented to one native, gained not the slightest approval, although both in form and colour it was far better suited to protecting the wearer against the rays of the tropical
sun than a high, narrow-brimmed, fashionable black silk hat, to the possession of which the natives of Kar-Nicobar and Nangkauri attach quite an inordinate value. For such an article, in the course of barter, they offer 1600 ripe cocoa-nuts, while for a long piece of wide dark-coloured muslin, in which they are wont to envelope their dead, they will give only 1200 such fruits. But the most characteristic head-gear of the Nicobarians is a bandeau made of dried leaves of the cocoa-nut palm, which gives them quite a picturesque appearance. We saw but few ornaments worn, such as necklaces, bracelets, &c., only one or two of the younger men having their hands and their necks adorned with massive rings of silver and iron wire.
The dwellings of the natives are usually round, beehive-shaped huts, resting on a number of stakes of from six to eight feet in height. Simple as is the construction of these huts, it nevertheless, especially on the island of Kar-Nicobar, possesses a certain degree of ornament, we might almost say elegance, while the thatching of dried palm-leaves, as also the beams and the walls constructed of reeds (Calamus Rotang), are a branch of industry which would do honour even to civilized races of the world. The natives usually cower or squat on the ground, or seat themselves upon some cocoa-nut that has chanced to fall, while at night, stretched out upon the flowers shed by the Areca palm, and with their heads elevated by a piece of hard wood, they find anywhere a sufficiently comfortable couch.