In the Andamans and Nicobars Part 7

People from Kamorta, from which it can be seen, and who own the plantations on it, come to the island from time to time for the sake of the coconuts, of which there are a fair quant.i.ty, and we found traces of visitors in the remains of two tumble-down huts and a liberal scattering of pigs' skulls.

We weighed anchor at 10 A.M., but it was an hour and a half later before we pa.s.sed the two off-lying islets, for, every few seconds, flaws of wind, coming over the high land, so changed in force and direction that we could get no steerage way, but helplessly boxed the compa.s.s all over the bay before we caught a steady breeze. We found deep water between the islets close to the southernmost; everywhere else the ground seemed foul. With a 3-knot breeze we sailed along the western sh.o.r.e, which at this end is much lower than the north, and densely wooded, presenting to view several white beaches and groves of coco palms, while not far from sh.o.r.e are numerous off-lying rocks that continue in a south-easterly direction for about 3 miles from the end of Tilanchong and terminate in a fair-sized islet, named Isle of Man.[31]

The island of Kamorta lies some 12 miles to the south, the adjacent part rising in low gra.s.s-covered hills, with occasional trees dotted about: along the coast runs a fringe of vegetation and coconut trees, while in the centre, where the island is about 450 feet high, it is more thickly covered with forest. Trinkat, closely adjoining it on the east, is very low, and from the sea, seems overgrown with jungle. Darkness had fallen before we reached the southern entrance of Beresford Channel, that runs between it and Kamorta, and proceeding inwards for a short distance, we anch.o.r.ed at 9.45 P.M.

CHAPTER VII

TRINKAT

Beresford Channel--A Deserted Village--_Jheel_--Bird Life-- Wild Cattle--Scenery--Photographs--Port Registers--Tanamara-- Population--Customs--The Shom Pe[.n]--The Sequel to a Death-- Interior of the Houses.

Trinkat is a low, flat island about five miles long and one wide, separated from Kamorta by the narrow strait in which we anch.o.r.ed. This is much choked with coral-reefs, on which every now and then the sea breaks unexpectedly in low waves which run along their edges throwing up clouds of spray. Several villages, fronted by rows of streamer-decorated poles, were in sight on the western sh.o.r.es, and further up the channel a junk from Penang was anch.o.r.ed, the first we had seen. The island is nowhere higher than 80 or 90 feet, and is superficially of limestone formation--raised coral: the sh.o.r.es are fringed with jungle and coco palms, while the latter are frequent also in the patches of jungle occurring in the interior,[32] which, however, consists mainly of open undulating gra.s.sy land.

We landed, after crossing the reef, near a couple of huts, built of palm leaves and rough planks, that seemed deserted. A great number of pigs were roaming about in company with dogs, fowls, and a cat. The huts were surrounded for some distance by palm trees growing in thick scrub undergrowth. A little way along a path we arrived at a small _jheel_, on which were a diver and several whistling teal. Birds were numerous amongst the trees, where parrots (_P. erythrogenys_) and pigeons dwelt in flocks, and on the ground megapodes ran about calling to each other, but were too well concealed, by the tall gra.s.s and bushes that grew everywhere, for successful collecting. We got here the Nicobar fly-catcher, in plumage of dark chestnut, with steely-black head, and _Geocichla albigularis_, a pretty grey, olive and cinnamon thrush, a shy bird that kept down on the ground or hid itself in low bushes. Out in the open, amongst the gra.s.s, we found numbers of small warblers (_Cisticola cisticola_), an occasional snipe or two, and flocks of little b.u.t.ton-quail (_Excalfactoria_(?), sp. nov.), while a herd of about fifty semi-wild cattle roamed about, most of them descendants of a number turned out here in '88, when the settlement at Nankauri was given up. They suffer but little loss in numbers at the hands of the natives, for the Government allows no guns in the islands, and it is only very occasionally that a number of men will combine and slaughter a beast with spears.

From the interior the scene was very beautiful; rolling gra.s.sy downs were dotted with numerous dwarf panda.n.u.s trees (_P. furcatus_), amongst which the cattle, black, white, and brown, moved slowly. All around was thick jungle, through breaks in which the sea was visible on either hand, and in the west, the sun, s.h.i.+ning from behind a dark cloud, painted the hills and harbour of Nankauri in tones of grey and gold. The photographs which I took of this scenery were spoilt, thanks to a liberty taken by the too inquisitive Chinese "boy," who privately satisfied his curiosity as to the appearance of the plates before they had been removed from the slides and developed.

In the evening the Government Agent, who is a native of India, came across from the harbour and brought the Port Register, in which we entered our arrival. These registers, bound in heavy brown leather, stamped with the arms of the Indian Government, we were often to meet with in future; one is in the possession of nearly every coast village except those of Great Nicobar, and some of the remarks in them are very interesting; others are equally amusing, as when some _Nakodah_, vain of his proficiency in English, tries to express himself in that language, to the utter bepuzzlement of any one who may come after and see what has been written.

In crossing the island next day, I stampeded the cattle, who are rather shy of any moving object, although later I was able to crawl to within five or six yards of the herd, thus learning how simple a matter it would be for the natives to exterminate it. In the interior there are several deep ditches of running water leading into small swamps where the cattle drink. The sh.o.r.e on the eastern side is formed in places by small bluffs of clay marl, above which can be traced the overlying beds of coral.

That afternoon, while preparing specimens, we received a visit from a swarthy gentleman in a suit of white drill--the trousers "a world too _long_," gracefully falling in concertina-like folds about his naked ankles. He saluted us gravely, and tendered a small pocket-book. "What is your name?" said we. "You will find it," said our dignified visitor, "in the book." So the book was referred to, and he stood revealed as Captain Tanamara, Headman of Malacca, recommended by Mr E. H. Man,[33]

as intelligent and willing to be useful to whoever should stop at Nankauri Harbour. He is certainly more ingenious than the majority of the natives, and speaks English, Hindustani, a little Burmese, Kar Nicobarese, and Malay, which last indeed is known by most of the people from here southwards.

The population, he told us, was decreasing: formerly each house was occupied by a number of people, as is still the condition of things in Kar Nicobar, but now there are at most three or four to a hut.[34] He and many other men have no children, the usual number of which is but one or two in each family. Occasional polygamy and easy arrangements for divorce prevail here, and the custom of the husband residing at his wife's house is also in vogue, but in the case of an influential man, or a headman, it is otherwise. He was much interested in a kingfisher (_H.

occiputalis_) that was being skinned, and begged for the eyes, which, he said, formed a valuable specific in cases of sleeplessness!

One of the most attractive features of the Nicobars is the existence of a wild inland tribe--the Shom Pe[.n][35]--in the interior of the southern island. These people are known by reputation all over the group, and seem to fill the part of a national "bogey man." From Tanamara, who has visited Great Nicobar in the station steamer, we obtained a few details. He had never seen them, and owned with much candour that he was "plenty 'fraid," and for that reason did not go on sh.o.r.e. He told us, however, that they are similar in appearance to the Nicobarese, but wear garments of rattan and bark only. They are friendly until they see any article belonging to the coast people which they may covet, and then a raid is made, and murder generally ensues in getting possession of it.[36]

The abandoned condition of the houses near which we landed was caused by a death which took place in one of them a short time previously. This was followed by immediate desertion, which, however, is only temporary.

Everything going on seemed to have suddenly stopped; _daos_ were lying on the floor, clothes hung from pegs in the walls, food, half-cooked, still stood in the pots. The animals wandered about uncared-for, cats and dogs in a very famished condition.

Inside this house was quite a small museum: there were large figures, daubed with red and black paint, of men and women with eyes of pearl sh.e.l.l, Polynesian fas.h.i.+on, and drapings of palm leaf and cotton; smaller images and various grotesque heads, sharks, birds, and crocodiles, all carefully carved, and painted in red and blue; painted turtle skulls by the dozen. Spears, cross-bows, and water-vessels hung from the walls, with boards on which were human figures, pigs, fish, fowls, and palm trees, all very well drawn, and not conventionalised in design. On a shelf above the fireplace were piles of wooden plates, dishes, and food-baskets, and below them the big Chaura pots were standing on blocks of stone above the ashes.[37]

We only obtained one megapode on Trinkat, and it was found in a trap.

They are probably numerous, for we saw several, and heard frequent calls. The undergrowth is very thick, and the ground covered with tall gra.s.s, and although to move about is easy, it is not easy to see these birds until one is almost upon them, when they disappear before one can get a shot. A few rats (_Mus burrus_, sp. nov.) were caught in the traps, and we shot a few additional specimens, and this is the only island we visited in the Nicobars where they seemed other than extremely scarce.

[Ill.u.s.tration: "Scare-devil," or device for exorcising evil spirits.]

CHAPTER VIII

NANKAURI

The Harbour Sh.o.r.es--A Village--_Kanaia_--Canoe--Feeding the Animals--Collecting-ground--Mangrove Creeks--Preparations for a Festival--Burial Customs--Malacca Village--Houses--Visit Tanamara--Furniture--Talismans and "Scare-devils"--Beliefs-- Festivities--A Dance--An Educated Native--Tanamara and his Relations--Cigarettes--Refreshments--The Collections--Geology-- Flora--Population--Piracy.

On the morning of the 5th we weighed anchor, and proceeded to Nankauri harbour. The entrance is about a quarter of a mile wide, and its northern coast, once the site of the Government settlement, is the only open gra.s.sy portion of the harbour sh.o.r.es. Just within the point stands the flag-staff, and above it, on the crest of a low hill, a little graveyard lies within the shade of casuarinas. A long jetty of coral blocks runs out from the sh.o.r.e, and near by is the house of the agent.

Opposite, on either side of Mayo Point, are the villages of Malacca and Inuanga, and behind them the forest-clad slopes stretch to gra.s.sy uplands.

We sailed into Spiteful Bay, which lies just behind the southern point of the harbour entrance, and anch.o.r.ed in 12 fathoms, mud and sand, close to a little village of a dozen houses standing above the beach.[38] In front of these and planted in shallow water, rose a number of tall poles, each made of several spars bound end to end with rattan, and ornamented at intervals with bunches of palm leaves. These the natives call _kanaia_: they have, we were told repeatedly, no superst.i.tious significance; one is put up for each inhabited house in the village, and renewed periodically.[39]

Landing at the village (_matai_) is easy, for below the water-level the sandy sh.o.r.e slopes downwards at an angle of 45, a condition made possible by the tranquility of the harbour water. The houses, (_n'gi_) are less solidly built than those of Kar Nicobar, possess a small side-wall about 4 feet high, of boards, and a pointed finial crowning the conical roof; but do not have the protective discs on the supports: the door, too, and a number of small windows open in the sides, and the latter are all supplied with shutters that swing freely on a wooden hinge.

A new and very large canoe was lying on the beach, the dug-out portion, without additions, measuring 42 feet long by 3 feet wide and 3 feet deep. The hull was charred, and decorated by grooved bands running at short intervals from gunwale to gunwale round the outside. Canoes are fitted, according to size, with from one to four short bamboo masts, each supported by four wide-spreading stays of rattan, and on these are hoisted lateen sails with a short tack of about 12 inches, made of cotton or panda.n.u.s leaves. The masts are never stepped on the floor of the canoe, but always on one of the crossbars or thwarts.

The people about the village were feeding their dogs and pigs with a kind of gruel in wooden troughs, and as the animals were judged to have enough, each was smacked on the head and sent off; no greediness nor crowding was allowed, and the pigs were far better behaved than the generality of their species.

We found the jungle near the houses quite impracticable, both from its tangled nature and the steepness of the ground it covered. A walk along the sh.o.r.e produced only a whimbrel (_Numenius phoeopus_), which, although not bad for the pot, is too wide-spread a species to be of much value ornithologically.

Experiences next day on the opposite side of the bay were little more encouraging. Scrambling up a steep hill, we found a small stretch of flat land on the top, where ran one or two faint paths, along which the traps were placed. Birds were very scarce, and as it began to rain, we returned to the dinghy, and rowed round the bay, looking for kingfishers. The boat was paddled up all the creeks in the thick belt of mangroves that fringe the sh.o.r.es, but there was no sign of the bird we were after--the large stork-billed _Pelargopsis_--and we had to be content with whimbrels. The creeks, which in many cases are only just broad enough to row in, often wind for long distances among the mangroves, and on a dull day are depressing places, with but little life in them. In the bay itself we saw many beautiful branching corals of kinds far too delicate to grow in the more disturbed water of the sea; much of the growth which spreads all over the bottom was, however, killed by the mud and fresh water that comes down through the mangroves.

Our arrival in the harbour was coincident with the beginning of a feast, which was to continue for a week or so. Two new canoes, decked with most gorgeous banners, flags, and streamers flying from small poles,[40] were launched on the first day, and, to an accompaniment of singing, rowed across to the northern sh.o.r.e to obtain young coconuts for the coming festivity. These joyous occasions the natives call, in imitation of our English custom, "making Christmas"; and over the door of those houses where the gatherings are held they fasten a number of branches.[41] We entered one of the houses thus decorated. Outside were large heaps of green coconuts, and inside other refreshment in the shape of several big jars of toddy; the interior was prepared for dancing. Immense quant.i.ties of cotton print, of every pattern and colour imaginable, were hung from rattans crossing the upper portion of the roof to within about 7 feet from the floor; the upper part was a nearly solid ma.s.s of cotton. On a framework in the centre of the floor, covered with alternate strips of red and white cotton, so that it seemed to be made of barbers' poles, were suspended a large number of spoons, forks, and soup-ladles.

Everything else in the house was pushed back against the walls in order that the floor might be clear, and as the place was rather dark, it was illuminated by a lamp made from half a coconut-sh.e.l.l, containing melted pigs' fat and a strip of rag. The spoons and forks, in which the natives invest nearly all they obtain by the sale of their coconuts, are purchased from the Burmese and Indian traders. For soup-ladles they give 20 rupees; table-spoons 10 rupees, and smaller sizes 5 rupees. They are of electro-plate and German metal, but the people apparently think them silver, and did not seem to believe us when we told them otherwise, so we did not press the point. Considering the large number they possess, the knowledge might be painful, and since they are destroyed at the owner's death, it perhaps does not matter much. "It's an ill wind that blows n.o.body good," and the traders ought to do very well at such prices.

The large public dances of the northern island are not held here, but two or three private houses are prepared for the occasion as above described.

The people of these islands employ in everyday life far more clothing than the Kar Nicobarese, and a great proportion of them wear some other garment--trousers or jacket--in addition to their national apparel.

Formerly, they wore the white palm-leaf head-dress, but it was given up when imported garments became common.

A custom of partially exhuming the bodies of the dead exists here, and whenever celebrated is the occasion of a special feast (_Koruak_). In the Northern Islands the entire remains are disinterred, carefully cleaned, wrapped up once more, and reburied; here, the skull and jawbone only are retained.

The local population greatly deprecates the method of their northern countrymen.

It would appear, by the way, that the present custom is no degradation of the past, for more than a century ago the head only was disinterred and cleansed.

"On the anniversary of the festival--if it can be so called--their houses are decorated with garlands of flowers, fruit, and branches of trees. The people of each village a.s.semble, dressed in their best attire, at the princ.i.p.al house in the place, where they spend the day in a convivial manner. The men sitting apart from the women, smoke tobacco and intoxicate themselves, while the latter are nursing the children, and employed in preparation for the mournful business of the night. At a certain hour of the afternoon, announced by striking the _goung_ (an instrument of bra.s.s somewhat like the _gurry_ of Bengal--it sounds more hollow), the women set up the most dismal howls and lamentations, which they continue without intermission till about sunset, when the whole party gets up and walks in procession to the burying-ground. Arrived at the place, they form a circle round one of the graves, when a stake, planted exactly over the head of a corpse, is pulled up. The woman who is nearest of kin to the deceased steps out from the crowd, digs up the skull and draws it up in her hands. (The office is always performed by the women, whichever s.e.x the skull belongs to.

A man in a fantastic garb officiates as priest.) At sight of the bones her strength seems to fail her; she shrieks, she sobs, and tears of anguish abundantly fall on the mouldering object of her pious care. She cleans it from the earth, sc.r.a.pes off the festering flesh, and laves it plentifully with the milk of fresh coconuts, supplied by the bystanders; after which, she rubs it over with an infusion of saffron, and wraps it carefully up in a piece of new cloth. It is then deposited in the earth, and covered up; the stake is replanted, and hung with the various trappings and implements belonging to the deceased. They proceed then to the other graves; and the whole night is spent in repet.i.tions of these dismal and disgustful rites.

"On the morning following, the ceremony is concluded by an offering of many fat swine, when the sacrifice made to the dead affords an ample feast to the living: they besmear themselves with the blood of the slaughtered hogs; and some, more voracious than others, eat the flesh raw."[42]

A few hundred yards from the houses in the bay, and on the seaward side of the same point, is situated the larger village where the headman resides; the path connecting the two crosses the site of one of the old Moravian mission establishments, where the brick foundations of some of the buildings once standing there may yet be seen.[43]

This larger village[44] contains fifteen to twenty houses closely packed together, and fronted by a tall row of _kanaia_ standing in the water.

Bamboo posts, too, split at the upper end and spread out fanwise, are planted at intervals along the beach; they are put up yearly by every man in the village, to keep fever and devils (_iwi_) away; and several grotesque figures of crocodiles (_yeo_), placed in little shelters, raised on poles, prevent their living counterparts from attacking the villagers when they enter the water.

The houses are of two kinds, round and rectangular; the latter are used as kitchens and storerooms, but there is a fireplace in the others, where much of the cooking is done. The conical roofs are made of attaps of nipah palm, neatly fastened to a framework of thick rattan by las.h.i.+ngs of cane, the sides and floor are generally of roughly-hewn boards; inside, about 3 feet from the wall, a circle of posts helps to support the roof, which, in some cases, is entirely lined with horizontal laths of wood. The apex is crowned outside by a high, carved finial. Access is obtained by means of a notched pole, and to permit the entrance of domestic animals, a tree trunk, split and hollowed out to form a trough, slopes gently up from the ground to door or window.

Beneath the houses are platforms on which the natives keep their store of panda.n.u.s and coconuts, their spare pots and baskets, and peculiar bundles of wood. This latter is neatly cut into billets about 1 foot long, and packed into circular bundles, 2 or 3 feet in diameter, by means of a tight las.h.i.+ng of cane.[45]