In the Andamans and Nicobars Part 11

A large catamaran was constructed and rigged like a schooner, with sails made of green coco-palm leaves. The local doctor or _bobo_[66] then went through certain ceremonies, at which we were not present, and finally seized the ghost or devil and threw it into the boat, which was pushed off, and drifting away, was carried out to sea, where it disappeared.

The Malays have an almost similar custom to this, in the employment of the _kapal hantu_ (ghost ship). This they use during times of pestilence, or in cases of individual sickness; but instead of forcing the evil spirits into it, they are attracted by a show of coloured rice, etc. Once they are cajoled on board, the vessel is pushed off, and carries the illness to whatever fresh locality it may reach.[67]

The day before we left, Ya.s.san, who had promised to collect, brought in a number of charms--figures of crocodiles, birds, women, men, and some fever pictures, called here _de[=u]shi_ (derived from the Portuguese for G.o.d, and is applied to the representations of the Deity in the pictures on boards and spathes). The people had but few scruples with regard to parting with such things. After being paid, he asked for a _chit_ and a bottle of rum, "to use, mixed with eggs, as a medicine for his stomach!"

In the waters of the bay we caught quant.i.ties of small fish, which, although easily obtained by us with the seine, cannot be a staple of diet in the case of the natives, who have no nets. I once observed a native in a canoe following a shoal, and making casts with a many-p.r.o.nged fish-spear; he continually threw his weapon, but during the ten minutes I watched him, he caught nothing at all.

There is no good water here, and to fill our tanks we dug holes just above high-water mark; the liquid that filtered in was slightly brackish, and gave a heavy deposit of earthy matter.

Any quant.i.ty of coconuts may be obtained, with a few chickens and perhaps a pig or two.

Kachal is about 62 square miles in area, and reaches a height of 835 feet on the eastern side, which is composed of hills of calcareous sandstone and marbly slate, formed in deep seas during the Tertiary period. The western side, which is of very recent formation, consists of a flat sh.o.r.e plain of coralline alluvium, mixed with decayed vegetable matter and loam brought down from the hill. It is covered with dense forest throughout. The population is stated to be 281--an increase of 100 in the last fifteen years.

CHAPTER XI

LITTLE NICOBAR AND PULO MILO

A Tide-rip--Islets--A Cetacean--Pulo Milo--Timidity of the Natives--Little Nicobar--Geology--Flora--Population--Site for a Colony--Jungle Life--Banian Trees--The Houses and their Peculiarity--The Natives--Practices and Beliefs--The Shom Pe[.n]--The Harbour--We ascend a River--Kingfishers--Water-- Caves--Bats and Swallows--Nests--A Jungle Path--Menchal Island--Collections--Monkeys--Crabs.

Sailing across the Sombrero Channel, some 30 miles wide, between Kachal and Little Nicobar, we pa.s.sed the islet of Meroe. It is low-lying, and about 1 mile in length. A yellow beach separates the dark crown of jungle and coconuts from the sea, except at the southern end, which is slightly elevated and rocky.

On its western side, a tide-rip--to which the chart ascribes a strength of 5 knots an hour at times--caught us, and we were in some danger of being carried insh.o.r.e, but that the breeze was just strong enough to bear the schooner safely past. The tides in the channel set strongly, and are said to attain in parts a velocity of as much as 5 knots at springs.

South of Meroe are the islets of Trak and Treis, and from the deck the red sandstone cliffs of the latter could be seen with much distinctness.

Little Nicobar, rising 1400 feet, showed broken and hilly, completely covered with dense jungle, and beyond it Great Nicobar loomed faintly above the horizon.

During the afternoon, when in the vicinity of Meroe, we were somewhat excited by a glimpse at what was perchance a specimen of the killer whale (_Orca gladiator_). The first hint we obtained of the presence of such an animal, was conveyed by the sight of a long black fin showing above the water immediately in the course of the schooner.

As we sailed over the spot where it had been, we perceived, while looking over the side, a stout, rotund body of a deep black colour, marked with large patches of a yellowish hue about the head and the posterior portion of the back. Only a momentary glance was obtained before it faded from sight in deep water, but we judged it to be some 15 feet in length.

The dorsal fin distinctly differed in shape from that figured in descriptions of the killer; instead of being more or less triangular, it was sabre-like, long, narrow, and curved.[68]

We were all day journeying from Kachal to Little Nicobar, and had to anchor for the night somewhere west of Pulo Milo. As it became dark, immense flocks of pigeons left the forests of Little Nicobar for Trak and Treis, where they roosted for the night, and when day dawned we saw them pa.s.sing back again. That morning, however, we made sail again, and reached our anchorage in a very short time.

The harbour is a fairly good one, and is formed by the coast of the island here bending to form a right angle, and by the island of Milo, which forms a protection on the west. Good shelter is afforded during the south-west monsoon--the most important consideration; and at other times only strong northerly winds need be feared.

We found 7 fathoms sand in the centre of the channel where we rounded to; and soon after the sails were down, three wild-looking fellows in black Chinese jackets came alongside, followed presently by a couple of old men clothed in red cotton.

For some unexplained reason, they seemed much afraid, and were with difficulty induced to believe that our intentions were nothing but good.

From answers to questions, we learned that the people of Little Nicobar have nearly all died--a piece of information that one seems to obtain everywhere but in Kar Nicobar and Chaura. The name of the island they gave as Pulo Panjang (_Malay_=Long Island); it is called "Ong" in their own language; among themselves the Nicobarese do not employ the names familiar to us.[69]

Little Nicobar, the second largest island of the Archipelago, has an area of 58 square miles. It is broken up into hilly ranges, the highest summits being Mount Deoban, 1428 feet, near the centre of the island, and Empress Peak, 1420 feet, at the north-east corner.

The bed rock is a calcareous sandstone, easily disintegrated, and overlaid by a deep soil capable of sustaining a rich and varied vegetation. The hills are thickly wooded from base to summit, and there are no gra.s.sy s.p.a.ces like those found on the northern islands.

The nature of the forest varies according to position and soil. In the beach forest, _Panda.n.u.s larum_ and _P. odoratissimus_, _Hibiscus tiliaceus_, _Barringtonia speciosa_, _Terminalia catappa_, and _Calophyllum inophyllum_, are extremely plentiful; in the littoral forest of the level inlets, _Mimusops littoralis_, _Calophyllum spectabile_ (canoe wood), and _Eugenias_, are the best represented species; while palms (_Ptychoraphis augusta_ and _Areca catechu_) and cane-brakes are common in the moister parts. The high forest of the hills contains fine specimens of _Terminalia procera_, _C. spectabile_, _Myristica irya_, _Artocarpus lakoocha_, and _Garcinia speciosa_. No Dipterocarpus trees occur.

The population of Little Nicobar and Pulo Milo is 67: in fact, with the exception of Kondul, the inhabitants are fewer than those of any other island of the group. Its people speak, with some variations, the dialect of Nankauri: only for certain objects, and these, singular to say, of first necessity--coconuts, palms, panda.n.u.s, etc.--do they employ different expressions.[70] The same language is spoken by the people of Great Nicobar. According to Hamilton, they all partook, two hundred years ago, of the unpolished nature of their mountainous islands, and were more uncivil and surly than those of the northward!

Should the group again receive a European settlement, I know of no spot more suited to the purpose than this: in accommodation for shipping only is it excelled by the splendid harbour at Nankauri; in all else it is far superior--in the formation and greater area of ground, in fertility of soil, and in the presence of water.

We landed first on Little Nicobar near some ruined huts which once formed the village of Makachia[.n], deserted since 1898, when the few remaining people either died or removed elsewhere; and after pa.s.sing through a belt of coco palms, found ourselves in the jungle.

Much of the surface was level; but here and there little chains of sandstone hills, rising two or three hundred feet, wound about. The trees were of immense height, and in many places beneath them one moved about as freely as in an English forest.

Although this open vegetation is much more pleasant to traverse, it is not half so satisfactory for collecting purposes as the denser jungle, for it contains far less, both in variety and numbers, of birds and animals.

Megapodes, singly, in pairs, or in little flocks, ran about and sought busily for food, calling to each other meanwhile, until, alarmed by the sight of such unwonted intruders as white men, they scurried swiftly away. Overhead, so high as to be almost out of shot, pigeons, grackles, and parrots fluttered and cried, while, running up and down the branches, we saw, for the first time, the Nicobar tupai or tree-shrew, a little insectivorous animal, which, at a casual glance, might be taken for a squirrel. They were very common; but, unlike their representatives in the Malay Peninsula, etc., which are ground animals, we saw them only in the trees.[71]

It was soon evident that we had no cause to regret not having obtained more monkeys at Kachal, for here they abounded; and after discovering how common they were we would cold-bloodedly arrange every morning as to who should murder the specimen for the day.

Here a new bird was added to the islands' fauna (and to science) in the shape of a little _Rhinomyias_, quietly clothed in dull-brown plumage, which frequented the undergrowth of dense jungle and possessed a rather sweet note.

A momentary glance of a pitta gave for a few days (until we obtained a series of specimens) a fresh zest to collecting; this bird also was. .h.i.therto unrecorded from the locality, and proved to be a new species, although closely resembling _P. cucullata_.

A short distance from the sh.o.r.e, some immense banian trees grew so high that the pigeons and parrots which swarmed in their branches for the fruit were often completely beyond reach of the gun. The trees possessed, moreover, some wonderful aereal roots (70 feet high), and, standing on the edge of an open s.p.a.ce within the jungle, offered an opportunity for photography too good to be pa.s.sed by. While the plate was being exposed--an operation of some minutes--a diminutive pig, bearing a striking resemblance to the Andaman species, trotted out from the surrounding foliage and leisurely inspected the camera. It was the first of the kind we had seen, and I had to reproach myself with leaving my gun at the boat.

Pulo Milo is only about half a square mile in area, but is thickly covered with a growth of panda.n.u.s and coconut trees and jungle, above which hundreds of tall slim palms have forced their heads.

The little village of four houses lies on its eastern sh.o.r.e, fronted by a coral-reef that offers but little impediment to a landing-party: one tall pole, with bunches of palm leaf, stood on the beach--the last we met with.

The houses were all of quadrangular form, but with a peculiar feature about the roofs; for the slope from apex to eaves, instead of being straight, was in some markedly rounded, and in others the curve ran unbrokenly across the top from edge to edge. They were thatched with the leaves of the nipah palm, and the side walls, 2 to 4 feet in height, were built of rough-hewn planks laid horizontally, or of slabs of bamboo split and flattened out. The doors were closed by _chicks_ of palm leaf, which in the daytime were propped out to shade the interior from the sun.

The natives soon overcame their distrust of us, and one evening "Shongshire," the headman, and others from the village, came on board.

The former was a stately old gentleman, in spite of his top-hat, and somewhat resembled our old acquaintance, "Friend of England." With him was another old man of a most vivacious temperament, who gave us information in a very graphic manner as we all sprawled, chatting, on the cabin roof.

"There were only about a dozen people in the harbour," he said, "although in his boyhood many lived there; all however, were now dead from sickness and the 'orang bubu.' The former, he believed, was caused by eating turtle, and a kind of large fish that appeared near the sh.o.r.e at that period. The latter (apparently) were evil spirits that eat men, and are let loose by a wizard."[72]

Although the belief in evil spirits is quite as strong as in the central group, there is a great falling-off both in the elaboration and in the abundance of the instruments employed in exorcising them. In none of the houses was there either a large figure or a picture, or more than one or two of those minor charms which are met with in such abundance at Nankauri, while outside the dwellings the only representative of the signs and warnings to demon trespa.s.sers to "Keep off the gra.s.s," so numerous in that place, was a rudely-carved post daubed with paint.

The dead here, once buried, are left to rest in peace, and the somewhat loathsome process of digging up and cleaning the bones is not gone through.

It is probable that all this is a case of desuetude rather than the original absence of custom, and that such decay of ceremonial is due to the little value of public opinion, which is of no weight now that the population is so small. Taking into account that such religious accessories as they do possess, and that similar articles in Great Nicobar, together with the architectural type, etc., occur also at Nankauri, it is to be inferred that there was a time when these people in no way differed in observances from the inhabitants of that locality, who still retain in full the paraphernalia by which they outwardly mark the practice and maintenance of their superst.i.tions.

Concerning the Shom Pe[.n], we heard that though resembling the Nicobarese in appearance, they use a different language.

They are fairly numerous, and those living near the sh.o.r.e are on friendly terms with the coast people, bartering jungle produce and rattans. It is not wise, however, to go into the interior of Great Nicobar, as the wild men (orang utan) will murder strangers for the sake of their clothes and ornaments. They themselves are clothed in bark apparel. Their houses are either light shelters, the materials of which they carry about in their journeys, fitted with bunks one above the other, beneath the lowest of which a small fire smoulders; or are of a more substantial construction, with a fence[73] surrounding each house cl.u.s.ter.

In shape, Pulo Panjang is roughly a parallelogram, but its north-west side is somewhat eaten away; and the bay thus formed makes, together with Pulo Milo, a most effective harbour.

At the apex of this is a small secondary bay, where a little river, rising in the hills inland, debouches through a broad belt of mangroves.

The salt-water basin, although partially choked with coral, would, in the event of settlement, serve well as a small boat harbour.

We ascended the stream several times in search of the big storkbilled kingfisher (_Pelargopsis leucocephala_), which, strangely, occurs again in Borneo, and at no spot between that island and the Nicobars; the case of the megapode is exactly parallel.