________________
MAY, 1931]
REMARKS ON THE NICOBAR ISLANDERS AND THEIR COUNTRY
with Bompoka) all speak separate dialects, but they all have the custom of communal disposal of human remains in ossuaries, which the others have not. The Central (Camorta, Nancowry, Trinkat, and Katchall) speak one dialeot, and so do the Southern (Great Nicobar with Kondul and Little Nicobar with Pulo Milo).
There is a strong local idea that, like the Andamanese, the Nicobarese, too, are rapidly decreasing in population, but I do not think there is any real ground for it and that the Census merely shows that the population is stationary.
There is an enormous variation in density of population in the various inhabited islands from a little over 1 per square mile in Little Nicobar to 174 per square mile in Chowra. The following table gives the detail:
NICOBARS.
Density of Population in the various inhabited Islands.
Car Nicobar
Chowra
Teressa
Bompoka
Camorta
Nancowry
Trinkat
Katchall
Great Nicobar
Little Nicobar
Kondul
Pulo Milo
Population.
3,451
522
624
78
488
Bompoka
Camorta
Nancowry
Trinkat
Katchall
224
102
281
435
Great Nicobar
Little Nicobar Kondul
Pulo Milo
63
38
4
Table of Population per Hut. Car Nicobar
Chowra
Teressa
Area in Density per square miles. square mile. 70
174
..
5
4
5
4
5
5
4
3
49
3
34
4
The Nicobarese "family" can be gauged by the population in each hut, and the figures show that it is normal in size.
4
58
19
6
62
333
58
}
1
18
19
8
12
17
83
4
11
1
76
8
These figures should help to get at an approximate estimate of the Shom Pen by simply going through their country and counting and mapping huts and then multiplying them by 4 for the population.
Two Reports, made during the Census Tour in R. I. M. 8. Elphinstone in 1901 by the late Mr. E. H. Man and the late Captain A. R. S. Anderson, I.M.S., and Mr. (now Sir) Hadley
