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352
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
(NOVEMBER, 1889.
cured of his madness, and falling at the feet of the king related the whole story of the four maxims, how he had disobeyed the last of them, and what calamities had come upon him in conse. quence. The king was highly pleased, and after punishing the pretended merchant with death, he restored the rubies to their rightful owner, Sômuseţti. And our hero, not to be outdone for his liberality, presented half of them to the king who had taken so much pains in bringing him back to his senses, and returned with the other four to his own country.
As soon as he was restored to his original state, he learnt about his wife, how she had guarded and followed him all along throughout his miseries; and forgetting that she was the cause of all of them, he pardoned her faults and lived happily with her. And the good woman too, seeing that all these miseries had resulted from the wealth not being placed in the house, exercised a most scrupulous care over her husband's property, especially remembering the sufferings that both had undergone.
NOTES AND QUERIES.
PERPETUAL FIRE IN MADRAS, Uliyanur Perinthachan (lit. master-mason) is Travancore burning in the open air mentioned the legendary celestial architect of the Malabar in Isis Unveiled), and the tank at Hanuman Kairi Coast, and is held to be an incarnation of the in the Betulnad ta'luqa of British Malabar, conDeity. The stone lamp at the holy city of taining 18 ghats, but now in ruins, are attributed Jarunannya, which remained perpetually burn, to him. ing for several years (there is a similar lamp in' Madras.
SUXKUNI WARIYAR,
BOOK NOTICE. The NICOBAR IBLANDERS. By E. H. MAN. London: wise they are a well-fed and well-developed people Harrison and Sons. 1889.
of ungainly aspect and devoid of beauty. Their Mr. Man's books are always a delight to the great physical peculiarity lies in their hideous student of anthropology, and this last monograph teeth, which are covered with a deforming from his pen is no exception to the rule. Mi- encrustation caused by chewing betel and lime. nuteness, carefulness, completeness and accuracy Their physical powers are good, but not much have already characterised his work, and all these developed, and their senses sufficiently acute. But admirable qnalities are as abundantly present in owing to the quantities in which food is supplied thiş pamphlet on the Nicobar Islanders as in by nature they are not given to much or prolonged airy of its predecessors. We are indeed forta- i exertion. nate in having results before us at first hand of The Nicobarese will cross with Malays and the researches of so painstaking and competent Burmans, but not readily with other races. an anthropologist.
The limits of life are low, but apparently higher At present we have only an instalment of what than that of Indo-Chinese races generally. They Mr. Man has to say about the Nicobarese, and the appear to be free from the epidemics of the remainder will be looked forward to with some East, in spite of the miasma that surrounds the eagerness, especially as the Government is aban- dwellings of many of them, proving so fatal to doning its stations there, and much more all strangers, and their recuperative powers information is not likely to be procured for a are like those of many Indo-Chinese races, quite long while.
remarkable. On the vexed question as to the origin of the Their colour is decidedly dark but not by any Nicobarese, Mr. Man decidedly inclines to the means black, and they are not naturally offensive Malayo-Burman theory, and gives twelve argu- as to odour. The hair of the head is not black, ments in its favour.
but a dark rusty brown, and is much lighter in In stature the Nicobarese are of medium young children than in adults. Hair on the body height; very few reaching 6 feet, not many to is not common. 5 ft. 7 in., and the majority ranging from 5 ft. Such in the briefest form possible are the 5 in. to 5 ft. 3 in. The women are about 3 inches results of Mr. Man's investigations, so far as yet shorter. The average chest measurement is 34) published, on this very interesting race. Let us inches and the average weight about 10 stone; hope that we shall not have to wait very long while the women weigh over 8 stone. Other before we are favoured with a further instalment.
