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OCTOBER, 1897.]
NOTES ON THE NICOBARESE.
265
170 Fowls, 200 Eggs, 65 Mats, 15 Baskets, 12 Large chopping knives, 150 Long ratans,
10 Large bundles of bark rope, 1,580 Large bamboos, 2,000 Small bamboos,
1 Boat." Maleon, the American Missionary traveller, tells us that in Lower Burma about the time of the War of 1824, the Native Government constantly levied fines on the value of the human body, and p. 261 of his Travels, Vol. II., he gives the scale of valuation :" A new-born male child ...
4 tickals A new-born female child ... A boy ... ... ... ... ... ... 10 A girl ... ... ... ... ... ... 7 A young man .. . . .. .. 30 »
A young woman ... ... ... ... .. 35 . Of rich persons twice there prices are exacted; and of principal officers still larger sumns, rapidly increasing in proportion to rank."
To the above I can add a little evidence of my own from the Nicobar Islands. In 1896, I had occasion to purchase a piece of land, measuring about 8 acres, from the Chief of Mûs in Car Nicobar, on behalf of the Government of India, for a meteorological station and Government agency. For this piece of land I paid the Chief on the 21st March, 1896
12 Suits of black cloth, 1 Piece of red cloth, 6 Bags of rice, 20 Packets of China tobacco, 19 Bottles of Commissariat rum.58
(To be continued.)
NOTES ON THE NICOBARESE.
BY K. H. MAN, C.I.E. (Continued from p. 222.)
No. 2.
Bark Cloth. No attempt has yet been made by the Nicobarese to weave cloth. This may be explained by the fact that, in conseqnence of the equable nature of their climate, their absolute requiremnents in this respect are, to say the least, limited; and their needs have for generations past been supplied by traders from the neighbouring continents, who here barter calico and colored handkerchiefs, as well as other articles, for cargoes of cocoanute.
Moreover, while in the southern portion of the Nicobar Islands it has been customary from reinote times, both among the coast and inland communities, to manufacture bark-cloth for purposes of clothing 24 it has been the practice among the women of Chowra, Teressa and Bompoka - where foreign trade has heretofore been slack - to wear thick fringe-like skirts of split cocoanut-leaves, called hinong (ante, Vol. XXIV. p. 47).
3 Extremely valued by these people as a medicine and doled out by the Chief in small dones. Rum, to be good " medicine," must be Commissariat rum. Andaman and Nicobar Garette, Supplt., 1896, p. 20.
24 Fontann's remark that in his day (1778) the women wore "a bit of cloth made with the threads of the bark of the cocoanut-tree" possibly refers to this material, as it so newhat resembles the ochrea or fibrous sheath which envolupen the uppor portion of connut tree stems. It may be, however, that the hinong is the garment to which he allulos, Asiatic Researches, Vol. III., Artiolo VII.
