Page:The Indian Antiquary, Vol. 4-1875.djvu/170

 BOOK NOTICES. w nature with all that can moot their v. troubled only h; < i their deceased progenitors, with which they wage almost in© war. The Nicobarcse resemble the Andamanese and all the non-Aryan re adia not only in this fear of demons, and in the exorcism requi red to defeat their malice, but in truthfulness, honesty, good nature, and the love of drink. The family Ui' 1 - W. Tho fath. sad of the house, tho mother takes his place on his death, and when both pass away, the property is squally divid- ed, the m, however, taking the house, but taining Ins unmarried sisters. Each may do ikes, but age is reverenced, and women are treated with a loving respect. Girls, married at from 13 to 15 years of age. freely choose their hnsba influenced through their re!; like more modern noes, chiefly by such conei tions as the suitors' possessions in palm- trees. Fidelity- is the rule, subject to a somowha'. lax system of divorce. To have, or to be expecting children, is most honourable. In the latter case both the man and tho woman cease to work for a time. Friends compete with each other for the honour of feasting them, and they are taken to the interior, far fron ns and where ou the co-operative system the Nicobsiresorear their scanty vegetables. The seed sown by such a couple is sure to be blessed. Their women enjoy a liberty andnr with a re- ice which all other Eastern races would do well to imitate. We were eye-witnesses of t'nis when we accompanied " Captain London," who was gorgeously dressed in a naval uniform mu I urge for him, to % rife ami mother, who squatted unusltamedly on cither side of the fire- place of tho principal house in the village of Ma- lacca. The house was scrupulously clean, save for the smoke and soot. The evening meal of panda- nua was being cooked, and the abundant cocoanut ■■v;i3 oiT.-i'i-d. A mixture of all the tongues ol the East sufficed as the medium of the most polite messages. The best Highland shanty was not l comfortable, while the sea, gently rolling in under the: •'■way all traces of inn below. We were in a lake-d welling ! i the Xieobarese bury most of his moveable property. and fogg f (ir iWi) months, abstaining even from their loved tobacco. A y dig up the body, when the w'uiow or mother, taking the head on her lap, strips it of all putrid^ remains are I I ft to the earth. Believing vaguely in B come, they hold that the spirit join Iwis to whose miscbievo; foe n || misfortune, whether fever or unsm -hing. As with the Andamanese also, the moon plays an important part in their superstitions, for their spearing fish by torchlight, at which they are adepts, depends on its light. At certain noon they will not work. To neu- tralize the Iwi— the same word means in their language "' to become" — they hav. ae* or exorcists, who pretend to cure the sick by extract- ing from their bodies the stone or pig's tooth which is said to have caused the sickness, i ts also practise ventriloquism. Their great time is when the hamlets are summoned to that feast which is intended to drive off the y by gifts and partly by force. While the men and priests sit smoking and drinking y. the women continue to howl dolefully as they cut up the gifts for the spirits and throw the fragments into the sea. Daubed i Bint, and excited by pahn- the ' manloene' advance to the conflict. Now in deep bass they coax, and now they fight wildly with the malicious Iwis, to the chorus of the women's howling, till, at last, after a hand-to-hand battle, the invisible spirits are carried off to a toy boat festooned with leaves previously prepared for them. This the youths tow triumphantly out to Bea, where they leave it and its supernatural cargo, and return to the feast and the dance. Lock •% with their arms over each other's shoul- I ho men leap up and fall down on their heels to tho sound of hideous mu sic. — F Jubjl BOOK NOTH i«l explanatory iwtes by U. Bviltkr, PhD., MA U The ' ■' i rightly reckoned ndard works of Sanskrit liurature. at whoso w ond e rfu l power and skill we can only marvel. In the hands of tbo.se giants the lan- guage v, :n a mere plaything, and assumed the varied and exquisite forms, which the pre- sent age strives in vain to imitate. These are the men who have shown to the world the exj dinary and almost unrivalled powers of that most ancient tongue, and how variform are the which a dexterous workman can build upon its simple bases. The work under review is a model of prose writing, and tho student would do m read and re-read it. It possesses all the good points of the well-known prose writers without
 * Scans. Cart. I,