The changes of the moon (by which chiefly they mark the progress of finite) are always observed as sea sons of festivity, when they adorn their bodies and houses vvith garlands and leaves, and spend the day in singing, dancing, eating and chinking. There prevails among them a universal hospitality, without the smallest cere mony. They seldom speak or offer any salutations as they pass each other, ;and will rarely open their mouths as long as they can express their meaning by signs; but any one may enter the houses in his way, and sit down till lie is rested, and help himself to any food within his reach, or at least be directed by the family with a signal of the hand to do so, and finally depart, without a single word being uttered on either side, unless he chooses to begin the conversation, 1N 11-.11 IIC will receive a friendly answer, and be dismissed with hearty good wishes. They are altogether a harmless, honest, good-natured, and gay-tempered l'aCC ; but lazy, gluttonous, and drunken in the. extreme ; and sometimes, when their passiohs ;are roused by jealousy or revenge, are capable of commit ting the greatest excesses. Owing probably to their in action and debauchery, they are not lung•lived ; and few ol the men have been observed to be above 45 ot 5J years of age. Yet they are not liable to many diseases, and except the cedernatous swelling of the legs, known by different names in the cast, ;and occasionally a mild spe cies of small-pox, their most prevalent disorders are fe vers and cholics. Their physcians or conjurers employ few intet nal medicines, except some potions from hurbs, and in most cases use friction with oil; but as all the more dangerous diseases are considered ;as proceeding from the devil, the constant practice, even when medicines arc administered, is to expel the demon by incantations. In those operations they exhibit the most astonishing feats of legerdemain ; though stark naked during the process, they will appear to extract large stoncs, yams, Zee. from the bodies of their patients. When their tricks have no effect, they sometimes pretend that the devil still frequents the house or vicinity', in the person of some man or woman, sucking all the power of heal ing out of the patient; and whatever individual the pater (as they call those jugglers) shall name as the witch, is, without farther inquiry, instantly put to death. At other times, they pretend to have laid hold of the evil spirit, and drag him down to the shore, where they make a show of putting him on board a small raft of light wood, which is instantly towed out to sea by ;a couple of well manned boats with the utmost expedition. On the third day he must perish; but should he be driven on shore before that time in the vicinity of another village, he is understood to inflict the same evils there which he !lac' been prevented from doing in the former place ; and the keenest enmity is forthwith kindled between the two townships, which nothing but the above-mentioned com bat can settle. They ascribe eclipses of the sun or moon
to the same evil genius, who is supposed to be attempt ing to drown tht.se luminaries; and, in order to drive him from such an enterprise, the whole inhabitants as. semble with their gong-gongs, which they beat with great violence, while otheis arc darting their spears in the air to repel the assailant.
When any one dies, his clothing, implements, live stock, and all his moveable property, are buried along with him; and, while the women make loud lamenta tions, the ruen arc busily employed in drinking and smoking. But onc of the most extraordinary ceremo nies is the annual festival observed in honour of the dead. After spending the greater part of the day in a convivial manner, they repair to the burying place, whcre the woman nearest of kin to the deceased digs up the corpse, cleans the skull from the adhering earth and de cayed flesh, laves it plentifully with the milk or the co coa-nut, rubs it over with an infusion of saffron, and, having wrapped it carefully in a piece of IICW cloth, de posits it again in the grave. After spending the whole night in those melancholy rites, the cereinony is con cluded by a feast on the following day.
These islanders have very confused ideas of a Su preme Being, and have scarcely any word in their lac guage to express the notion of God. They speak of him by the general term Knaller, " above," or " on high," and believe that this unknown being. is good, and never inclined to do them any. harm. But they. are perpetually occupied in all their religious ceremonies with the evil spirit, to whom they ascribe the creation of the world, and on whom they lay the blame of all the crimes which they commit. They are not properly ido laters, like most or the other oriental nations, but employ a variety of superstitious observances, to counteract the mischievous designs of the devil. In every village a high pole is erected, with long strings of ground rattans hanging from it, as a mean or averting the demon's pre sence ; and, upon any appearance of a storm, in which he is supposed to visit them, the villagers fix around their boundaries small sticks, holding in a split at the top a piece of cocoa-nut, tobacco, or certain leaf, either as a peace-offering, or an object of antipathy. But their chief confidence. rests on the power of their paters to catch and control these invisible adversaries. See .4siatic Researches, vols. ii.iii.iv.; iluenscl's Letters on the Nicobar Islands ; Valentia's Travels, vol. i.; and .APentune Oriental. (q)