Traveller.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 352, 5 February 1903, Page 2

Traveller.

ANGELS OF THE NICOBAE INDIANS. ?SfE? WHOLE flock of winged angels §*s© has lately been sent from the iflJs Nicobar Islands, in the Baj of Bengal. They are carved out of wood, are from three to six feet high, and quite unlike anything in the way of images that was ever seen here before. All are elaborately painted; some represent ptrange birds, and one very large effiaj seems to be a mermaid, It might be imagined by an uninstructed person that these were fastastic dolls, but, as a matter of fact, they are votive offerings made by the Nicobar savages to ward off disease and bad luck. For this purpose they are kept in the houses, and it is not uncommon to see three or four such images hanging from the ceiling of a hut. Dr. Abbott's Studies. Comparatively little has hitherto been known about the Nicobar Islands, but Dr. W, L. Abbott, the explorer, visited them recently and made an exhaustive study of tbe people. It was he who sent home the ' angels * and other qneer effigies referred to, and with them he forwarded a most interesting acconnt of their meaning and of the sources frcm which the aboriginal sculptors derive their inspiration. II seems that if a gentleman of Nicobar is seriously ill the most important measure he adops, with a view of recovery, is to make an image of some sort. The object to be represented is chosen almost at random, apparently. It may be a chicken, or a man, or a lizard, but it must be of considerable size. Once finished it affords a tenement for a spirit, whose business it is to defend the owner of the effigy from harm. The Deadly Climate. The Nicobarese are extremely imitative and the images they make, when not counterfeiting birds or other animals, are likely to be intended for likenesses of people who visit the islands from afar. Man; trading vessels step at the archipelago, to buy cocoanuts, and the natives show great curiosity in regard to whatever they find on board. In exchange for their cocoanuts, they receive knives, clotb, guns, ammunition, tobacco, cutlasses and rum. Also, they set a high value upon plated spoons and soup ladles, which they hang up in tneir houses as ornaments. Many attempts have been made to colonise the Nicobar Islands, but without sucees?, owing to the deadly fever which prevails. For the same r:ason missionary efforts have failed, and the only record of evangelical effort is a solitary Bible, owned by a man who uses it as a pillow, regarding it as a fetish.

AN ANCIENT CREMATORIUM. What the absent-minded old lady called a creamery has just been discovered near Reading, says the ' Westminster Gazette.' Twenty urns, containing calcined human bones, have been unearthed at Sunningdale, near Camberley. A mound was being removed in the construction of golf links, when three urns were discovered. Under the direction of Mr A. C. Shrubsole, F. G. S., curator of the geological and anthropological department of the Reading museum, a further search was made, and seventeen mere were brought to light. It is believed by competent authorities tbat the mound was the site of an ancient crematorium—probably a battleground—in pre-Roman days. Some of the urns are one foot four inches in diameter. They are of ancient British make, and may safely be ascribed to the time before Britain came under the Roman influence. It is estimated that the burials must have taken place between 2,000 and 6,000 years ago. Some of the urns have been sent to the British Museum, the Reading Museum, to Oxford and to the Louvre, Paris. SPOKE ST IN THE PHILIPPINES. Here are the languages they speak in the Philippines : Ilocano, Igorote, Pangasinian, Pampangan, Tagal, Biscoij BicoJ, Yisayan, while in the northern part of Luzon there is still another tongue, and tbe Jolo tribes speak still another, making ten languages for the 10,000,000 people. The dialects and languages of the 'non- Christian tribes/ as Governor Tafr designates a lttrgf proportion of this 10,000,000, are beyond comprehension. In answer to a question when he was before the house committee on insular affairs a few weeks ago Governor Taft gave the following idea of the linguistic qualities of the inhabitants of the Philippine archipelago: ' Beginning at the north of Luzon there is a language in Cagayan and Isabala thaff is different from any other in the island. On the west side of the northern end of the island of Luzon is the Ilocano. In Bengent they speak an Igorate language, and also Ilocano, to some extent. Coming down the map there are the Pangasinanian and the Ilcano. In Pangasinan both are spoken. Pampangan is Bpoken in Tarlac, in the southern part, and Pangasinian is spoken in the northern part. In Bulacan, Cavite, Batangas and Tayabas Tagal is spoken, and in the northern part of Ambos Camerines. In Albay and Sorsogon and the southern part of Amos Camerines the Bicol is spoken. In,Masbate, where the three tribes meet, the Bicol, the Yisayan and the Tagal are all spoken. In Samas Leyte, Cebu, Bobol and Negros Yisayan is spoken, and also Romblon. In Mindoro the Tagal is spoken. Where the Yisayan language is spoken they have two dialects, the Borthern and Cebuyan. The Jolo trib.s speak a language of their own.'