The most characteristic disease is the _Cochin-leg_, a form of elephantiasis; arising, perhaps, from the extent to which their aliment is either fish or pork, to the exclusion of other sorts of animal food. Instances, too, of longevity, are said to be rare.
Malabar and Bengal settlers to a considerable extent make the Nicobarians a _mixed_, rather than a pure population.
_Carnicobar._--Inhabitants well made, but undersized, with Malay features.
_Chowry._[80]--South of Carnicobar. Trade between the Chowrians and Carnicobarians; the former selling canoes, the latter cloth.
Nancowry is described by Marco Polo, as being under the government of no king, the people being "little removed from the condition of brutes, all of them both males and females going naked, without a covering to any part of the body. They are idolators."[81]
One of the most remarkable of their customs is the way in which they celebrate the anniversary of the burial of any near relation, when "their houses are decorated with garlands of flowers, fruits, and branches of trees. The people of each village assemble, dressed in their best attire, at the principal house in the place, where they spend the day in a convivial manner; the men, sitting apart from the women, smoke tobacco and intoxicate themselves, while the latter are nursing their children, and employed in preparations for the mournful business of the night. At a certain hour of the afternoon, announced by striking the coung, the women set up the most dismal howls and lamentations, which they continue without intermission till about sunset; when the whole party gets up, and walks in procession to the burying-ground. Arrived at the place, they form a circle around one of the graves, when the stake, planted exactly over the head of the corpse, is pulled up. The woman who is nearest of kin to the deceased, steps out from the crowd, digs up the skull, and draws it up with her hands. At sight of the bones, her strength seems to fail her; she shrieks, she sobs, and tears of anguish abundantly fall to the mouldering object of her pious care. She clears it from the earth, scrapes off the festering flesh, and laves it plentifully with the milk of fresh coco-nuts, supplied by the bystanders; after which she rubs it over with an infusion of saffron, and wraps it carefully in a piece of new cloth. It is then deposited again in the earth, and covered up; the stake is replanted, and hung with the various trappings and implements belonging to the deceased. They proceed then to the other graves, and the whole night is spent in repetitions of these dismal and disgustful rites."[82]