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with burning straw, and then harpoon them with great dexterity; of course their fishing is always performed at night, and for this purpose every household generally possesses two or three boats. Mr. Hamilton asserts that all their domestic animals are fed upon cocoa nuts and sea water, and that upon this diet their hogs become remarkably fat. He says also that the people themselves never drink water; a fact which would delight Dr. Lambe and his anti-aquatic disciples, if the reason for this singularity were not more in the spirit of the Highgate oath than of his philosophy; they like the milk of the cocoa nut better, and the fermented liquor which they make from the tree, best of all. This they render more intoxicating by sucking it slowly through a straw, thus, as Count Rumford would say, prolonging the pleasure of drinking. After their meals, the young people rise up and dance, and the old form a circle round them smoking tobacco and drinking their soura. The dancers are tricked out with leafy ornaments, and keep time to their own singing. Mr. Fontana describes the dance as slow, heavy, and inanimate; men and women form a circle by putting their hands on each other's shoulders, and they then move slowly backward and forward, inclining sometimes to the right and sometimes to the left. This motion is accompanied by a plaintive monotonous tune; their mournful lowvoices, he says, are in perfect unison with the motion of their bodies; they have no instrument, and the whole of their music consists of a few notes. But Mr. Hamilton, whose remarks were made in Kar-Nicobar, found the people more musical, and says that their tunes are far from wanting harmony. There they have the simplest of all stringed instruments, a hollow bamboo nearly a yard in length, and three inches in diameter; a single string, made of the fibres of a split cane, is stretched along the outside from end to end, and the place under it is hollowed a little to prevent it from touching. It is used like a guitar, and limited as its compass must needs be, the writer says that the performer makes it speak harmoniously.

The finest and most valued shells are found upon these shores. Ambergris also is found there, and amber, according to Duarte Barbosa, the original of whose valuable work, after having been lost nearly three centuries, has lately been brought to light by the Royal Academy of Lisbon. The mission was in great part supported by the sale of shells, and such other specimens of natural history as the islands produced. This was at one time the peculiar business of Mr. Haensel, and though he was no naturalist, his recollections upon these subjects are the most interesting part of his book. It often happened when he was on his excursions that he was benighted at some distance from his home; upon such occasions he used to make a hole in the fine white sand of which thes

beach consists, and which above high water mark is perfectly elean and dry; in this he laid himself, and heaping part of what he threw out as a pillow for his head, and collecting the rest over him, buried himself in it up to the neck: many a comfortable night's rest,' says he, have I had in these sepulchral dormitories, when the nights were clear and dry.' His dog lay across his body ready to give the alarm, but there was no danger; there are no ravenous beasts on these islands, and the crocodiles and kaymans never haunt the open coast.

Crocodiles are very numerous wherever there are fresh water lakes and streams. They are of two kinds-the black kayman, and the proper crocodile: it is to be regretted that Mr. Haensel was not naturalist enough to describe the distinction; the former, which is the smaller, is fierce and rapacious; the latter is said never to attack any living creatures, but only to devour carrion; and of the truth of this opinion the missionary was convinced by ocular proof. He was walking along the coast at Queda, looking at a number of children who were sporting in the water, when he saw a large crocodile proceeding toward them from a creek, and screaming at the sight, made signs to some Chinese to go to their assistance. The Chinamen laughed at his fears, and he presently saw the crocodile playing about among the children while they diverted themselves by pretending to drive him away.< Certain it is that in India now, as in Egypt formerly, the crocodile is tamed. Is it that this formidable creature, like other animals of sluggish strength, may be so familiarized to man that it may safely be trusted? or is there, according to the opinion of the natives, and indeed as seems more probable, a distinct species, whose instinct is to prey upon carrion alone?v

The Danes introduced horned cattle, which, after the colony was abandoned, ran wild in the woods, and multiplied prodigiously. The cat, which is called cochin, seems, by its name, to indicate from whence it was imported. The plague of serpents is lessened by the custom of setting fire to the long grass on the mountains twice or thrice a year, by which many of these reptiles and more of their eggs are destroyed. They are, however, numerous and deadly. Mr. Haensel notices one as singularly shaped: it is green, with a broad head and mouth like a frog; the eyes very red, and the bite so venemous that he saw a woman die within half an hour after receiving the wound. He himself recovered in a remarkable manner from the bite of a short black serpent, with a white streak down its back, dividing the body longitudinally. The reptile, which was a young one, was attempting to get through the key hole when he opened the door, and was twice bitten by it without discovering by what the wound was inflicted; but the sensation was that of a sudden pricking, and a violent electrical shock

as if he were split asunder: and from this sensation, rather than from its appearance, he conceives that the creature is called the split-snake. He immediately sucked the wound till no more blood could be drawn from it, then bound it up with spirits of turpentine: it swelled and became very painful during the night, but no worse consequences followed. The bite of this snake is usually fatal: as the creature was so wounded by turning the lock that it was found dead there the next morning, it might possibly make a slighter wound than usual, but the missionary's recovery is probably owing to his having sucked it immediately. In some parts of Brazil the inhabitants are firmly persuaded that the bite of their most dangerous serpents may be cured, if the wound is instantly. sucked by a person who has his mouth half full of tobacco: it is to be sucked with great force, and for a considerable time, and the tobacco is then laid on the orifice.* Mr. Haensel collected above eighty different species of serpents in these islands, and had acquired much dexterity in catching them. Being well booted to protect his legs, he used to provoke the snake, offer his hat when the reptile was coiled ready to strike, and then by a sudden jerk disarm it of its fangs as soon as they were fixed. But great care is requisite in refixing these fangs when preparing the snake as a specimen even long after their death the consequences of a scratch are dreadful, and sometimes fatal; many instances of which came under his own observation. A red scorpion is found here much larger than the common species, and said to be extremely vene

mous.

The Nicobar bats are perfect harpies. The body is as big as that of a common cat, and the outstretched wings measure from five to six feet across the back. They are of two kinds the head of one somewhat resembling a dog, and that of the other a cat, and Mr. Haensel says that the one makes a barking, and the other a mewing noise when upon the wing. The mango is their favourite food, and they perch awkwardly upon the tree, breaking down the smaller branches till they light upon such as are able to bear their weight. These hideous animals seem, like their kindred in

The most remarkable case of the bite of a snake being successfully treated is in the eleventh volume of the Asiatic Researches; for the patient being a medical man was enabled scientifically to observe and reason upon his own sensations. He took the Spiritus Ammonia Compositus in much larger and more frequent doses than he I would have ventured to prescribe for any other person in a similar situation; a teaspoonfull at a time in a Madeira glassfull of water, till he had taken thirteen spoonsfull, or a wine-glassfull of the medicine. Latterly it seemed to burn his throat as he swallowed, but he could scarcely perceive the taste of the first dose, so totally gone was the nervous sensibility of the palate. The bite of this snake excited a violent action of the heart and arteries, and would soon have produced death by the consequent debility if it had not been counteracted by this powerful stimulus. We have mentioned this case because this journal may fall into the hands of many who have not seen it recorded elsewhere, and a fact of this importance cannot be too generally known.

Madagascar, to live wholly on vegetables. It is a curious discovery that the vampire of South America should have been formed to subsist in the same manner, and that that appetite for blood which renders it destructive to cattle, and even dangerous to man himself, should be an acquired habit! Sir Everard Home, in examining the stomach of one of these creatures, found that it had no resemblance to the stomach of the common bat, which is carnivorous; it was filled with the stamina of the flowers of the eugenea in so perfect a state, that botanists could ascertain the plant to which they belonged.

The parrots of these islands, according to P. Faure, were in great request in India, because they were thought to speak more. distinctly than any others; a superiority as imaginary as that of the Ceylon elephants, which was said to be acknowledged by all the elephants of the continent! The Hirundo edulis, or Hinlane, as the natives call it, is found here, and its nests, the well known dainty of the Chinese, are the only produce of the Nicobars, for which there is a constant demand. Mr. Haensel dealt so largely in this article, (having sometimes, in one excursion, collected fifty pound weight, or above 2000 nests,) that he had ample oppor tunities of observing for what use the birds designed them, and of endeavouring to ascertain from what substance they were made. The legs of these birds are so short that if they once settle on the ground they are unable to rise, and they build their nests not only for the purpose of laying their eggs in them, but for resting places from whence they may take wing: they are therefore of two sorts-the hen building the house, and the cock fixing a smaller one of ruder construction close to it for the perching place. That formation which makes such a provision necessary, renders it impossible that they can obtain their materials on the coast or from rocks in the sea as has been supposed. Mr. Haensel has often caught them as they lay helpless on the ground, and when he threw them up into the air they readily took flight. It is his opinion that they make their nests from the gum of a peculiar tree called the Nicobar cedar, the fruit of which discharges a resinous fluid; for he has seen innumerable flocks of these little birds fluttering about these trees when bearing fruit, like bees around a shrub in full flower.

No mention is made of any plague of insects; there is probably, therefore, little or no stagnant water, and the insalubrity of the climate is ascribed to the closeness of the woods, with which hills and vallies are overrun. They are in many places so closely interwoven with rattan and bush-rope that they seem to be spun together, and the light of the sun never penetrates them. Most of the trees and plants bear fruit-the fruit falls and rots, and thus the very bounty of nature, which, with an active and full population,

would render these islands truly fortunate, becomes injurious to savages, who suffer the productions of the earth, as well as their own moral and intellectual faculties, to run waste. Thus it is that wherever moral evil is found, physical evil, in some form or other, is at once its consequence and punishment. Even the natives suffer from a climate which this cause, and this alone, renders unhealthy but to the missionaries it was peculiarly destructive; malignant fevers and liver complaints were produced by it, the effects of which generally proved fatal, and always continued through life. Eleven missionaries were buried in Nancauwery, and thirteen died shortly after their return to Tranquebar.

To these fatal effects of the climate, Mr. Haensel chiefly attributes the failure of the mission-most of the missionaries were carried off by it before they could learn the language, or just when they had got so far that they were able to speak to the natives in their own tongue. This rendered the difficulty of attaining the language insuperable, and without that attainment it was impossible to make any progress in the work of conversion. Upon this subject this humble Moravian speaks with a sincerity, which forms a striking contrast to the edifying parts of the Lettres Edifiantes.

'I cannot help observing,' he says, that when we speak of the total failure of our endeavours, we have cause, in a great degree, to blame ourselves. For my part I must confess with humble shame that I soon lost my faith and courage, brotherly love having ceased to prevail amongst us. It is true our trials were great, and the prospect most gloomy; but we have seen in other instances what the Lord can do, by removing obstacles, and giving strength to his servants, if they are one in spirit, pray and live together in unity, and prefer each other in love, This was too much wanting during the latter part of our abode.'

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Oh how many thousand tears have I shed during that period of distress and trouble! I will not affirm that they were all of that kind which I might with David pray the Lord "to put into his bottle" and ask " they not in thy book;" for I was not yet fully acquainted with the ways of God with this people, and had not yet a heart wholly resigned to all his dealing. Oftentimes self-will, unbelief, and repining at our hard lot, was mixed with our complaints and cries unto him. Do not therefore think them se very pure and deserving of pity as they may seem. Thus much however I can truly say, that amidst it all, our Saviour was the object of our hearts' desire, and he beheld us with long-suffering and compassion.'

Mr. Haensel was at length sent from Tranquebar to bring away the last surviving missionary, and break up the establishment.

6 Words,' he says, 'cannot express the painful sensations which crowded into my mind while I was executing this task, and making a final conclusion of the labours of the brethren in the Nicobar islands.

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