They Are Perhaps The
Nalo-Kilo-Cheu (Narikela-Dvipa) Or Coco-Nut Islands Of Which Hiuen
Tsang Speaks As Existing Some Thousand Li To The South Of Ceylon.
The
men, he had heard, were but 3 feet high, and had the beaks of birds.
They
had no cultivation and lived on coco-nuts. The islands are also believed
to be the Lanja balus or Lankha balus of the old Arab navigators:
"These Islands support a numerous population. Both men and women go naked,
only the women wear a girdle of the leaves of trees. When a ship passes
near, the men come out in boats of various sizes and barter ambergris and
coco-nuts for iron," a description which has applied accurately for many
centuries. [Ibn Khordadhbeh says (De Goeje's transl., p. 45) that the
inhabitants of Nicobar (Alankabalous), an island situated at ten or
fifteen days from Serendib, are naked; they live on bananas, fresh fish,
and coco-nuts; the precious metal is iron in their country; they frequent
foreign merchants. - H.C.] Rashiduddin writes of them nearly in the same
terms under the name of Lakvaram, but read NAKAVARAM opposite LAMURI.
Odoric also has a chapter on the island of Nicoveran, but it is one full
of fable. (H. Tsang, III. 114 and 517; Relations, p. 8; Elliot, I.
p. 71; Cathay, p. 97.)
[Mr. G. Phillips writes (J.R.A.S., July 1895, P. 529) that the name
Tsui-lan given to the Nicobars by the Chinese is, he has but little doubt,
"a corruption of Nocueran, the name given by Marco Polo to the group. The
characters Tsui-lan are pronounced Ch'ui-lan in Amoy, out of which it is
easy to make Cueran. The Chinese omitted the initial syllable and called
them the Cueran Islands, while Marco Polo called them the Nocueran
Islands." - H.C.]
[The Nicobar Islands "are generally known by the Chinese under the name of
Rakchas or Demons who devour men, from the belief that their inhabitants
were anthropophagi. In A.D. 607, the Emperor of China, Yang-ti, had sent
an envoy to Siam, who also reached the country of the Rakchas. According
to Tu-yen's T'ung-tien, the Nicobars lie east [west] of Poli. Its
inhabitants are very ugly, having red hair, black bodies, teeth like
beasts, and claws like hawks. Sometimes they traded with Lin-yih
(Champa), but then at night; in day-time they covered their faces." (G.
Schlegel, Geog. Notes, I. pp. 1-2). - H.C.]
Mr. Phillips, from his anonymous Chinese author, gives a quaint legend as
to the nakedness of these islanders. Sakya Muni, having arrived from
Ceylon, stopped at the islands to bathe. Whilst he was in the water the
natives stole his clothes, upon which the Buddha cursed them; and they
have never since been able to wear any clothing without suffering for it.
[Professor Schlegel gives the same legend (Geog. Notes, I. p. 8) with
reference to the Andaman Islands from the Sing-ch'a Sheng-lan,
published in 1436 by Fei-sin; Mr. Phillips seems to have made a confusion
between the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
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