- 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.

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