H ([Arabic]), because the mountains of LAMRI advance into
the sea, and the flood is there very strong." The editor has misunderstood
the geography of this passage, which evidently means "Don't go near enough
to Achin Head to see even the islands in front of it." And here we see
again that Lambri is made to extend to Achin Head. The passage is
illustrated by the report of the first English Voyage to the Indies. Their
course was for the Nicobars, but "by the Master's fault in not duly
observing the South Star, they fell to the southward of them, _within
sight of the Islands of Gomes Polo_." (_Nept. Orient._ Charts 38 and 39,
and pp. 126-127; _Hamilton_, II. 66 and Map; _Dampier_, ed. 1699, II. 122;
_H. Gen. des Voyages_, XII. 310; _Linschoten_, Routier, p. 30; _De
Barros_, Dec. III. liv. iii. cap. 3; _J.A.S.B._ VI. 807; _Astley_, I.
238.)

The two islands (or rather groups of islands) _Necuveran_ and _Angamanain_
are the Nicobar and Andaman groups. A nearer trace of the form Necuveran,
or _Necouran_ as it stands in some MSS., is perhaps preserved in
_Nancouri_, the existing name of one of the islands. 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 n