ame
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. (_Doolittle's Vocab._ II. p. 556;
cf. _Schlegel_, l.c. p. 11.)--H.C.]

The chief part of the population is believed to be of race akin to the
Malay, but they seem to be of more than one race, and there is great
variety in dialect. There have long been reports of a black tribe with
woolly hair in the unknown interior of the Great Nicobar, and my friend
Colonel H. Man, when Superintendent of our Andaman Settlements, received
spontaneous corroboration of this from natives of the former island, who
were on a visit to Port Blair. Since this has been in type I have seen in
the _F. of India_ (28th July, 1874) notice of a valuable work by F.A. de
Roepstorff on the dialects and manners of the Nicobarians. This notice
speaks of an aboriginal race called _Shob'aengs_, "purely Mongolian," but
does not mention negritoes. The natives do not now