The nose is broad and flattened, with rounded tip and rather rounded nostrils, the plane of which is upward. It is generally of medium size and straight, but now and again has a pronounced bridge, or a slightly concave outline. The cheekbones and zygomatic arch are prominent, and a degree of prognathism is prevalent. The teeth are large, irregular, and discoloured, and project outwards. The mouth is large, the lips thick, with the upper very curved from centre to ends; they are generally closed. The lower jaw is commonly large and heavy, and the chin is pointed, as the bones converge directly from the basal angle. The ears lie close to the head, and are hidden by the hair, but the lobes are much distorted with plugs of wood. The huts in which the Shom Pe[.n] dwell, although always built on piles, show considerable differences, and vary from a well-built floor with a carefully constructed roof of palm leaf attap, to a rough platform often placed against the side of a tree and sheltered by two or three palm branches fastened to the corners.[131] They are said to possess gardens enclosed in zigzag fences, where they cultivate bananas, yams, and other tubers. The pandanus fruit they cook in a well-made vessel of sheets of bark, carefully protected with green leaves and luted with clay, in which we can, perhaps, see one of the origins of pottery; for it is quite admissible that, in course of time, the leaves should be discarded, more clay added, and at length the effect of fire on the latter having been observed, the bark also would be done away with, or only used as a mould for a clay vessel, from which more suitable shapes would finally be evolved. The domestic animals are dogs, cats, chickens, and pigs, which are generally caught when young in the jungle, and apparently not permitted to attain any respectable size. All find a refuge in the houses, up to which a sort of inclined plane is arranged for their convenience. Their manufactures are very few. They make canoes; construct a spear out of a single piece of wood, baskets, both of rattan and palm spathe, and a rough cloth from the inner bark of a tree.[132] The friendly Shom Pe[.n] are energetic collectors of rattan, which they trade with the Nicobarese, and so obtain garments, beads, knives, _parangs_, axes, and tobacco, which is smoked in the form of cigarettes. They are great consumers of betel-nut, in combination with lime and sireh. Amongst these friendly families, the clothing worn is similar to that of the Nicobarese, with necklaces of beads, and they employ a large wooden ear-distender an inch and a half in diameter.[133] The sheets of bark cloth are used as pillows and coverings at night, and amongst the hostile aborigines it is said the women wear short petticoats of this material, while the men go entirely clothesless.