Once upon a time there was a scarcity of water, and a certain man then produced it from his elbow by means of magic arts. The people therefore considered him to be a devil-man--wizard--and beheaded him. On the spot where the head fell there sprang up a tree, and after a time it became very big, and began to bear fruit, and the fruit resembled the head of the slain man. For a long time the people were afraid to approach the tree or to taste the nuts, because they had grown out of a human head, and so, by the falling of the ripe fruit, there grew up a dense grove of coconut palms. At last some wise men brought to the trees an old man who was dying, and made him taste of the nuts, to find out their qualities! The old man accordingly ate one, and found it to be very delicious, and from continually eating nuts he became very strong, and grew to look like a young man. Thenceforth the people began to make use of the coconut! * * * * * In the old days it was the custom to kill men for any offence, grave or simple. But at length the elders, finding that the population had greatly diminished thereby, held a council, and introduced the system of killing pigs, burning houses, felling trees, breaking canoes, and destroying clothes, etc., and this method is continued at the present day side by side with the former. The people seldom have open fighting among themselves, neither do they use their fists, or flog. In extreme cases only (witchcraft) do they commit murder. The Nicobarese have no conception of a Supreme Being, or a future state, but there is a universal belief in evil spirits, who are in part ghosts of the wicked, and who can be propitiated by offerings and kept away by exorcisms. These creations of the imagination, who in the northern island are called _Síyas_, seem much akin to the _Náts_ of Indo-China, but are far less localised, and, as a rule, have no particular tree, rock, or stream for their abode. They are the cause of every misfortune and disease that occurs to man, but death in the ordinary course of things is considered to be a natural event. [Illustration: "Scare-devil," or device for exorcising evil spirits (Kachal).] It would appear that in Kar Nicobar, Teressa, and Chaura, where the superstitious practices are nearly alike, some idea is entertained of spirits not altogether inimical to mankind; but in the other islands, whose beliefs are all homogenous, the _Iwis_ are all harmful to human beings, and are kept at a distance by a redundancy of charms and talismans that does not occur in the north.[156]