Brooklyn Museum: Collections: Arts of the Pacific Islands

Figure. Island Southeast Asia, Nicobar Islands, 19th century. Wood, shell, 28 3/8 x 8 11/16 x 52 1/2 in. (72.1 x 22.1 x 133.4 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Ella C. Woodward Memorial Fund and the Museum Collection Fund, 63.57

Wood carvings from the Nicobar Islands are very rare, and only two other examples are known of this type, a heavy-bodied, crouching figure with a turtle carapace on the back. The figure's extraordinarily long arms, set in sockets, stretch forward. The face is anthropomorphic: the eyes are pointed ovals of shell; the mouth, with square-cut teeth, opens to reveal the tongue; and traces of the original bright red paint remain on the teeth, tongue, and lips. The figure wears a chin-strap helmet, pointed at the top in the Malayan manner. It suggests that the style derives from some part of the Malay Peninsula, where related dialects are spoken. The only recorded use of wood sculpture in this area was in forms of henta-koi, or "scare devils," intended to keep malevolent spirits at bay.

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