________________
172
THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY.
[JUNE, 1874.
manese possess great affection for one another. As to the reported cannibalism of the AndaAlmost every one who has written about them has manese, Mr. Homfray furnished me with the folborne witness to this trait in their characters. lowingevidence. He interrogated the natives them.
I had proposed for myself one subject upon selves, and they manifested the greatest repug. which to make special inquiries on the spot : this nance to the idea, and denied most emphatically was their method of making flakes of flint and that such a custom existed amongst them. glass, which they had been reported to make use Further, some few years ago, thirteen men who of as lances. My attention, however, was so taken landed from a ship on the Little Andaman, for the up by other subjects of interest that I should have purpose of searching for water, were all murdered. forgotten to investigate the point, had it not for. An expedition was, on the arrival of the news, tunately happened that on reaching one of the despatched from Port Blair to visit the scene family groupe ( observed a woman engaged in and ascertain the circumstances. The members making flakes, which she skilfully chipped off a of this expedition, together with some of the Port piece of dark bottle glass with a quartz pebble. Blair Andamanese, landed on the island. They Having struck off a flake of suitable character, she were received with the most deterinined hostility, frrthwith proceeded, with astonishing rapidity, to which the unruly and aggressive conduct of the shave off the spiral twists of hair which covered Port Blair natives-who, it was hoped, would act the head of her son.
as go-betweens-served greatly to intensify. The Mr. Homfray informed me that the Andamanese bodies of the thirteen murdered men were discan still manufacture the flakes offlint, which they covered on the beach, slightly covered with sand, effect by first heating the stones in a fire, that so that no cannibalism had taken place in this case. being found to facilitate the breaking in the re. It may be added, with reference to this expediquired directions.
tion, that the boats had to be regained through a Thus we have, at the present day, a race who heavy surf, and under cover of musketry, as the practise an art, proofs of the wide-spread know- natives, for whom firearms had no terrors, and ledge of which in prehistoric times are shown by the effects of which they could not at first realize, frequent discoveries in all quarters of the globe. closed round in great numbers, and discharged
The Andamanese are, however, advancing beyond clouds of arrows. their stone age. In one corner of the building, s
The inhabitants of the Little Andaman seem to woman was occupied in polishing and wearing have some peculiarities which distinguish them down into shape an iron arrow-head. It was a from the inhabitants of the northern islands. Their most formidable affair, heart-shaped, and from houses are of a beehive shape, and of considerable 2 to 3 inches in diameter.
size, being sufficient to accommodate 100 men; In the centre of the Home there was a trophy they are not elevated from the ground on poste formed of the bones of pigs, dugong, and turtle, as are those of most Malayan races. together with some bundles of human ribs, which From the evidence given above, I am inclined latter had been deposited there after having been to believe that the reputed cannibalism of the carried about by the relatives of the deceased. All Andamanese is more than doubtful. That such a these objects were covered with red clay.
belief should be prevalent is no matter for sur. Mr. Homfray said that he had encouraged the prise, considering their admitted hostility to all occupants of th3 Home in the formation of this visitors to their coasts, and the general tendency collection, as it served to attach them to the place, there both was and is, on the part of travellers, to and to make them really regard it as their home. attribute such propensities to savage races about
I made some selections, with Mr. Homfray's whom little is known. permission, from this trophy. The strings with As to the affinities of the Andamanese, there which the objects were tied were severed by a can be no question that they belong to the scatter Cyrena valve; this shell, as I have above noted, ed race of Negritos, traces of which are to be furnishing the ordinary knives.
found in many detached localities. Mr. Wallace, In hunting dugong and turtle, the practice ap- whose close acquaintance with and study of the pears to be to run the canoe close to where the various races of the Malayan Archipelago has animal lies asleep, or basking on the surface of the enabled him to draw distinctions not hitherto water. The striker, grasping the spear or harpoon recognized, writes that the “Negritos and firmly in both hands, springs forward, the weight Semangs of the Malay peninsula agree very of his body serving to drive in the weapon further | closely with each other, and with the Andamanese than could be done by mere hurling. A tussle in Islanders, while they differ in a marked manner the water ensues, at which other men jumping from every Papuan race." Again from the canoe assist.
"The Negritos are, no doubt, quite a distinct
