On the eastern side of the Bay of Bengal lies a cluster, or archipelago,
of islands known as the "Andamans." They form a long string running
nearly northward and southward; and with the Nicobar group, still
further to the south, they appear like a series of stepping-stones
connecting Cape Negrais, in the Burmese country, with the island of
Sumatra. Independent of the Nicobar Islands, the Andamans themselves
have an extent of several hundred miles in length; while their breadth
is nowhere over about twenty miles. Until of late the greater portion
of the group was supposed to form only one island,--known as the "Great
Andaman;" but, in the year 1792, this was discovered to have a channel
across it that divided it into two distinct parts.
The discovery of this channel was accidental; and the accident was
attended with melancholy consequences. A vessel from Madras had entered
between the Great Andaman, and the opposite coast of Burmah. This
vessel was laden with provisions, intended for the supply of Port
Cornwallis,--a convict settlement, which the British had formed the
preceding year on the eastern side of the island. The master of the
vessel, not knowing the position of Port Cornwallis, sent a boat to
explore an opening which he saw in the land,--fancying that it might be
the entrance to the harbour. It was not this, however; but the mouth of
the channel above mentioned. The crew of the boat consisted of two
Europeans and six Lascars. It was late in the afternoon when they stood
into the entrance; and, as it soon fell dark upon them, they lost their
way, and found themselves carried along by a rapid current that set
towards the Bay of Bengal. The north-east monsoon was blowing at the
time with great violence; and this, together with the rapid current,
soon carried the boat through the channel; and, in spite of their
efforts, they were driven out into the Indian Ocean, far beyond sight of
land! Here for eighteen days the unfortunate crew were buffeted about;
until they were picked up by a French ship, almost under the equinoctial
line, many hundreds of miles from the channel they had thus
involuntarily discovered! The sad part of the story remains to be told.
When relieved by the French vessel, the two Europeans and three of the
Lascars were still living; the other three Lascars had disappeared.
Shocking to relate, they had been killed and eaten by their companions!
The convict settlement above mentioned was carried on only for a few
years, and then abandoned,--in consequence of the unhealthiness of the
climate, by which the Sepoy guards of the establishment perished in
great numbers.
Notwithstanding this, the Andaman Islands present a very attractive
aspect. A ridge of mountains runs nearly throughout their whole extent,
rising in some places to a height of between two and three thousand
feet. These mountains are covered to their tops by dense forests, that
might be called primeval,--since no trace of clearing or cultivation is
to be found on the whole surface of the islands; nor has any ever
existed within the memory of man, excepting that of the convict
settlement referred to. Some of the forest trees are of great size and
height; and numerous species are intermixed. Mangroves line the shores;
and prickly ferns and wild rattans form an impenetrable brake on the
sides of the hills; bamboos are also common, and the "gambier" or
"cutch" tree (_Agathis_), from which is extracted the _Terra Japonica_
of commerce. There are others that yield dyes, and a curious species of
screw-pine (_pandanus_),--known as the "Nicobar breadfruit."
Notwithstanding their favourable situation, the zoology of these islands
is extremely limited in species. The only quadrupeds known to exist
upon them are wild hogs, dogs, and rats; and a variety of the monkey
tribe inhabits the forests of the interior. The land-birds are few,--
consisting of pigeons, doves, small parrots, and the Indian crow; while
hawks are seen occasionally hovering over the trees; and a species of
humming-bird flies about at night, uttering a soft cry that resembles
the cooing of doves. There are owls of several species; and the cliffs
that front the coast are frequented by a singular swallow,--the _hirundo
esculenta_, whose nests are eaten by the wealthy mandarins of China.
Along the shores there are gulls, kingfishers, and other aquatic birds.
A large lizard of the _guana_ species is common, with several others;
and a green snake, of the most venomous description, renders it
dangerous to penetrate the jungle thickets that cover the whole surface
of the country.
In all these matters there is not much that is remarkable,--if we accept
the extreme paucity of the zoology; and this is really a peculiarity,--
considering that the Andaman Islands lie within less than eighty leagues
of the Burman territory, a country so rich in mammalia; considering,
too, that they are covered with immense forests, almost impenetrable to
human beings, on account of their thick intertwining of underwood and
parasitical plants,--the very home, one would suppose for wild beasts of
many kinds! And withal we find only three species of quadrupeds, and
these small ones, thinly distributed along the skirts of the forest. In
truth, the Andaman Islands and their _fauna_ have long been a puzzle to
the zoologist.
But longer still, and to a far greater extent, have their human
inhabitants perplexed the ethnologist; and here we arrive at the true
peculiarity of the Andaman Islands,--that is to say, the _people_ who
inhabit them. With perhaps no exception, these people are the most
truly savage of any on the face of the globe; and this has been their
character from the earliest times: for they have been known to the
ancients as far back as the time of Ptolemy. Ptolemy mentions them
under the title of _anthropophagi_ (man-eaters); and the Arabs of the
ninth century, who navigated the Indian Ocean, have given a similar
account of them. Marco Polo adopts this statement, and what is still
more surprising, one of the most noted ethnologists of our own time--Dr
Latham--has given way to a like credulity, and puts the poor Andamaners
down as "pagan cannibals." It is an error: they are not cannibals in
any sense of the word; and if they have ever eaten human flesh,--of
which there is no proof,--it has been when impelled by famine. Under
like circumstances, some of every nation on earth have done the same,--
Englishmen, Germans, Frenchmen, Americans,--of late years frequently,--
in the mountains of New Mexico and California.
The charge of cannibalism against these miserable beings rests on no
other foundation than the allegations of Chinese sailors, and the vague
statements of Ptolemy and the Arabs above mentioned.
The Chinese have occasion now and then to visit the Andaman Islands in
their junks, to collect the edible nests of the swallow (_hirundo
esculenta_),--which birds have extensive breeding-places on the cliffs
that overhang the coast of the Great Andaman. The "trepang," or
sea-slug, is also found in large quantities upon the rocks near the
shore; and this is equally an object of commerce, and esteemed an
article of the greatest luxury, among the mandarins, and other rich
celestials who can afford to indulge in it.
Now and then, a junk has been wrecked among these rocks; and its
miserable crew have fallen a victim to the hostility of the natives:
just as they might have done on more civilised coasts, where no
cannibalism was ever suspected to exist. Crews of junks have been
totally destroyed,--murdered, if you please,--but it would not be
difficult to show, that this was done more from motives of revenge than
from a mere sanguinary instinct or disposition; but there is no proof
whatever of, even a single case, of true cannibalism. Indeed there are
strong reasons for our disbelief in this horrid custom,--so far as
regards the poor savages of the Andamans. An incident, that seems to
give a flat contradiction to it, occurred during the occupancy of the
island by the East-India Company in the year 1793; and other proofs of
non-cannibalism have been obtained at a still more recent period, to
which we shall presently allude.
The incident of 1793 was as follows: A party of fishers belonging to the
settlement enticed an Andaman woman to come near, by holding out
presents of food. The woman was made captive by these treacherous men;
who, instead of relieving her hunger, proceeded to behave to her in the
most brutal and unfeeling manner. The cries of the poor creature
brought a numerous troop of her people to the spot; who, rushing out of
the thickets from every side, collected around the fishermen; and,
having attacked them with spears and arrows, succeeded in killing two of
their number. The rest with difficulty escaped to the settlement; and,
having obtained assistance, a large party set out to search for the
bodies of their companions. There was but little expectation that these
would be recovered: as all were under the belief that the savages must
have carried them away for the purpose of making a cannibal feast upon
them. There had been ample time for the removing of them: since the
scene of the struggle was at a considerable distance from the fort.
The searchers, therefore, were somewhat astonished at finding both
bodies on the spot where they had fallen, and the enemy entirely gone
from the ground! The bodies were disfigured in the most shocking
manner. The flesh was pierced in every part,--by spears, no doubt,--and
the bones had been pounded with heavy stones, until they were mashed
into fragments; but not a bit of flesh was removed, not even an arm or
limb had been severed!
The other instance to which we have promised to allude occurred at a
much more recent period,--so late, in fact, as the period of the King of
Delhi's imprisonment. It will be fresh in the memory of my readers,
that his Hindoo majesty was carried to the island of Great Andaman,
along with a number of "Sepoy" rebels, who had been taken prisoners
during the late Indian revolt. The convict settlement was restored,
especially for this purpose; and a detachment of "East-India Company's
troops" was sent along with the rebel sepoys to guard them. It was
supposed that the troops would have great difficulty in the performance
of their duty: since the number of their prisoners was larger than could
be fairly looked after; and, it was well-known, that, if a prisoner
could once get clear of the walls of the fort, it would be altogether
idle to pursue him. The chase after a fugitive through the tangled
forests of the Andamans would be emphatically a "wild-goose" chase; and
there would be ten chances to one against his being recaptured.
Such, in reality, did it appear, for the first week or two, after the
settlement was re-established. Numerous prisoners escaped into the
woods, and as it was deemed idle to follow them, they were given up as
"lost birds."
In the end, however, it proved that they were not all lost,--though some
of them were. After a week or two had expired, they began to straggle
back to the fort, and voluntarily deliver themselves up to their old
guards,--now one, now another, or two or three at a time,--but all of
them in the most forlorn and deplorable condition. They had enjoyed a
little, liberty on the Andaman isles; but a taste of it had proved
sufficient to satisfy them that captivity in a well-rationed guard-house
was even preferable to freedom with a hungry stomach, added to the risk
which they ran every hour of the day of being impaled upon the spears of
the savages. Many of them actually met with this fate; and others only
escaped half dead from the hostile treatment they had received at the
hands of the islanders. There was no account, however, that any of them
had been _eaten_,--no evidence that their implacable enemies were
cannibals.
Such are a few arguments that seem to controvert the accusation of
Ptolemy and the two Arab merchants,--in whose travels the statement is
found, and afterwards copied by the famous Marco Polo. Probably the
Arabs obtained their idea from Ptolemy, Marco Polo from the Arabs, and
Dr Latham from Marco Polo. Indeed, it is by no means certain that
Ptolemy meant the Andaman Islands by his _Islae bonae Fortunae_, or
"Good-luck Isles,"--certainly a most inappropriate appellation. He may
have referred to Sumatra and its Battas,--who _are_ cannibals beyond a
doubt. And, after all, what could Ptolemy know about the matter except
from vague report, or, more likely still, more vague _speculation_,--a
process of reasoning practised in Ptolemy's time, just as at the present
day. We are too ready to adopt the errors of the ancient writers,--as
if men were more infallible then than they are now; and, on the other
hand, we are equally prone to incredulity,--often rejecting their
testimony when it would conduct to truth.
I believe there is no historic testimony--ancient or modern--before us,
to prove that the Andaman islanders are cannibals; and yet, with all the
testimony to the contrary, there is one fact, or rather a hypothesis,
which shall be presently adduced, that would point to the _probability_
of their being so.
If they are not cannibals, however, they are not the less unmitigated
_savages_, of the very lowest grade and degree. They are unacquainted
with almost the very humblest arts of social life; and are not even so
far advanced in the scale as to have an organisation. In this respect
they are upon a par with the Bushmen of Africa and the Diggers of North
America: still more do they resemble the wretched starvelings of Tierra
del Fuego. They have no tribal tie; but dwell in scattered groups or
gangs,--just as monkeys or other animals of a gregarious nature.
In person, the Andaman is one of the very "ugliest" of known savages.
He is of short stature, attaining to the height of only five feet; and
his wife is a head shorter than himself. Both are as black as pitch,
could their natural colour be discovered; but the skin is usually hidden
under a mask of rare material, which we shall presently have occasion to
describe.
The upper half of the Andamaner's body is strongly and compactly built,
and his arms are muscular enough. It is below, in the limbs, where he
is most lacking in development. His legs are osseous and thin; and,
only when he is in fine condition, is there the slightest swell on them
that would indicate the presence of a calf. His feet are of monstrous
length, and without any symmetry,--the heel projecting far backwards, in
the fashion usually styled "lark-heeled." It is just possible that a
good deal of practice, by running over mud-banks and quicksands in
search of his shell-fish subsistence, may have added to the natural
development of his pedal extremities; for there can be no longer any
doubt, that like effects have been produced by such causes,--effects
that are indeed, after all, more _natural_ than _artificial_.
The Andamaner exhibits the protuberance of belly noticed among other
savages, who lead a starving life; and his countenance is usually marked
with an expression that betrays a mixture of ferocity and famine.
It is worthy of remark, however, that though these stunted proportions
are generally observable among the natives of the Andaman Islands, they
do not appear to be universal. It is chiefly on the island of the Great
Andaman that the most wretched of these savages are found. The Little
Andaman seems to produce a better breed: since parties have been met
with on this last-named island, in which many individuals were observed
nearly six feet in height, and stout in proportion. One of these
parties, and the incident of meeting with it, are thus described by an
officer who was present:--
"We had not gone far, when, at an angle of the jungle, which covers the
island to within a few yards of the water's edge, we came suddenly upon
a party of the natives, lying upon their bellies behind the bushes,
armed with spears, arrows, and long-bows, which they bent at us in a
threatening manner. Our Lascars, as soon as they saw them, fell back in
great consternation, levelling their muskets and running into the sea
towards the boats. It was with great difficulty we could prevent our
cowardly rascals from firing; the tyndal was the only one who stood by
the chief mate and myself. We advanced within a few paces of the
natives, and made signs of drinking, to intimate the purpose of our
visit. The tyndal salaamed to them, according to the different oriental
modes of salutation,--he spoke to them in Malay, and other languages;
but they returned no answer, and continued in their crouching attitude,
pointing their weapons at us whenever we turned. I held out my
handkerchief but they would not come from behind the bushes to take it.
I placed it upon the ground; and we returned, in order to allow them an
opportunity of picking it up: still they would not move.
"I counted sixteen strong and able-bodied men opposite to us, many of
them very lusty; and further on, six more. They were very different in
appearance from what the natives of the Great Andaman are represented to
be,--that is, of a puny race. The whole party was completely naked,
with the exception of one,--a stout man nearly six feet in height, who
was standing up along with two or three women in the rear. He wore on
his head a red cloth with white spots.
"They were the most ferocious and wild-looking beings I ever beheld.
Those parts of their bodies that were not besmeared with mud, were of a
sooty black colour. Their faces seemed to be painted with a red ochre."
Notwithstanding the difference in stature and other respects,--the
result no doubt of a better condition of existence,--the inhabitants of
both islands, Great and Little Andaman, are the same race of people; and
in the portrait, the faces of both may be considered as one and the
same. This brings us to the strangest fact in the whole history of the
Andaman islander. Instead of a Hindoo face, or a Chinese Mongolian
face, or that of a Malay,--any of which we might reasonably expect to
find in an aboriginal of the Bay of Bengal,--we trace in the Andaman
islander the true physiognomy of a negro. Not only have we the flat
nose and thick lips, but the curly hair, the sooty complexion, and all
the other negro characteristics. And the most ill-favoured variety at
that; for, in addition to the ungraceful features already mentioned, we
find a head large beyond all proportion, and a pair of small, red eyes
deeply sunken in their sockets. Truly the Andaman islander has few
pretensions to being a beauty!
Wretched, however, as the Andaman islander may appear, and of little
importance as he certainly is in the great social family of the human
race, he is, ethnologically speaking, one of its most interesting
varieties. From the earliest times he has been a subject of
speculation, or rather his presence in that particular part of the world
where he is now found: for, since it is the general belief that he is
entirely isolated from the two acknowledged negro races, and surrounded
by other types of the human family, far different from either, the
wonder is how he came to be there.
Perhaps no other two thousand people on earth--for that is about the
number of Andaman islanders--have been honoured with a greater amount of
speculation in regard to their origin. Some ethnologists assign to them
an African origin, and account for their presence upon the Andaman
Islands by a singular story: that a Portuguese ship laden with African
slaves, and proceeding to the Indian colonies, was wrecked in the Bay of
Bengal, and, of course, off the coast of the Andamans: that the crew
were murdered by the slaves; who, set free by this circumstance, became
the inhabitants of the island. This story is supported by the argument,
that the hostility which the natives now so notoriously exhibit, had its
origin in a spirit of revenge: that still remembering the cruel
treatment received on the "middle passage" at the hands of their
Portuguese masters, they have resolved never to be enslaved again; but
to retaliate upon the white man, whenever he may fall into their power!
Certainly the circumstances would seem to give some colour to the tale,
if it had any foundation; but it has none. Were we to credit it, it
would be necessary to throw Ptolemy and the Arab merchants overboard,
and Marco Polo to boot. All these have recorded the existence of the
Andaman islanders, long before ever a Portuguese keel cleft the waters
of the Indian Ocean,--long even before Di Gama doubled the Cape!
But without either the aid of Ptolemy or the testimony of the Arabian
explorers, it can be established that the Andaman Islands were inhabited
before the era of the Portuguese in India; and by the same race of
savages as now dwell upon them.
Another theory is that it was an _Arabian_ slave-ship that was wrecked,
and not a Portuguese; and this would place the peopling of the islands
at a much earlier period. There is no positive fact, however, to
support this theory,--which, like the other, rests only on mere
speculation.
The error of these hypotheses lies in their mistaken _data_; for,
although, we have stated that the Andaman islanders are undoubtedly a
negro race, they are not that negro race to which the speculation
points,--in other words, they are not _African_ negroes. Beyond certain
marked features, as the flat nose and thick lips, they have nothing in
common with these last. Their hair is more of the kind called
"frizzly," than of the "woolly" texture of that of the Ethiopian negro;
and in this respect they assimilate closely to the "Papuan," or New
Guinea "negrillo," which every one knows is a very different being from
the _African_ negro.
Their moral characteristics--such as there has been an opportunity of
observing among them--are also an additional proof that they are not of
African origin; while these point unmistakably to a kinship with the
other side of the Indian Ocean. Even some of their fashions, as we
shall presently have occasion to notice, have a like tendency to confirm
the belief that the Andaman is a "negrillo," and not a "negro." The
only obstacle to this belief has hitherto been the fact of their
isolated situation: since it is alleged--rather hastily as we shall
see--that the whole of the opposite continent of the Burmese and other
empires, is peopled by races entirely distinct: that none of the
adjacent islands--the Nicobars and Sumatra--have any negro or negrillo
inhabitants: and that the Andamaners are thus cut off, as it were, from
any possible line of migration which they could have followed in
entering the Bay of Bengal. Ethnologists, however, seem to have
overlooked the circumstance that this allegation is not strictly true.
The _Samangs_--a tribe inhabiting the mountainous parts of the Malayan
peninsula--are also a negro or negrillo race; a fact which at once
establishes a link in the chain of a supposed migration from the great
Indian archipelago.
This lets the Andaman islander into the Great China Sea; or rather,
coming from that sea, it forms the stepping-stone to his present
residence in the Bay of Bengal. Who can say that he was not at one time
the owner of the Malayan peninsula? How can we account for the strange
fact, that figures of Boodh--the Guadma of the Burmese and Siamese--are
often seen in India beyond the Ganges, delineated with the curly hair
and other characteristic features of the negro?
The theory that the Samang and Andaman islander once ruled the Malay
peninsula; that they themselves came from eastward,--from the great
islands of the Melanesian group, the centre and source of the negrillo
race,--will in some measure account for this singular monumental
testimony. The probability, moreover, is always in favour of a
migration westward within the tropics. Beyond the tropics, the rule is
sometimes reversed.
A coincidence of personal habit, between the Andaman islander and the
Melanesian, is also observed. The former dyes his head of a brown or
reddish colour,--the very fashion of the Feegee!
Suppose, then, that the Samang and Andaman islander came down the
trades, at a period too remote for even tradition to deal with it:
suppose they occupied the Malay peninsula, no matter how long; and that
at a much more recent period, they were pushed out of place,--the one
returning to the Andaman Islands, the other to the mountains of the
Quedah: suppose also that the party pushing them off were Malays,--who
had themselves been drifted for hundreds of years down the trades from
the far shores of America (for this is _our_ "speculation"): suppose all
these circumstances to have taken place, and you will be able to account
for two facts that have for a long time puzzled the ethnologist. One is
the presence of negroes on the islands of Andaman,--and the other of
Malays in the south-eastern corner of Asia. We might bring forward many
arguments to uphold the probability of these hypotheses, had we space
and time. Both, however, compel us to return to the more particular
subject of our sketch; and we shall do so after having made a remark,
promised above, and which relates to the _probability_ of the Andaman
islander being a cannibal. This, then, _would lie in the fact of his
being a Papuan negro_. And yet, again, it is only a seeming; for it
might be shown that with the Papuan cannibalism is not a natural
instinct. It is only where he has reached a high degree of
_civilisation_, as in the case of the Feegee islander. Call the latter
a monster if you will; but, as may be learnt from our account of him, he
is anything but a _savage_, in the usual acceptation of the term. In
fact, language has no epithet sufficiently vile to characterise such an
anomalous animal as he.
I have endeavoured to clear the Andaman islander of the charge of this
guilt; and, since appearances are so much against him, he ought to feel
grateful. It is doubtful whether he would, should this fall into his
hands, and he be able to read it. The portrait of his face without that
stain upon it, he might regard as ugly enough; and that of his habits,
which now follows, is not much more flattering.
His house is little better than the den of a wild beast; and far
inferior in ingenuity of construction to those which beavers build. A
few poles stuck in the ground are leant towards each other, and tied
together at the top. Over these a wattle of reeds and rattan-leaves
forms the roof; and on the floor a "shake-down" of withered leaves makes
his bed, or, perhaps it should rather be called his "lair." This, it
will be perceived, is just the house built by Diggers, Bushmen, and
Fuegians. There are no culinary utensils,--only a drinking-cup of the
_nautilus_ shell; but implements of war and the chase in plenty: for
such are found even amongst the lowest of savages. They consist of
bows, arrows, and a species of javelin or dart. The bows are very long,
and made of the bamboo cane,--as are also the darts. The arrows are
usually pointed with the tusks of the small wild hogs which inhabit the
islands. These they occasionally capture in the chase, hanging up the
skulls in their huts as trophies and ornaments. With strings of the
hog's teeth also they sometimes ornament their bodies; but they are not
very vain in this respect. Sometimes pieces of iron are found among
them,--nails flattened to form the blades of knives, or to make an edge
for their adzes, the heads of which are of hard wood. These pieces of
iron they have no doubt obtained from wrecked vessels, or in the
occasional intercourse which they have had with the convict
establishment; but there is no regular commerce with them,--in fact, no
commerce whatever,--as even the Malay traders, that go everywhere, do
not visit the Andamaners, from dread of their well-known Ishmaelitish
character. Some of the communities, more forward in civilisation,
possess articles of more ingenious construction,--such as baskets to
hold fruits and shell-fish, well-made bows, and arrows with several
heads, for shooting fish. The only other article they possess of their
own manufacture, is a rude kind of canoe, hollowed out of the trunk of a
tree, by means of fire and their poor adze. A bamboo raft, of still
ruder structure, enables them to cross the narrow bays and creeks by
which their coast is indented.
Their habitual dwelling-place is upon the shore. They rarely penetrate
the thick forests of the interior, where there is nothing to tempt them:
for the wild hog, to which they sometimes give chase, is found only
along the coasts where the forest is thinner and more straggling, or
among the mangrove-bushes,--on the fruits of which these animals feed.
Strange to say, the forest, though luxuriant in species, affords but few
trees that bear edible fruits. The cocoa-palm--abundant in all other
parts of the East-Indian territories, and even upon the Cocos Islands,
that lie a little north of the Andamans--does not grow upon these
mountain islands. Since the savages know nothing of cultivation, of
course their dependence upon a vegetable diet would be exceedingly
precarious. A few fruits and roots are eaten by them. The pandanus,
above mentioned, bears a fine cone-shaped fruit, often weighing between
thirty and forty pounds; and this, under the name of _mellori_, or
"Nicobar breadfruit," forms part of their food. But it requires a
process of cooking, which, being quite unknown to the Andamaners, must
make it to them a "bitter fruit" even when roasted in the ashes of their
fires, which is their mode of preparing it. They eat also the fruit of
the mangrove, and of some other trees--but these are not obtainable at
all seasons, or in such quantity as to afford them a subsistence. They
depend principally upon fish, which they broil in a primitive manner
over a gridiron of bamboos, sometimes not waiting till they are half
done. They especially subsist upon shell-fish, several kinds abounding
on their coasts, which they obtain among the rocks after the tide has
gone out. To gather these is the work of the women, while the men
employ themselves in fishing or in the chase of the wild hog. The
species of shell-fish most common are the _murex tribulus, trochus
telescopium, cypraea caurica_, and mussels. They are dexterous in
capturing other fish with their darts, which they strike down upon the
finny prey, either from their rafts, or by wading up to their knees in
the water. They also take fish by torchlight,--that is, by kindling dry
grass, the blaze of which attracts certain species into the shallow
water, where the fishers stand in wait for them.
When the fishery fails them, and the oysters and muscles become scarce,
they are often driven to sad extremities, and will then eat anything
that will sustain life,--lizards, insects, worms,--perhaps even _human
flesh_. They are not unfrequently in such straits; and instances are
recorded, where they have been found lying upon the shore in the last
stages of starvation.
An instance of this kind is related in connection with the convict
settlement of 1793. A coasting-party one day discovered two Andamaners
lying upon the beach. They were at first believed to be dead, but as it
proved, they were only debilitated from hunger: being then in the very
last stages of famine. They were an old man and a boy; and having been
carried at once to the fort, every means that humanity could suggest was
used to recover them. With the boy this result was accomplished; but
the old man could not be restored: his strength was too far gone; and he
died, shortly after being brought to the settlement.
Two women or young girls were also found far gone with hunger; so far,
that a piece of fish held out was sufficient to allure them into the
presence of a boat's crew that had landed on the shore. They were taken
on board the ship, and treated with the utmost humanity. In a short
time they got rid of all fears of violence being offered them; but
seemed, at the same time, to be sensible of modesty to a great degree.
They had a small apartment allotted to them; and though they could
hardly have had any real cause for apprehension, yet it was remarked
that the two never went to sleep at the same time: one always kept watch
while the other slept! When time made them more familiar with the good
intentions towards them, they became exceedingly cheerful, chattered
with freedom, and were amused above all things at the sight of their own
persons in a mirror. They allowed clothes to be put on them; but took
them off again, whenever they thought they were not watched, and threw
them away as a useless encumbrance! They were fond of singing;
sometimes in a melancholy recitative, and sometimes in a lively key; and
they often gave exhibitions of dancing around the deck, in the fashion
peculiar to the Andamans. They would not drink either wine or any
spirituous liquor; but were immoderately fond of fish and sugar. They
also ate rice when it was offered to them. They remained, or rather
were retained, several weeks on board the ship; and had become so smooth
and plump, under the liberal diet they indulged in, that they were
scarce recognisable as the half-starved creatures that had been brought
aboard so recently. It was evident, however, that they were not
contented. Liberty, even with starvation allied to it, appeared sweeter
to them than captivity in the midst of luxury and ease. The result
proved that this sentiment was no stranger to them: for one night, when
all but the watchman were asleep, they stole silently through the
captain's cabin, jumped out of the stern windows into the sea, and swam
to an island full half a mile distant from the ship! It was thought
idle to pursue them; but, indeed, there was no intention of doing so.
The object was to retain them by kindness, and try what effect might
thus be produced on their wild companions, when they should return to
them. Strange to say, this mode of dealing with the Andaman islanders
has been made repeatedly, and always with the same fruitless result.
Whatever may have been the original cause that interrupted their
intercourse with the rest of mankind, they seem determined that this
intercourse shall never be renewed.
When plenty reigns among them, and there has been a good take of fish,
they act like other starved wretches; and yield themselves up to
feasting and gorging, till not a morsel remains. At such times they
give way to excessive mirth,--dancing for hours together, and chattering
all the while like as many apes.
They are extremely fond of "tripping it on the light fantastic toe;" and
their dance is peculiar. It is carried on by the dancers forming a
ring, and leaping about, each at intervals saluting his own posteriors
with a slap from his foot,--a feat which both the men and women perform
with great dexterity. Not unfrequently this mode of salutation is
passed from one to the other, around the the whole ring,--causing
unbounded merriment among the spectators.
Their fashion of dress is, perhaps, the most peculiar of all known
costumes. As to clothing, they care nothing about it,--the females only
wearing a sort of narrow fringe around the waist,--not from motives of
modesty, but simply as an ornament; and in this scant garment we have a
resemblance to the _liku_ of the Feegeeans. It can hardly be said,
however, that either men or women go entirely naked; for each morning,
after rising from his couch of leaves, the Andamaner plasters the whole
of his body with a thick coat of mud, which he wears throughout the day.
Wherever this cracks from getting dry by the sun, the place is patched
or mended up with a fresh layer. The black mop upon his head is not
permitted to wear its natural hue; but, as already mentioned, is
coloured by means of a red ochreous earth, which is found in plenty upon
the islands. This reddening of his poll is the only attempt which the
Andamaner makes at personal adornment; for his livery of mud is assumed
for a purpose of utility,--to protect his body from the numerous
mosquitoes, and other biting insects, whose myriads infest the lowland
coast upon which he dwells.
A startling peculiarity of these islanders is the unmitigated hostility
which they exhibit, and have always exhibited, towards every people with
whom they have, come in contact. It is not the white man alone whom
they hate and harass; but they also murder the Malay, whose skin is
almost as dark as their own. This would seem to contradict the
hypothesis of a tradition of hostility preserved amongst them, and
directed against white men who enslaved their ancestors; but, indeed,
that story has been sufficiently refuted. A far more probable cause of
their universal hatred is, that, at some period of their history, they
have been grossly abused; so much so as to render suspicion and
treachery almost an instinct of their nature.
In these very characteristic moral features we find another of those
striking analogies that would seem to connect them with the negrillo
races of the Eastern Archipelago; but, whether they are or are not
connected with them, their appearance upon the Andaman is no greater
mystery, than the solitary "fox-wolf" on the Falkland Islands, or the
smallest wingless insect in some lone islet of the Ocean?