CEREMONIAL CUSTOMS
In such a society as that of the Andaman Islanders it is possible to
distinguish three different ways in which the actions of individuals
are regulated or determined by the society. There are, first of all,
what we may distinguish as “moral customs,” whereby the actions of
individuals in relation to one another are regulated on principles of
right and wrong conduct. It was with customs of this kind that we were
concerned in the last chapter. Secondly, the activities by which the
natives obtain their food and make the various objects of which they
have need are determined by tradition. Such activities are purely
utilitarian and they are regulated, not by commandments similar to
those of the moral law, but by accumulated technical knowledge as to
the means by which a particular object may be attained. These we may
speak of as the “technical customs” of the society.
There are customs of a third kind which are distinguishable both from
moral customs and from technical customs. For example, when a man dies,
his near relatives observe certain mourning customs, such as covering
their bodies with clay. Such customs are distinguished from technical
customs by having no utilitarian purpose. They are distinguished from
moral customs by this, that they are not immediately concerned with the
effects of the action of one person upon another.
It is difficult to find a satisfactory name for all the customs of this
kind. A large number of them may be spoken of as “ceremonial customs,”
and it is this that explains the title of the present chapter.
It is not pretended that this division of social customs into three
different kinds is of any great or permanent value, and it is only
introduced as an aid to the exposition of the customs of the
Andamanese. It will be argued in a later chapter that many of the
customs described in the present chapter have a common psychological
basis.
Of any customs in connection with the birth of children I was able to
learn very little, as no births at which I could be present occurred
during my stay at the islands. Earlier writers have given very little
information on this subject.
During the latter part of the period of pregnancy, and for about a
month after the birth of the child, the mother and father must observe
certain restrictions. In particular there are certain foods that they
may not eat. The statements of different informants on this matter did
not quite agree with each other, and it seems that there were slightly
different rules in different tribes. According to an Akar-Bale
informant the man and woman may not eat dugong, honey and yams; they
may eat the flesh of small but not of full-grown pigs and turtle. An
informant of one of the Northern tribes said that the woman may not eat
full-grown pig, Paradoxurus, turtle, dugong, the fish komar, monitor
lizard, honey and yams; her husband may eat these things but must
carefully avoid eating certain fishes.
The natives give two different reasons for these rules. One is that if
these foods be eaten by the parents the child will be ill. The other is
that the parents themselves will be ill. The latter is the explanation
most commonly offered.
The baby is named some time before it is born, and from that time the
parents are not addressed or spoken of by name. For example, if the
name chosen be Rea, the father will be spoken of as Rea aka-mai (Rea’s
father) instead of by his own name. The mother may be referred to as
Rea it-pet, from the word it-pet meaning “belly.” This practice is
continued till some weeks after the birth, when the use of the names of
the parents is once more resumed.
In child-birth the woman is assisted by the matrons of the camp. She is
seated in her hut in the village on fresh leaves, and a piece of wood
is placed at her back for her to lean against. Her legs are flexed so
that her knees may be clasped by her arms. The only manipulation is
pressure exerted on the upper part of the abdomen by one of the
attendant women. The umbilical cord is severed with a knife, formerly
of cane or bamboo, but in these days of iron. The after-birth is buried
in the jungle. The infant is washed and then scraped with a Cyrena
shell. After a few days he (or she) is given a coating of clay (odu).
If a baby dies and within a year or two the mother again becomes
pregnant, it is said that it is the same baby born again, and the name
of the deceased child is given to it. Thus one woman had three children
of the same name, the first two having died soon after birth. According
to the native ideas this was really the same child born three times. It
is only those who die in infancy that are thus reincarnated.
In the Northern tribes it is believed that a woman can tell the sex of
her unborn child. If she feels it on the left side it is a male,
because men hold the bow (the typical masculine implement) in the left
hand. If she feels it on the right side it is a female, because it is
in her right hand that a woman holds her fishing net.
A married man who is childless and desires a child will wear a čiba
(sling of bark used for carrying children) round his shoulders when he
is sitting in camp. The čiba and the way it is used for carrying
children may be seen in the photograph in Plate XIV. If a childless
woman wishes to have a child she may catch, cook and eat a certain
species of small frog.
At a place called Tonmuket in the North Andaman there is a spot to
which it is said that women may resort if they wish to become pregnant.
On the reef at this spot there are a large number of stones which,
according to the legend, were once little children. The woman who
desires a child walks out on to the reef when the tide is low and
stands upon these stones. It is believed that one of the baby souls
will enter her body and become incarnate [53].
In the North Andaman there is some sort of association between the
unborn souls of babies, the green pigeon and the Ficus laccifera tree.
The same name, Reŋko, is used to denote both the green pigeon and also
the Ficus laccifera, of the fruit of which the pigeon is very fond. The
belief of the natives is sometimes stated by saying that the souls of
unborn children live in the Ficus trees, and that if a baby dies before
it has been weaned its soul goes back to the tree. Another statement of
the natives is that it is when the green pigeon is calling that the
soul of a baby goes into its mother. The Ficus is to a certain extent
tabu. I was told that the tree must not be cut or damaged. Nevertheless
the natives do cut the tree in order to obtain the bark of the aerial
roots from which they prepare a fibre that they use for making personal
ornaments. There is no tabu in connection with the green pigeon, which
may be killed and eaten.
In most primitive societies, if not in all, there are ritual or
ceremonial observances in connection with the change by which a boy or
girl becomes a man or woman. The ceremonies that are performed to mark
this change are commonly spoken of in ethnological literature as
“initiation ceremonies.” The term is not perhaps the best that could be
chosen, but usage has rendered it familiar.
The life of an Andaman Islander is divided into three well-marked
periods, corresponding roughly with the physiological periods of
childhood, adolescence, and maturity. The first period lasts from birth
till about the advent of puberty; the second lasts from puberty till
after marriage; the third extends from marriage to death.
During the period of childhood the boy or girl lives with his or her
parents, or, in the later years of the period, with adopted parents,
having a place in the family hut and a share in the family meal. A girl
continues to live with her parents or with her adopted parents until
she marries. When boys have finished growing, and have reached the
condition of young men, they cease to live with their parents or
adopted parents and, until they are married, they occupy a bachelors’
hut of their own, and have their own meal.
Every boy and girl has to undergo the operation of scarification. This
is begun when the child is quite young, and a small portion of the body
is operated on. The operation is repeated at intervals during
childhood, until the whole body has been scarified. A small flake of
quartz or glass is used, and a series of fine incisions are made in the
skin. The usual method is to cover a small portion of the skin with a
number of parallel rows of short cuts. The choice of the design (if it
can be called such) rests entirely with the person who performs the
operation, who is in all cases a woman. The incisions leave scars that
can usually only be seen when close to the person. In the photograph of
Plate XV a pattern of scars may be seen. In this case the incisions
became infected and raised scars were produced, and it is for this
reason that they are visible in the photograph. In ordinary cases
raised scars are not produced and the scarification is hardly visible
in a photograph.
The only reason that the natives give for this custom is either that it
improves the personal appearance, or else that it helps to make the
child grow strong.
In the case of a girl the period of childhood is brought to a close by
a ceremony that takes place on the occasion of her first menstrual
discharge. The ceremony I describe is that in use in the Northern
tribes, but I believe that the ceremony of the Southern tribes is very
similar. On the occurrence of the first menstrual discharge the girl
tells her parents, who weep over her. She must then go and bathe in the
sea for an hour or two by herself. After that she goes back to her
parents’ hut or to a special shelter that is put up for the occasion.
She is not required to go away from the camp. All ornaments are removed
from her, only a single belt of Pandanus leaf being left, with an apron
of čainyo leaves. Strips of Pandanus leaf are attached round her arms
near the shoulders and round her wrists, and others are placed as bands
crossing her chest from the shoulder to the waist on the opposite side,
and crossing her abdomen from the iliac crest on the one side to the
trochanter on the other. These are so attached that the long loose ends
hang down at the girl’s side. Bunches of leaves, either čelmo
(Tetranthera lancæfolia) or, if these be not obtainable, poramo
(Myristica longifolia) are fastened beneath her belt before and behind.
Other leaves of the same kind are placed for her to sit upon. The
strips of Pandanus leaf and the bundle of leaves are visible in the
photograph reproduced in Plate XVI.
Thus covered with leaves the girl must sit in the hut allotted to her,
with her legs doubled up beneath her and her arms folded. A piece of
wood or bamboo is placed at her back for her to lean against, as she
may not lie down. If she is cramped she may stretch one of her legs or
one of her arms, but not both arms or both legs at the same time. To
feed herself she may release one of her hands, but she must not take up
the food with her fingers; a skewer of čainyo wood [54] is given her
with which to feed herself. She may not speak nor sleep for 24 hours.
Her wants are attended to by her parents and their friends, who sit
near her to keep her from falling asleep.
The girl sits thus for three days. Early every morning she leaves the
hut to bathe for an hour in the sea. At the end of the three days she
resumes her life in the village. For a month following she must bathe
in the sea every morning at dawn.
During the ceremony and for a short time afterwards the girl is not
addressed or spoken of by name, but is referred to as Alebe or Toto.
The meaning of the first word is not known. Toto is the name of the
species of Pandanus from which women’s belts are made and the leaves of
which are used in the ceremony. On the occasion of this ceremony the
girl is given a new name, her “flower-name,” and from this time till
after the birth of her first child she is never addressed or spoken of
by the name which she had as a child, but only by the name given to her
at this ceremony. The name given is that of a plant or tree which is in
flower at the time. If the ceremony takes place when the ǰili is in
flower she is called J̌ili; if when the ǰeru is in flower she is named
J̌eru, and so on. These names will be mentioned again later in the
present chapter.
After this ceremony the girl is said to be aka-ndu-kolo̱t. For some time
afterwards she must not have her head shaved, and she must not use red
paint or white clay.
I was not able to learn much about the native ideas in connection with
the menstrual function. According to the account given me by one
informant I gathered that the girl’s first menstrual discharge is
supposed to be due to sexual intercourse. The man’s breath goes into
her nose and this produces the discharge. It is believed that if a man
were to touch a girl during this period, either during the ceremony or
for some time after it, his arm would swell up.
At every recurrence of the menstrual period a woman is required to
abstain from eating certain foods. According to an Akar-Bale informant
these are, in that tribe, pork, turtle, Paradoxurus, honey and yams. An
Aka-Čari informant added to the above list dugong, monitor lizard, and
the fish komar. If she ate any of these things at such a time she would
be ill. This continues throughout her life till the climacteric. A
menstruating woman is not required to leave the camp, as she is in many
savage communities.
From the moment of the ceremony just described the girl enters a new
condition which is denoted in the Aka-J̌eru language by the word aka-op
(aka-yaba in Aka-Bea). This word means that the person to whom it is
applied is under certain ritual restrictions, chiefly concerned with
foods that may not be eaten.
In the case of a boy there is no physiological event so clearly marked
as there is in that of a girl. It rests with the relatives and friends
to decide when the boy is to become aka-op. It would seem that in the
Southern tribes there is no ceremony on this occasion. Among the
Northern tribes the boy is made aka-op by means of a ceremony that
consists of making the scars on his back that are customary in these
tribes [55].
When the friends and relatives of a boy decide that he is old enough to
have the incisions made in his back a dance is held in the evening, and
the boy is required to dance through the whole night till he is tired.
As soon as morning breaks he is made to bathe in the sea for two hours
or so. He is then seated in some convenient place, not in a hut. The
boy kneels down and bends forward till his elbows rest on the ground in
front. One of the older men takes a pig-arrow and with the sharpened
blade makes a series of cuts on the boy’s back. Each cut is horizontal,
and they are arranged in three vertical rows, each row consisting of
from 20 to 30 cuts. When the cutting is finished the boy sits up, with
a fire at his back, until the bleeding stops. During the operation and
for a few hours following it the boy must remain silent. There is no
treatment of the wounds to produce raised scars. The scars are much
more noticeable on some men than on others.
The boy does not receive a new name on this occasion, but for a few
weeks his own name is dropped and he is addressed and spoken of as
Eǰido. From this time the boy is described as being oko-taliŋ-kolo̱t,
this being the masculine term corresponding to aka-ndu-kolo̱t for girls.
From the time the cuts are made on his back the boy becomes aka-op and
is under certain restrictions as to what foods he may eat.
When the wounds on his back are thoroughly healed similar cuts are made
on his chest. I found a certain number of men who had no visible scars
on their chests, but in the North Andaman every man has the three rows
of scars on his back. Some of the women of the North Andaman have
similar scars on their chests and a very few have them also on the
back. These scars on women are not regularly made as part of the
initiation ceremonies, and may be made after the woman has been married
for some years.
During the period that a boy or girl is aka-op he or she is required by
the customs of the tribe to abstain from eating certain foods. The
exact rules in this matter differ from tribe to tribe. More
particularly there are important differences between the coast-dwellers
on the one hand and the jungle-dwellers on the other. The general
principle, however, is in all cases the same. The boy (or girl) must
abstain from all the chief foods of the people, and since he could not
abstain from them all at one time without starving, he takes them in
turn. It is in the order in which the different foods are forbidden
that the chief differences occur.
In the Aka-Čari tribe of the North Andaman, where all are
coast-dwellers, the boy or girl, during the first part of the aka-op
period must not eat turtle, dugong, porpoise, komar (a fish), hawksbill
turtle, the two kinds of edible grubs (pata and čokele), the monitor
lizard, the flying fox (Pteropus), certain birds (perhaps all birds),
certain shell-fish, the four varieties of mangrove seed (kao, čimi,
kabal and kaplo), three edible roots (mino, labo and mikulu), and a
large number of other vegetable foods, including lo̱itok, poroto (if
cooked, but it may be eaten raw), biǰo, čoroŋo, celet, buroŋ, bui,
bakle, čo, čatali, and kata. A certain number of fishes must be added
to this list. This period is brought to a end by the turtle-eating
ceremony which will be presently described. After this ceremony,
turtle, which is one of the chief foods of the Aka-Čari, may be eaten,
although certain parts of the turtle (such as the intestinal fat) are
still forbidden, and the youth is also allowed to eat many of the other
foods previously forbidden. On the other hand he is now required not to
eat pork and a number of other foods both animal and vegetable. During
this second period certain minor ceremonies take place, as for instance
on the first occasion on which turtle’s eggs are eaten. This period is
brought to an end by the pig-eating ceremony. After that the youth is
again free to eat pork. As turtle and pork are the two most important
foods the ceremonies and observances in connection with these occupy a
position of greater importance. After the pig-eating ceremony the youth
is made free of one food after another, until some time after he is
married he becomes free to partake of any of the foods available. In
the case of some of the more important foods, such as honey, dugong,
porpoise, the fish komar, etc., there is a sort of minor ceremony. The
only ceremonies of any great importance in this tribe are the
turtle-eating and the pig-eating ceremonies.
In the forest-dwelling communities of the North Andaman things are
necessarily different. These people only eat such foods as turtle,
dugong, etc. when they are visiting their friends on the coast. The
three most important ceremonies amongst these people are the
ńyuri-eating, the pig-eating and the honey-eating ceremonies. (The
ńyuri is a fish that is found in the creeks.) According to my
informants of the Aka-Bo tribe the foods that must be avoided during
the first part of the abstention period are all species of fish found
in inland creeks (ńyuri, burto, bari, bol, kuato), the monitor lizard,
sucking-pig, two species of snake (or-čubi and uluku-čubi), a number of
vegetable foods and also honey. After the ńyuri-eating ceremony the
different kinds of fish mentioned may be eaten, but the youth or girl
must then abstain from pork.
These examples, without entering into further details, will suffice to
show what is the nature of the aka-op period. During that period the
youth must abstain for a certain length of time from each one of the
more important foods of his community. After a certain period of
abstention he is permitted to eat the particular food. On each occasion
of thus eating a food for the first time after the abstention, there
are certain ritual customs that must be observed, and these customs are
more important in some cases (such as pig, turtle and honey) than in
others. In the case of some of the foods the only ritual observed is
that the food must be given by an older man, who is himself free to eat
it, that it must be eaten in silence, and that the man must be painted
afterwards with clay (odu). In the case of pork and turtle, however,
there are fairly elaborate ceremonies. The ceremonies are very similar
in different parts of the islands. The description given below applies
to the coast-dwellers of the North Andaman. In these communities the
period of abstention from turtle and other foods begins in the case of
a girl at the first menstruation, and in the case of a boy when his
back is cut. It may last only one year or several years, according to
circumstances, and is brought to a close by the turtle-eating ceremony.
The details of this are exactly the same in the case of a girl and a
boy.
When the older men decide that it is time for a boy who has been
abstaining from turtle to be released from the restriction, a
turtle-hunting expedition is arranged, and this is continued until a
fair number of good turtle are captured. The best of these is selected,
killed, and cooked. The youth is seated in a hut, either that of his
parents, or one placed at his disposal by a friend or one specially
built [56]. All his ornaments are removed. (In the case of a girl one
belt of Pandanus leaf is retained.) He is seated on leaves of the
Hibiscus tiliaceus, or if these be not obtainable, on those of the
Myristica longifolia, and a bundle of the same leaves is placed under
his folded arms so as to cover his belly, while another bundle is
placed at his back where there is some sort of rest provided for him to
lean against. He must sit still with folded arms and with legs
stretched out in front, the two big toes clasping each other. He sits
facing towards the open sea, and a fire is placed near him, generally
just beyond his feet.
Some man is chosen to take charge of the ceremony. This may be one of
the older men of the community to which the youth belongs or a
distinguished visitor, if there be any such present in the camp at the
time. This man selects some of the meat and fat of the cooked turtle,
placing them in a wooden dish. He comes to where the youth is seated,
while the friends and relatives gather round. Taking some of the fat he
rubs it first over the lips and then over the whole body of the youth,
while the female relatives of the latter sit near and weep loudly. When
the youth’s body is thoroughly covered with fat the man who is
performing the ceremony takes some burnt oxide of iron, such as is used
for making red paint, and rubs it over the youth’s whole body, except
the hair of his head. He then takes a piece of turtle fat and places it
in the youth’s mouth, feeding him thus with a few mouthfuls which the
youth eats in silence. At this point the weeping of the relatives is
taken up again with renewed vigour and then gradually comes to an end.
Having fed the youth the man then proceeds to massage him. He first
stands behind him and placing his hands on his shoulders presses down
on them with all his weight. Then he seizes a roll of flesh on each
side of the youth’s belly and shakes it up and down as though to shake
down what has been eaten. The arms are next massaged and the wrists and
knuckles are forcibly flexed so as to make the joints “crack.” The legs
are similarly massaged, either with the hands or with the feet, the
performer (in the latter case) standing on the outstretched legs of the
youth and rolling the muscles beneath his feet [57]. The joints of the
toes are forcibly bent with the hand to make them “crack” if possible.
A mixture of clay (odu) and water has been prepared in a wooden dish.
The performer dips his hands into this and spatters it over the youth’s
body from head to foot, either by holding his hands near the youth and
clapping them together, or by jerking the clay off his fingers with a
flicking motion. During the whole of these proceedings the youth sits
passive and silent.
The first part of the ceremony is now over. The food tray containing
turtle meat and fat, cut into small pieces, is placed beside the youth
and he is provided with a skewer of the wood of the Hibiscus tiliaceus,
as he may not touch the meat with his fingers. He must sit in the same
position with legs outstretched and arms folded and surrounded with
Hibiscus leaves. To feed himself he may unloose one arm, and when his
legs are cramped he may double them up beneath him. He may not lie down
nor speak nor sleep for 48 hours. During this period he may eat nothing
but turtle and drink nothing but water [58]. The man in charge of the
ceremony sits behind him and gives him instructions as to what foods he
may and what he may not eat after the ceremony. Some of the men and
women take it in turn to sit beside the youth, attending to his wants
and talking or singing to keep him awake.
On the morning of the third day a belt and necklace are made of pieces
of the creeper called terkobito-balo, i.e. “centipede creeper” (Pothos
scandens), and these are placed round the youth’s waist and neck. On
this day he is permitted to sleep. Either on the same day, or early the
next morning, he has a bath in the sea, to remove some of the red paint
and clay, and he is then decorated with red paint made of red ochre and
turtle fat, and with white clay (to̱l-odu). The red paint is put on in
stripes over his body, and his ears are daubed with it. The white clay
is put on in a zig-zag pattern to be described later, the lines of
white clay alternating with those of red paint. This decoration is done
by female relatives.
Early on the morning of the fourth day, soon after daybreak, the whole
village is astir. One of the older men takes his stand by the
sounding-board used for marking time at dances, and the women sit down
near him. The youth comes out from his hut and stands in the middle of
the dancing ground, and five or six men stand round him in a circle,
each of them facing towards the youth. Each of the men, including the
youth, holds in each hand a bundle of twigs of the Hibiscus tiliaceus
or, if such be not obtainable, of the Myristica longifolia. The man at
the sounding-board sings a song, beating time with his foot, in the
usual way, on the sounding-board, and at the chorus the women join in
and mark the time by clapping their hands on their thighs. The song may
be on any subject and is selected by the singer from his own repertory.
A song referring to turtle-hunting is preferred. During the first song
the dancers stand at their positions on the dancing ground, lifting up
their leaf bundles at short intervals and bringing them down against
their knees. The singer then commences a new song or repeats the former
one, and when the song comes to an end the youth and those with him
begin their dance. Each dancer flexes his hips so that his back is
nearly horizontal. He raises his hands to the back of his neck so that
the two bundles of leaves in his hands rest on his back. With knees
flexed he leaps from the ground with both feet, keeping time to the
beating of the sounding-board, which is about 144 beats to the minute.
At the end of every eight jumps or so, the dancer brings his hands
forwards, downwards and backwards, giving a vigorous sweep with the
bundles of leaves, which scrape the ground at each side of his feet,
and then brings back the bundles to their former position. They dance
thus for 15 or 30 seconds and then pause to rest. The dance is repeated
several times, until the youth is tired out. As the dance is extremely
fatiguing this does not take long [59].
The youth then returns to his hut and resumes his former position. He
may now, if he wishes, talk to his friends and he may sleep. He must
retain the bundles of Hibiscus leaves and the necklace and belt of
Pothos leaves. The dance is sometimes repeated in the afternoon. It is
in any case repeated on each of the two days following, and after that
the youth resumes his ordinary life. For a week or two he may not touch
a bow and arrow. The Pothos leaves are worn till they are faded and are
then discarded. The paint on the body wears off and is not renewed, but
his ears are kept painted with red paint. For some weeks the youth is
supposed to be in an abnormal condition and is carefully watched by his
friends.
At the turtle-eating ceremony a new name is given to the youth. This
name, however, never seems to be used afterwards either in speaking of
or to the person to whom it belongs. A youth of the Aka-J̌eru tribe
whose birth name was Čop (from a species of tree) and whose nick-name
or second name was Komar (from a species of fish) had two new names
given to him on the occasion of the turtle-eating ceremony, Čokbi-čiro
(meaning turtle-liver) and Pilečar (high-tide). Neither of these names
was ever used in addressing him.
The turtle-eating ceremony is called in the Northern tribes either
Čokbi-ǰo, Čokbi-kimil, or Kimil-ǰo. The word čokbi means “turtle,” and
ǰo means “eating.” The word kimil is more difficult to translate. With
the prefix ot- or er- it means “hot” as in T’ ot-kimil-bom, “I am hot.”
From the time of the commencement of the ceremony the youth or girl is
said to be in a condition denoted by the word aka-kimil. During this
time, i.e. during the ceremony and for some months afterwards, he or
she is not addressed or spoken of by name but is referred to as
“Kimil,” the word being thus used as a term of address or a substitute
for the personal name. A person who is in this condition is described
as aka-kimil-kolo̱t. (Before the ceremony the youth is oko-taliŋ-kolo̱t
and the girl is aka-ndu-kolo̱t.) In the Aka-Bea tribe the turtle-eating
ceremony is called Yadi-gumul or Gumul-leke, yadi being the word for
“turtle” in that language, and leke being the equivalent of the ǰo of
Aka-J̌eru, that is “eating.” A youth or girl who is passing or has
recently passed through the ceremony is said to be aka-gumul, and is
addressed and spoken of, not by name, but by the term Guma [60].
In the coast-dwelling communities of the Northern tribes, the youth or
girl who has passed through the turtle-eating ceremony is thereafter
free to eat turtle flesh (though not the liver nor the intestinal fat
of the turtle) and a certain number of the other foods that were
previously forbidden. On the other hand, he or she is now forbidden to
eat pork and a number of other foods which previously were permitted.
The period during which these new prohibitions are in force may last
for a few months or for a year or even longer. It is, however,
generally shorter than the first period of abstention from turtle. It
is brought to an end by a pig-eating ceremony which is similar in many
ways to the turtle-eating ceremony already described. A boar must be
killed if the initiate be a youth, or a sow if it be a girl who is to
go through the ceremony. The youth is seated in a hut on leaves of the
čelmo (Tetranthera) and the carcase of the boar is brought and pressed
upon the youth’s shoulders and back by one of the men. The girl is not
treated in this way. The pork is then cooked and the youth is first
anointed and then fed with some of the fat. He is then rubbed with red
ochre, massaged and splashed with clay, just as in the turtle-eating
ceremony. He must sit silent with arms crossed, and covered with
Tetranthera leaves for a day and a night. During this time he may only
eat pork, and must not touch his food with his hands but must use a
skewer of Tetranthera wood. On the following day he is decorated with
white clay (to̱l-odu) and with red paint, and takes part in a dance. The
dance is almost exactly the same as the dance on the occasion of the
turtle-eating ceremony, the only differences being that instead of
Hibiscus leaves those of the Tetranthera are used, and that the dancer
does not leap with both feet from the ground, but raises one foot and
stamps with it.
In the Northern tribes these are the two most important ceremonies.
After the pig-eating ceremony the youth is free to eat pork and a
certain number of previously forbidden foods. There remain a
considerable number of foods, however, which he is still forbidden. In
connection with each of these there is some sort of minor ceremony. The
older men, when occasion arises, offer the youth or girl some of the
forbidden food, first rubbing it over his or her mouth. The food is
then eaten in silence. I only saw one such ceremony, when a man ate for
the first time after his abstention the intestinal fat of the turtle.
The man was about 24 years of age and had long since been through the
chief ceremonies, and was married. The ceremony is perhaps more
elaborate in the case of the similar first eating of honey, dugong and
a few other foods. One after another of the food prohibitions is
removed until the man or woman is free to eat anything. There is no
regular order in which this takes place, as in each case it is
determined by chance circumstances. The only order that is rigorously
observed is that of the two chief ceremonies connected with pork and
turtle. These two are the principal meat foods of the coast-dwellers.
The above description applies strictly only to the coast-dwellers of
the North Andaman (Aka-Čari, Aka-J̌eru and Aka-Ko̱ra). I was not able to
see any ceremonies performed by the jungle-dwellers. The old men of the
Aka-Bo tribe told me that the period of abstention begins when a boy or
girl is forbidden to eat the fish ńyuri (Plotosus sp., probably P.
arab), and a certain number of other foods, not including pork. The
first ceremony is the eating of the ńyuri. The boy or girl is seated on
leaves (kibir or tare or ra-čiro) and bundles of these are placed in
his belt before and behind. A belt of Pandanus leaf is worn by the boys
at this ceremony as well as by the girls. The initiate sits with his
legs doubled up beneath him, and is fed with the fish. The ceremony
lasts only one day. There is no special dance, but the initiate joins
in an ordinary dance at the end of the ceremony, being decorated for
this purpose with white clay. After this ceremony the youth must
abstain from pork and other foods. The pig-eating ceremony, which
closes this period of abstention, lasts altogether for three or four
days, the initiate remaining awake for one night. The leaves used are
the same as those of the first (fish-eating) ceremony. The third
important ceremony of these communities is the honey-eating. The
initiate sits cross-legged and honey is rubbed over his or her
shoulders and chest, and he or she is fed with it.
I was told by one of my informants that in the Aka-Kede tribe the
pig-eating ceremony precedes the turtle-eating, but I could not obtain
reliable information about the ceremonies of this tribe.
My informants of the Akar-Bale tribe, which consists of coast-dwelling
communities only, told me that the period of abstention begins with
turtle, honey, turtle’s eggs, yams, and a number of fruits and seeds.
This period lasts for three or four years. Then comes the turtle-eating
ceremony, which is said to be similar in its details to that already
described from the North Andaman. After this ceremony the initiate may
not eat dugong, porpoise and a considerable number of fishes (including
Tetrodon sp., Plotosus sp., Anguilla bengalensis, Trygon bleekari, T.
siphen, Urogymnus asperrimus, Carcharias gangeticus, etc.). He must
also abstain from turtle’s eggs, pig, yams, honey, and certain fruits
(e.g. Artocarpus chaplasha, Mimusops littoralis, Baccaurea sapida,
etc.). A few months after the turtle-eating ceremony there is a minor
ceremony of eating turtle’s eggs, the eggs being eaten in silence and
the meal followed by a dance. After another period follows the ceremony
of eating pig’s kidney-fat. Then, as opportunity occurs, the initiate
eats dugong, honey and the other forbidden foods, one after another.
The ceremony in each case is not elaborate except in connection with
such important foods as dugong and honey.
Mr E. H. Man has given a description of the ceremonies of the Aka-Bea
tribe, which shows that they are essentially similar to those of the
North. He does not distinguish between the ceremonies of the aryoto
(coast-dwellers) and those of the eremtaga (jungle-dwellers). He states
that the fasting period (aka-yaba) is divided into three parts, the
first ending with the yadi- (turtle) gumul, the second with the aǰa-
(honey) gumul, and the third with the reg-ǰiri- (kidney-fat of pig)
gumul.
As I was not able to witness the honey-eating ceremony, I venture to
reproduce below the description that Mr Man gives of this ceremony as
it is conducted in the Aka-Bea tribe.
“When the honey fast is to be broken a quantity of honeycombs,
according to the number assembled, are on the appointed day procured:
the aka-yab being placed in the midst of the group, the chief or other
elder goes to him with a large honeycomb wrapped in leaves; after
helping the novice to a large mouthful, which he does by means of a
bamboo or iron knife, he presents the remainder to him, and then leaves
him to devour it in silence: this he does, not, however, by the
ordinary method, for it is an essential part of the ceremony that he
should not use his fingers to break off pieces, but eat it
bear-fashion, by holding the comb up to his mouth and attacking it with
his teeth and lips. After satisfying his present requirements, he wraps
what is left of the comb in leaves for later consumption. The chief
then takes another comb and anoints the youth by squeezing it over his
head, rubbing the honey well into his body as it trickles down. The
proceedings at this stage are interrupted by a bath, in order to remove
all traces of the honey, which would otherwise be a source of
considerable inconvenience by attracting ants. Beyond the observance of
silence, and continued abstention from reg-ǰiri (pig’s kidney-fat), the
youth is under no special restrictions, being able to eat, drink and
sleep as much as he pleases. Early the following morning the lad
decorates himself with leaves of a species of Alpinia, called ǰini
[61], and then, in the presence of his friends, goes into the sea (or,
if he be an eremtaga, into a creek) up to his waist, where, locking his
thumbs together, he splashes as much water as possible over himself and
the by-standers, occasionally ducking his head under the surface as
well. This is considered a safeguard or charm against snakes, and the
onlookers cry “o̱to-pedike, kinig wara-ǰobo lo̱tike” (Go and splash
yourself, or Wara-ǰobo [62] will get inside you), for they imagine that
unless they go through this splashing performance, this snake will by
some means enter their stomachs and so cause death. The only difference
between the sexes with respect to the aǰa-gumul is that with females it
cannot take place until after the birth of the first child; they are
also required to abstain from honey during each subsequent pregnancy;
and in their case, too, a chief or elder (preferably a relative)
officiates, and not a woman [63].”
We may now proceed to the ritual customs connected with death and
burial. In all the Great Andaman tribes disease and death are supposed
to be due to the spirits of the jungle and the sea. The subject will be
dealt with in the next chapter.
On the occurrence of a death the news quickly spreads through the camp,
and all the women collect round the body and, sitting down, weep loudly
until they are exhausted. The women then retire and the men come and
weep over the corpse. All the adult members of the community then
proceed to cover themselves with a wash of common clay smeared evenly
over their bodies and limbs. This clay is of the kind called odu in
Aka-J̌eru and og in Aka-Bea. The nearer relatives and more intimate
friends of the deceased also plaster some of the same clay on their
heads.
Some of the women, generally, but not necessarily, relatives, remove
any ornaments the dead person may have been wearing, shave the head and
decorate the body. This decoration consists of lines of fine pattern in
white clay alternating with bands of red paint. A band of red paint is
placed across the upper lip passing from ear to ear and the ears
themselves are smeared with the pigment. The greater the estimation in
which the deceased person is held the greater is the care lavished upon
this the last decoration.
Thus decorated the body is prepared for burial. The legs and arms are
flexed so that the knees come up under the chin and the fists rest
against the cheeks. A Cyrena shell (or sometimes in these days a steel
knife) is placed in the closed hand. A sleeping mat is wrapped round
the body, and over this a number of the large palm leaves known as ko̱bo
(Aka-J̌eru) are arranged and the whole is made into a bundle and tied up
with rope. Before the ropes are all tied the relatives of the dead
person take their last farewell by gently blowing on the face of the
corpse.
The male relatives and friends then proceed to the spot selected for
the burial, one of them carrying the corpse slung on his back. If the
burial place can be reached by canoe, no hesitation is shown in making
use of a canoe for the purpose. There are not, so far as could be
discovered, any rules as to which of the men shall undertake the
burial. Such relatives as brother, father, son or husband generally
take the leading part. The women take no part in the actual burial.
There are two modes of disposing of the body, in a grave dug in the
ground, or upon a platform placed in a tree. The latter is considered
the more honourable form of burial, and is only adopted in the case of
a man or woman dying in the prime of life. The same grave is not used
twice, in the case of interment, though a new grave may be made close
to an old one. The natives said that the same tree might be used
several times for platform-burial, but there was no opportunity of
proving this statement. There are not, generally speaking, any regular
burying grounds. Any convenient spot may be chosen so long as it is at
some little distance from the camp. It does happen, however, that
certain spots are fairly regularly used. In the case of one burial that
I witnessed the spot chosen was about a mile distant from the camp, the
journey being made in a canoe, and there were already five or six
graves at the same place.
In the case of interment a hole is dug three or four feet in depth, the
digging being done with an adze and a digging stick, and sometimes a
wooden dish is used to scoop out the soil. The body is placed in the
hole and the ropes tied round it are severed. The body is placed
slightly on its side facing the east. I asked some of the natives the
reason for this orientation, and was told that if the custom were not
observed the sun would not rise and the world would be left in
darkness. A pillow of wood is placed under the head, and a log of wood
at each side of the corpse. Sometimes some object that has been worn by
the deceased, such as a belt or necklace, is placed in the grave. The
soil is then replaced, all present helping. Beside the grave a fire is
lighted and some water contained in a bamboo vessel or in a nautilus
shell is left for the corpse. In some cases the bow belonging to the
deceased, if it be a man, and a few arrows are placed on the grave. In
the Aka-Čari tribe a harpoon and line are substituted for the bow and
arrows, and a bamboo harpoon shaft is erected vertically in the grave
near the right hand of the body. In the same tribe it is usual to
suspend near the grave a bundle of the prepared fibre of Anadendron
paniculatum such as is used for making thread. There are probably
slight variations of custom in this respect in different tribes or even
in different cases in the same tribe.
In the case of platform-burial a platform of sticks is erected in a
tree, twelve feet or so above the ground, and the body is placed
thereon, lying sideways facing the east. Water and fire are placed
beneath the tree. Mr Man states that in cases of tree-burial they are
careful not to select a fruit tree or one of a species used for the
manufacture of their canoes, bows and other implements. Such natives as
I questioned on this point said that this was not so and that they
would use any suitable tree whether one that was useful or not. I was
unable definitely to prove the point, as I did not see a single
instance of tree-burial during my stay in the islands. A tree that is
sometimes used for this purpose is the Ficus laccifera, which as we
have seen has a special connection with the spirits of new-born
children. On the coast, mangrove trees, such as the Rhizophora or
Bruguiera, are said to be used.
When the burial is completed, whether in a grave or a tree, plumes made
of shredded palm-leaf stem koro (Aka-J̌eru) or ara (Aka-Bea) are
attached near the graves to the branches of trees or shrubs or to
sticks put up for the purpose. This is done, it is said, to show any
native, who might inadvertently approach, that there has been a burial
at the spot. The undergrowth is cleared for a short distance round the
grave.
The men then return to the camp, where the women have been busy packing
up all belongings. Plumes of shredded palm-leaf stem (koro) are put up
at the entrance to the camp, to show chance visitors that there has
been a death. The camp is then deserted, the natives moving to some
other camping ground until the period of mourning is over, when they
may, if they wish, return to the deserted village. No one goes near the
grave again until the period of mourning is over.
In the case of very young children the burial ceremony is different.
There is no general mourning of the whole camp. Only the father and
mother and a few other relatives weep over the dead body. The head of
the corpse is shaved and the body is decorated in the same way as that
of an adult. The body is wrapped up in palm leaves (Licuala), the limbs
being flexed. The fire is then removed from its customary place and a
grave is dug there in the floor of the hut. In this the child’s body is
placed, the grave is filled in and the fire replaced above it. Not only
is the camp not deserted, but there seems to be an obligation on the
parents not to leave the place until the bones have been dug up, or at
any rate for some weeks after the death. If the mother went away, the
natives say, the baby would cry for its mother’s milk. This is the
custom of the Northern tribes. Referring to the Southern tribes, Mr Man
says that the baby is buried beneath the fireplace and the camp is then
deserted, the mother placing beside the grave a shell containing some
milk squeezed from her breasts. Some of my informants of the Southern
tribes (Akar-Bale, etc.) told me however that the camp would not be
deserted in the case of the death of an infant, thus contradicting Mr
Man’s statement. As there was no opportunity of testing the point by
reference to an actual case, it must be left as doubtful. In the
Northern tribes when an older child dies the body is buried away from
the camp, but the latter is not, at any rate in all instances,
deserted, though the hut in which the death occurred may be destroyed
and a new one built a short distance away. It is only in the case of
the death of an adult that the camp is abandoned.
In connection with the burial of a baby beneath the hearth there is a
belief that the soul of the dead baby may re-enter the mother and be
born again. This would seem to be one of the reasons why the mother
does not leave the camp when her baby dies.
Should a person die while on a visit, he or she is buried in the usual
way and news of the death and place of burial is sent to the relatives.
A stranger who dies or is killed is buried unceremoniously or is cast
into the sea. Among the Northern tribes the body of such a one used in
former days to be disposed of by cutting it into pieces and burning it
on a fire. The natives say that if this be done the ‘blood’ and the
‘fat’ of the dead man go up to the sky and this removes all danger to
the living from the dead man. The blood of persons so burnt is seen in
the sky at sunset. If a man were killed in a fight between two
communities and his body remained with the enemy, they would dispose of
it in this way. If the friends secured the body they would bury it in
the usual way. It may be worthy of remark that this custom of burning
the bodies of slain enemies is perhaps the real origin of the belief
that the Andamanese are or were cannibals. We can well imagine that
when, as must have often happened, sailors venturing to land on the
islands have been killed and the survivors have seen the bodies of
their companions cut up and placed on fires, they would readily
conclude that they were witnessing a cannibal feast. There can be no
doubt whatever that since the islands were occupied in 1858 the
inhabitants have not practised cannibalism, and there is no good reason
to suppose that they once followed the custom and then abandoned it.
The burial is conducted, if possible, on the day of the death. If it
has to be deferred till the morrow all the inhabitants of the camp keep
awake. The relatives sit round the corpse weeping at intervals, while
some of the men take it in turn to sing songs during the hours of
darkness. This, so they say, is to keep away the spirits that have
caused the death, and so prevent them from further mischief. When a man
or woman dies in the prime of life after a short illness the friends
and relatives often break out in anger which they express in different
ways. A man will shout threats and curses at the spirits that he
conceives to be responsible for the death of his friend. He may pick up
his bow and discharge his arrows in all directions, or in some other
way give expression to his angry feelings. On the occasion of a death
in one of the Akar-Bale villages the relatives expressed their grief by
cutting down a coconut tree that grew there.
The period of mourning for near relatives—parent, adult child, consort,
brother or sister—lasts for several months. In the case of a young
child only the parents mourn. The essentials of mourning are (1) the
use of clay (odu), and (2) abstention from certain foods, from dancing,
and from the use of white clay (to̱l) and red paint. As stated above,
every adult in the camp covers himself or herself with clay on the
death of an adult member of the community, but when this wears off, or
is washed off in the course of two or three days, it is not renewed.
The near relatives retain this covering of clay for many weeks,
constantly renewing it. The clay is smeared evenly over the body, and
is not put on in patterns, as on other occasions. The relatives, but
not the others, plaster some of the same clay on their heads. A widow
mourning for her husband covers her whole head with a thick layer of
clay, renewing it from time to time. For a lesser degree of mourning,
the custom is to plaster clay on the forehead only. After some weeks or
months of mourning, the near relatives discontinue the use of clay on
their bodies, but retain a band of clay over the forehead as shown in
Plates IX, X, and XVII.
The name of the clay thus used is odu in the Northern languages, and a
mourner is called aka-odu. In the Aka-Bea language the name of the clay
is og and the term for a mourner is aka-og.
During the period of mourning the name of the dead person is carefully
avoided and no one uses it. If it is necessary to refer to the dead
this is done by using some such phrase as “he who is buried by the big
rock” or “he who is laid in the fig tree” or by mentioning the name of
the place of burial. There is no prohibition against mentioning the
name itself in other connections. Thus if a man were called Buio, from
the name of a species of Mucuna, it is not necessary to avoid the word
buio when speaking of the plant. Further if there is another person
alive of the same name as the dead man it is not necessary to avoid the
name in referring to the living individual. The custom is that a dead
person must not be spoken of unless it is absolutely necessary, and
then must not be spoken of by name. After the period of mourning is
over the dead person may again be spoken of by name.
During the period of mourning a near relative of the deceased is never
addressed or spoken of by name. There are certain terms which are used
for this purpose, being terms of address that can be substituted for
the names that are avoided. Thus in the Aka-J̌eru language one such term
is Bolok, meaning “orphan,” used in addressing or speaking of a person
who has lately lost a parent. Another term of the same language is
Ropuč, applicable to one who has lost a brother or sister. After the
period of mourning is over the use of the personal name of the mourner
is resumed.
During the period of mourning the near relatives of the deceased are
required by custom to abstain from dancing and from using red paint or
white clay. The white clay here referred to is that called to̱l or
to̱l-odu in Aka-J̌eru and tala-og in Aka-Bea, and is used for decorating
the body on ceremonial occasions, such as that of a big dance. Further,
the mourners must abstain from eating certain foods. The customs with
regard to the foods to be avoided are different in different parts.
There is however the universal rule that coast-dwellers must not eat
turtle, and jungle-dwellers must avoid pork. Other foods that are
included amongst those to be avoided are dugong, certain fishes such as
that called komar in Aka-J̌eru, and in some parts yams and honey.
The exact duration of the period of mourning is difficult to discover.
It seems to vary considerably in different cases. In all cases it must
last long enough for the flesh to decay from the bones. The proceedings
at the end of mourning consist of (1) digging up the bones of the dead
man or woman and (2) a dance in which all the mourners join. The bones
are generally dug up by the men who performed the burial. They cover
themselves with clay (odu) and proceed to the grave or tree and dig up
or take down the bones and weep over them. These are then washed in the
sea or a creek and are taken back to camp. Here they are received by
the women who weep over them in their turn. The skull and jawbone are
decorated with red paint and white clay, and each separately has a band
of ornamental netting attached to it so that it may be worn around the
neck. Additional ornament is frequently added in the form of strings of
Dentalium or other shells. The skulls and jawbones of deceased
relatives are preserved for a long time, and are worn round the neck
either in front or behind. The photograph in Plate XVIII shows a woman
wearing the skull of her deceased sister. Like all their other
possessions these relics are lent or exchanged, passing from one person
to another, until sometimes a skull may be found in the possession of a
man who does not know to whom it belonged. The other bones are also
preserved. The limb bones are generally painted with red paint and
white clay and are kept in the roof of the hut. They are not treasured
as much as the skull and jaw, and are often mislaid. Thus, while every
camp is sure to contain a number of skulls and jaw-bones it is
comparatively rarely that the limb bones are to be found. The other
bones are made into strings, such bones as those of the hand and foot
being used as they are, while ribs and vertebrae are broken up into
pieces of convenient size. The bones or pieces of bone are attached to
a length of rope by means of thread and the string thus produced is
often ornamented with the dried yellow skin of the Dendrobium and with
shells. The whole is covered with red paint. These strings of bone are
worn as cures for and preventives of illness. If a man has a head-ache,
for instance, he will attach one of the strings round his head. They
are in almost constant use in every camp and every man and woman is
sure to possess one or two. The bones are made into strings by the
female relatives of the deceased and are then given away as presents.
In the North Andaman the skull of a baby is preserved by enclosing it
in a small basket just big enough to contain it, the top of the basket,
which is narrower than the lower part, being only finished after the
skull is placed inside, so that it cannot fall out and can only be
removed by unfastening the rim of the basket. Mr Man states that
children’s skulls are not carried in baskets, except temporarily as
when travelling, fishing, etc., but are preserved from injury by being
entirely covered with string [64]. This applies only to the tribes of
the South and Middle Andaman.
At about the time that the bones are recovered there takes place a
special ceremony referred to as “taking off the clay” or “the shedding
of tears.” The object of this ceremony is to release the mourners from
the restrictions that they have had to observe. The ceremony takes
place in the evening, and an occasion is chosen when there are plenty
of people in the camp. The mourners, male and female, remove the odu
clay from their foreheads and decorate themselves with red paint and
white clay in the way described in connection with dancing. They also
put on what ornaments of Pandanus leaf or netting and Dentalium shell
they may possess or be able to borrow. When all the members of the camp
are assembled around the dancing ground one of the male mourners takes
his stand at the sounding-board and sings a song. This song does not
refer in any way to the dead man or woman; it is just an ordinary song
of hunting or canoe-cutting or any other subject, though it may have
been specially composed for the occasion. Those women who are not in
mourning sit near the singer and take up the chorus. When the song is
fairly started the mourners, male and female, begin to dance. There is
nothing special about the dance, which is exactly like any other dance.
After dancing for a short time the mourners seat themselves at one end
of the dancing ground and their friends begin to weep and wail.
Everybody present joins in the lamentation until they are tired. The
mourners then rise and again dance. After a time the women retire and
seat themselves with the chorus, but the men continue the dance (in
which they are joined by the other men present), till they are tired,
which often means till near dawn. After this ceremony the mourners are
free to eat any of the foods up till then forbidden, and are free once
more to use red paint and white clay and to take their part in all
dances and other festivities.
It has been seen from the preceding descriptions that the Andamanese
have a number of ritual customs relating to food. There are certain
occasions in the life of every individual when he or she must abstain
from eating certain foods. A person mourning for the death of a
relative is subjected to restrictions of this kind, and so are the
parents of a new-born child for a short period before and after the
birth. A woman must not eat certain things when she is menstruating.
Restrictions as to diet are imposed by custom on all persons who are
ill. The most important restrictions, however, are those imposed on
every boy and girl during the period of adolescence. During this period
of life, as we have seen, the initiate is required to abstain for a
longer or shorter period from all the most important foods of the
Andamanese.
Mr Man states that “every Andamanese man or woman is prohibited all
through life from eating some one (or more) fish or animal: in most
cases the forbidden dainty is one which in childhood was observed (or
imagined) by the mother to occasion some functional derangement; when
of an age to understand it the circumstance is explained, and cause and
effect being clearly demonstrated, the individual in question
thenceforth considers that particular meat his yat-tub, and avoids it
carefully. In cases where no evil consequences have resulted from
partaking of any kind of food, the fortunate person is privileged to
select his own yat-tub, and is of course shrewd enough to decide upon
some fish, such as shark or skate, which is little relished, and to
abstain from which consequently entails no exercise of self-denial
[65].”
Although I made repeated enquiries amongst the natives of both the
North and the South Andaman I was not able to confirm this observation
of Mr Man. It is quite true that if a certain food is observed to
disagree with a child he or she is taught to avoid that food for the
rest of life, but it is not necessary for every person to have some
forbidden food. Many men told me that they were under no such
prohibition and might eat any food they liked, apart from the
restrictions on special occasions. On a minor point it may be noted
that skate and even shark are not by any means so little relished as
the statement of Mr Man would imply. The liver of skates and rays, and
even the liver of sharks is rather regarded as a delicacy.
I noticed on several occasions that men would not eat certain foods
when they were away from their own part of the islands. Thus one man of
the North Andaman told me that he would not eat dugong when he was with
me in the South Andaman. Another said that though he would eat the fish
komar when he was at home, he would not eat it when he was in a strange
place, as at the Settlement of Port Blair, for fear that it would make
him ill.
In the North Andaman I was told that when a dugong is caught and the
people feast on it they do not leave the camp till some hours after the
meat is all finished, either to go fishing or hunting. The reason they
give for this is that the spirits of the jungle and the sea may smell
them, attracted by the odour of the food they have eaten and may cause
them to be ill. They therefore remain in the camp and eat up all the
dugong and do not venture out till they begin to feel hungry and must
go in search of food. I believe that the same custom is observed in the
South Andaman also.
A few other customs connected with food may be mentioned here. There is
only one way in which a turtle may be killed [66]. It must be laid on
its back with its head pointing towards the open sea, and a skewer of
wood is then thrust through the eye-socket into the brain. The natives
say that if a turtle were killed in any other way than this, the meat
would be “bad,” i.e., uneatable.
Turtle meat may only be cooked on a fire of the wood of the Hibiscus
tiliaceus.
A pig is killed as it runs, without ceremony, but there is one special
way in which it must be cut up. The pig is first disembowelled, and the
joints of the legs are severed. The abdominal cavity is then filled
with leaves, of which only certain special kinds are used. It is placed
on a fire and roasted whole, and is then cut up. Should the carcase be
cut up by any other than the traditional method, the natives believe
that the meat would be “bad,” and they would not eat it.
A number of beliefs relating to vegetable foods will be mentioned in
the next chapter.
In several of the ceremonies described in this chapter it will be
noticed that the weeping of relatives and friends occurs as an
essential part of the ceremony. The female relatives of a youth or girl
who is being initiated come and weep over him or her at the
turtle-eating ceremony. Their friends weep over, or with, the mourners
at the dance at the end of mourning. The friends of a bride and
bridegroom weep over them when they are married. The friends and
relatives weep over a corpse before it is buried and over the bones
when they are recovered. In all cases it is real weeping. The man or
woman sits down and wails or howls, and the tears stream down his or
her face. On one occasion I asked the natives to show how it was done
and two or three of them sat down and were immediately weeping real
tears at my request. The weeping in this way is really a ceremony or
rite. When two friends or relatives meet who have been separated from
one another for a few weeks or longer, they greet each other by sitting
down, one on the lap of the other, with their arms around each other’s
necks, and weeping and wailing for two or three minutes till they are
tired. Two brothers greet each other in this way, and so do father and
son, mother and son, mother and daughter, and husband and wife. When
husband and wife meet, it is the man who sits on the lap of the woman.
When two friends part from one another, one of them lifts up the hand
of the other towards his mouth and gently blows on it.
Reference has already been made in this chapter to a number of customs
relating to personal names. It will be useful to bring together the
scattered references, and give a general account of the whole matter.
Every Andaman Islander has a personal name that is given to him or her
before birth, and which we may speak of as the birth-name. As soon as a
woman realises that she is pregnant, she and her husband begin to think
of a name for the child. The name is selected by the parents, but the
suggestions of their friends and relatives are always considered. It is
regarded as a compliment to name the child after some man or woman.
Sometimes a man may request the parents that the child shall be named
after him, and such a request is rarely, if ever, refused. The names
given before birth are of course applicable to both sexes, there being
no difference between the names of men and those of women. There are a
considerable number of names in common use, but some of them are more
popular at a given time and place than others. It therefore happens
that there are several persons, both men and women, bearing the same
name.
Each of the names in common use has a meaning, but it is not always
easy to obtain an adequate and accurate explanation of the meaning from
the natives themselves [67]. In a certain number the derivation is
obvious. Many names are the names of objects such as trees, fish or
other animals, or even such objects as rope or mats. A few examples
from the North Andaman are:—
Buio Mucuna sp., a plant with edible beans.
Bol Hibiscus tiliaceus.
Čop a tree with edible nuts.
Ko̱nmo Dioscorea sp.
Čokbi turtle.
Maro honey.
Meo a stone.
Čeo a knife.
Bani the oriole.
In the case of a number of names it is not possible to discover with
certainty the derivation, and the statements of the natives regarding
them do not always agree. Such names in the North Andaman, with their
meanings as stated by the natives, are:—
Kea one who turns in his sleep.
Bo̱ičo one who wrestles.
Elpe one who comes and goes.
Kiǰe̱ri one who walks backwards and forwards.
Nimi one who catches hold.
Some time after a child is born it is given a nick-name. Nick-names may
be given at any time of life, and some persons may have several
nick-names given to them at different times. New nick-names are from
time to time invented, but there are a certain number of recognized
names from which a choice is usually made. A few examples from the
North Andaman are:—
Ra-t’ot-betč pig’s hair.
Renya-čope much baggage, or many possessions.
Po̱ičo-tomo the wood (literally flesh) of the Sterculia
(po̱ičo) tree.
Lau-tei spirit blood.
Luremo rope.
Remu-to̱i a piece of iron.
Čokbi-čiro turtle liver.
Tarenǰek angry.
During childhood boys and girls are addressed by either the birth-name
or the nick-name.
When a girl reaches the age of puberty she receives a new name. This is
one of a limited number of names, each of which is the name of a tree
or plant. The name given to the girl is that of the tree or plant that
is in flower at the time of her first menstruation.
There is a succession of trees and plants flowering one after another
throughout the year. The natives describe the different parts of the
year by reference to the plants in flower at the time. The plants
selected as typical of the different seasons all have flowers from
which the native bees make honey. Each of them has a distinctive scent
and gives to the honey made from it a distinctive flavour. The
flower-names are given below in Aka-Bea and Aka-J̌eru.
Aka-Bea Aka-J̌eru
Čilipa Čelibi From the middle of November to the middle of
February.
Moda Mukui }
Ora Oko̱r }
Jidga } From the middle of February to the middle of
Yere J̌eru } May, in order.
Pataka Bo̱tek }
Balya Puliu }
Reče Re } From the middle of May to the end of August.
Čagara Čokoro }
Čarapa Čarap } September, October and the first half of
Čenra To̱ro̱k? } November.
Yulu J̌ili }
From the time that a girl receives her flower-name her birth-name and
nick-name fall entirely out of use. No one would address an unmarried
girl by any name except the flower-name. This continues until some time
after the girl is married. Properly speaking a woman should be known by
her flower-name from the advent of puberty until after the birth of her
first child. In these days of childless women the flower-name drops out
of use after a few years of married life. After the birth of her first
child the woman is known by her birth-name or by a nick-name. Thus a
woman who was named before her birth Kaba (from kabal, a species of
mangrove) was called by that name until puberty; thereafter she was
called J̌ili (her flower-name) until the birth of her first child; after
this event she is again called Kaba, and no one would think of
addressing her as J̌ili. A woman named Ele (lightning) at birth was
known by this name until puberty, and thereafter was called Bo̱tek. When
I knew her she had been married for three years or so, but had not had
a child. A few of the younger men and women addressed her as Ele, but
the older people still called her Bo̱tek. If she should bear a child,
the name Bo̱tek would fall entirely out of use and she would be known as
Ele by both her juniors and her seniors.
In the case of a boy there is nothing corresponding to the flower-names
of girls. He continues to be known by his birth-name and his nick-name
from the time he is born until he dies. During adolescence a youth has
to pass through certain ceremonies of initiation as described in the
present chapter. At the turtle-eating ceremony the youth is given a new
name, of the nature of a nick-name. The name given in this way is never
used either in addressing the youth or in speaking of him. It is
possible that he also receives a new name on the occasion of the
pig-eating ceremony, but of this I am not sure. Though girls pass
through the same ceremonies as boys, I did not discover whether or not
they also are given new names on these occasions.
Names are used freely in speaking of and to one another. An older
person always speaks of or to the younger one by the name alone. When a
younger person is speaking to an older one it is customary and polite
to use one of the terms of address, either by itself, or prefixed to
the name of the person spoken to, as Maia Buio, Mimi Kaba, etc. A
native generally hesitates to tell his own name, and if asked the
question “What is your name?” often asks a bystander to give the
required information. There is, however, no hesitation about mentioning
the name of any other person, except under certain special conditions.
There are certain occasions when the name of a man or woman is
temporarily avoided. After the death of a relative and during the
period of mourning, a mourner’s name is not mentioned, either in
speaking to him or of him. There are a few terms that may be used
instead. One who has lost a parent is addressed as Bolok, one who has
lost a brother or sister as Ropuč. For a short time before and after
the birth of a child the names of the father and mother are not
mentioned. A bride and bridegroom are not addressed or spoken of by
name for a short period after their marriage, though if their names be
A and B there seems to be no harm in referring to A as “the husband of
B,” or to B as “the wife of A.” During the initiation ceremonies
through which every boy and girl must pass, the name of the initiate is
avoided. Thus on the occasion of the turtle-eating ceremony or the
pig-eating ceremony, during the few days the ceremony lasts and for a
few weeks afterwards, the youth or girl is never addressed or spoken of
by name, but is referred to as Kimil. During the ceremony that takes
place on the occasion of the advent of puberty, and for some weeks
after, a girl is not spoken of or to either by her birth-name or her
flower-name, but is called Toto. When a boy, in the Northern tribes,
has the scars made on his back, which show him to be no longer a child,
his name is avoided for a few weeks and he is called Eǰido.
The name of a dead man or woman is not mentioned during the period of
mourning, which lasts for some months after the death.
In the preceding portions of the chapter reference has been made
several times to the ornamentation of the body with clay and pigment.
In the Great Andaman three different substances are used for painting
the body. These are (1) a common clay of which different specimens are
gray, yellow or pink, called odu in Aka-J̌eru and og in Aka-Bea; (2) a
fine white pipe-clay which is rarer than the common clay and is more
highly prized, called to̱l or to̱l-odu in Aka-J̌eru and tala-og in
Aka-Bea; (3) a red pigment made by mixing burnt oxide of iron with
animal or vegetable fat or oil, called keyip in Aka-J̌eru and ko̱iob in
Aka-Bea.
The common clay (odu) is used in three different ways. After the death
of a relative a man or woman smears himself all over with this clay and
plasters it on his head. From this custom a person who is mourning for
a dead relative is called aka-odu in Aka-J̌eru or aka-og in Aka-Bea. The
same clay is used at a certain stage of the initiation ceremonies, as
described above, being spattered over the initiate in the turtle-eating
and pig-eating ceremonies. The third and most common use of this clay
is to decorate the bodies of men and women with patterns called (in
Aka-J̌eru) e̱ra-puli. These patterns are always made by the women, who
decorate each other and their male relatives. The clay is mixed with
water in a wooden dish or a shell and the mixture is applied to the
body with the fingers. There is an almost indefinite variety in the
patterns employed, although there are a certain number of what may be
called usual designs. Each woman vies with others in her endeavours to
produce some novelty of detail in her designs, and a successful
innovation is immediately copied by others. I was able to watch the
rise and development and ultimate disappearance of “fashions” in this
connection in one of the camps of the North Andaman.
The design is made in one of two ways. It may, in some cases, be formed
by painting with the finger on the body, that is by tracing white (or
gray) lines on a black surface. A design of this kind is shown on the
back of the man on the right in the photograph of Plate XI. On the
other hand, an equally common method is to cover a part of the body
with an even smear of clay and then to scrape it away either with the
fingers or with a small fish-bone or with a little instrument made of
small strips of bamboo, so as to leave a design of black lines where
the skin shows through the smeared clay. Two not very striking designs
of this kind are shown in Plates IX and X. As a rule the designs are
more or less symmetrical, the right and the left sides of the body
being treated alike, but in a few cases different patterns are made on
the two sides, and I have seen a man with one side of his body painted
and the other not. The painting may cover the whole of the body and
limbs with the exception of the hands and feet, or it may be confined
to the front and back of the trunk, or it may be on the front only. The
face is often painted, the designs being made with greater care than
those on the body.
These patterns are made in the afternoon after the men return from
their day’s hunting, and always either just before or just after a
meal.
If a man be asked what pattern he is painted with, he replies by
mentioning the food that he has just eaten. A man who has been eating
turtle will say that the painting on his body is čokbi-t’e̱ra-puli,
turtle pattern, while if he has been eating pork he will call it
ra-t’e̱ra-puli, pig pattern. There is not, however, a strict uniformity
in the use of particular patterns in connection with special foods.
When the whole camp has been feasting on turtle many different and
(apparently) unrelated designs are to be seen on the bodies of the men
and women. I did not find it possible, even after a study of the
matter, to distinguish by means of the design a man who has been eating
turtle from one who has been eating pork. There is one design, or group
of closely related designs, that seemed to be based on the pattern of
the plates on a turtle’s carapace. A pattern of this distinctive kind
was never, so far as my experience went, used except after eating
turtle. Other patterns, however, which were used after eating turtle,
did not seem to me to be related in any way to what I may call the
specific turtle pattern. In some of the patterns used after eating pork
I noticed a tendency to make use of vertical lines or bands on the back
and chest. There may be a connection here with the longitudinal
markings on the back of the wild pig.
Of special patterns I was only able to discover two. One of these is
called kimil-t’e̱ra-puli and is only used to paint a person who is
aka-kimil, i.e., who has just been through one of the initiation
ceremonies. This pattern is shown on the back of a man in the
photograph reproduced as Plate XI (the second figure from the left).
Another special pattern is called toto-t’e̱ra-puli (Pandanus pattern),
and is used, I believe, to decorate a girl after the ceremony at her
first menstruation.
The fine white clay called to̱l-odu in Aka-J̌eru is used in a different
way and on different occasions. When it is used to ornament the body it
is always applied in one customary pattern. The name of this pattern in
Aka-J̌eru is o̱r-čubi-t’e̱ra-bat, from the name of a species of snake,
o̱r-čubi. Exactly the same name is used in A-Pučikwar,
wara-čupi-l’ar-par. Mr Man gives the Aka-Bea name as ǰobo-tartaŋa, from
ǰobo the name for snake in general. A man decorated with this “snake
pattern,” as it may be called, is shown in Plate XII, and a pattern of
the same kind is shown on the head of the man in Plate XIII. The
pattern is built up of zig-zag lines. They are made by taking a little
of the clay mixed with water between the thumb and first finger; by a
movement of the thumb the space between the nail and the skin of the
finger is filled with the clay, and the end of the finger is then
applied to the skin so that it leaves a short and fine line of clay. A
zig-zag line is thus built up of short lines each a finger’s breadth in
length. A second line is then added, not parallel to the first, but
opposed to it, so that the two lines together form a row of lozenges. A
third and sometimes a fourth or fifth line are similarly added. As
shown in Plate XII the lines of pattern are carried down the front of
the body, down the sides of the arms, and down the front of the legs,
and they are similarly worked on the back of the body, and the back of
the legs. The face also is decorated. These patterns are made by the
women. It is one of the duties of a wife to decorate her husband in
this way when occasion requires.
The only reason that the natives give for ornamenting themselves in
this way is that it makes them “look well.” On the occasion of a big
dance many of the performers are thus ornamented. This is always so at
the dances held when two or more local groups meet together. There are
certain special occasions, already mentioned in this chapter, when the
use of the “snake pattern” is required by custom. One of these is the
dance at the end of mourning. During the period of mourning the
mourners are forbidden to make use of this form of decoration. The same
pattern is used to decorate a bride and bridegroom after their
marriage. In the initiation ceremonies the youth or girl is decorated
in this way before the dances at the turtle-eating and pig-eating
ceremonies. The same pattern is also made on a corpse before burial.
In all these cases the whole body is decorated. On less ceremonial
occasions, such as an ordinary dance when there are no visitors of
importance in the camp, a man frequently has his face alone decorated
with white clay, as in the photograph of Plate XIII.
The third kind of material used for painting the body is red paint.
This is applied in two different ways. When a man or woman is ill he or
she is generally to be seen with some part of his body smeared with red
paint. For colds and coughs the chest and neck are painted. In fevers
red paint is smeared on the upper lip. Besides the medical use of red
paint, if we may call it so, there is a ceremonial use, the pigment
being used in combination with white clay, lines of red paint being
applied to the body between the lines of clay of the snake pattern. It
is used in this way to decorate the body of a dead person for burial,
and on ceremonial occasions such as the dance at the end of mourning
and the dances in connection with the initiation ceremonies.
Most of the ornaments worn at various times by the Andaman Islanders
have a ceremonial or a magical purpose. The only things worn by men
that can be considered to have a utilitarian value are the belt of rope
and the necklet of string. The belt may be a plain piece of rope, or it
may be ornamented with the yellow skin of a species of Dendrobium. It
serves as a receptacle in which the natives carry such things as adzes,
fish, roots, or even arrows. It is the one object that is constantly
worn by men. The string necklet is simply a length of thin string tied
round the neck. It serves as a means of carrying a knife and skewer.
The knife, in former days made of a slip of cane, but in these times
from a piece of scrap iron, is attached to a skewer of Areca wood by a
short length of rope or stout string. By sliding either the knife or
the skewer under the necklet at the back of the neck the double
implement hangs securely in a position where it is not likely to get
lost when running through the jungle, and where it is immediately
accessible when wanted. The necklet also serves as a means of carrying
bees’-wax, which is in constant use amongst the natives, a small ball
of the wax being attached to one of the ends of the string of which the
necklet is made.
As a rule, in everyday life, the men wear only a belt, or a belt and
necklace. Those natives who visit the Settlement of Port Blair have
been required by the European officers to wear a strip of cloth over
the genitals. It has now become the rule to wear such a loin cloth
whenever they are in the neighbourhood of a European. This, however, is
a modern custom, and in former times the men went freely with no
covering whatever, as do the inhabitants of the Little Andaman at the
present time. As showing the extent to which the natives have been
influenced in this matter by outside opinion, it may be mentioned that
at the present day many of the younger men, particularly those who have
been brought up at Port Blair, regard it as very immodest to be seen
without some covering over the genitals.
On ceremonial occasions, such as the dance at the end of mourning, or a
big dance-meeting, the men put on a number of ornaments. A common
costume on such occasions consists of a belt, necklace, bracelets, and
garters of netting and Dentalium shell. A belt and necklace of this
kind are to be seen in Plate V, and garters are worn by the woman in
Plate IX. An alternative costume for men consists of a set of ornaments
of Pandanus leaf (belt, chaplet, bracelets and garters), decorated with
Dentalium and other shells. Garters of this kind are shown in Plate
XII.
Other objects are worn by the natives for magical purposes. Chief
amongst these are the strings made of human bones which are worn to
prevent and cure sickness. The bones are attached to a length of rope,
and this is generally decorated with shells or with Dendrobium skin.
These strings of bones are worn most commonly as chaplets, necklaces or
belts, but they may also be made into garters and bracelets. The bones
of animals, such as pig, turtle, dugong, etc., are treated in exactly
the same way as human bones, and ornaments made of them are commonly
worn.
There are a number of other ornaments that are commonly worn, not only
on ceremonial occasions, which, unlike the strings of human bones, do
not obviously have a magical purpose. Such are necklaces made of
various kinds of shells, and of mangrove seeds. At the present time the
natives obtain beads from Port Blair and make ornaments of these.
The ordinary costume of the women is different from that of the men.
Every woman and girl wears at least one belt of Pandanus leaf. There is
one kind of belt that is always worn by married women and which may not
be worn by unmarried girls. There is another kind of belt that may only
be worn by unmarried girls. The women of the Southern tribes wear a
bundle of leaves of the Mimusops littoralis laid one over another
suspended from the front of the belt so as to cover the pudenda. In the
Northern tribes it was formerly the custom for the women to wear a
similar apron of the leaves of a plant called čainyo, and over this
they also wore a tassel of shredded palm-leaf stem (koro). Within
recent years the Northern tribes have given up their own custom in this
matter and have adopted the custom of the Southern tribes.
Women often wear round the neck a piece of string similar to that worn
by the men, but as they do not carry knives it does not serve the same
purpose. It is more usual for a woman to wear a necklace of some sort.
Nowadays they are rather fond of necklaces of beads which they obtain
from the Settlement at Port Blair. In former times different kinds of
shells were used, such as the Dentalium octogonum.
With the exception that men wear the belt of rope, and women wear the
belt of Pandanus leaf and the apron of leaves, there is no difference
between the ornaments worn by men and by women. On the occasion of a
dance or other ceremony a woman may wear any of the objects described
as being worn by men on such occasions. They also wear in the same way
strings of human or animal bones.
One object which would seem to have a purely utilitarian purpose is the
sling used for carrying children (called in Aka-J̌eru čiba). This
object, however, seems to have its ceremonial uses also. In one of the
initiation ceremonies that I saw, the man who was officiating wore such
a sling round his shoulders during the ceremony.
In the earlier parts of this chapter reference has been made several
times to the dance of the Andaman Islanders. For the natives the dance
is both a means of enjoyment and also a ceremony. The period of
mourning for the dead is brought to a close by a dance, in which all
the mourners join. As will be shown later, a dance was generally held
before a fight, in former times when fights occurred. The ceremony by
which two hostile local groups made peace with one another was a dance.
In the initiation ceremonies there are special dances, which have
already been described, in connection with the pig-eating and
turtle-eating ceremonies. With the exception of these special dances,
and the peace-making dance to be described later, there is only one
kind of dance in any given tribe. Thus the dance at the end of
mourning, or before setting out on an attack on enemies, is in all
essentials exactly the same as the dance in which the natives indulge
when the day’s hunting has been successful and the evening is fine.
The time for dancing, except in connection with certain ceremonies, is
at night, after the evening meal. The dance takes place on the open
ground in the centre of the village. This is swept clean by the women
and the younger men. One or two fires are lighted, and little heaps of
resin are placed in convenient situations to provide lights. These have
to be replenished from time to time as the dance proceeds. Near one end
of the dancing ground is placed a sounding-board, upon which it is the
duty of one man to beat time with his foot. A sounding-board is a piece
of wood somewhat of the shape of a large shield, cut from the hard
Pterocarpus tree. One is shown in Plate VI. Behind the sounding-board,
or a little to one side of it, the women, who form the chorus, sit in a
row, with their legs stretched out in front of them, facing the
dancing-ground. The men who intend to dance sit or stand round the edge
of the space reserved for the dance.
When all is ready a man who has volunteered to sing the first song
takes his stand at the sounding-board, and sings his song through. When
he reaches the chorus the women take it up and repeat it after him, and
as they do so each woman marks time by clapping her hands on the hollow
formed by her thighs, the legs being crossed one over the other at the
ankle. The singer continues to sing, thus leading the chorus, and at
the same time marks the time of the song by beating on the
sounding-board with his foot. As soon as the chorus begins the dancers
begin to dance. The step of each dancer is the same, but there is very
little attempt to form a figure. When the singer and the chorus get
tired, the singing ceases, but the man at the sounding-board continues
to mark time for the dancers. The singer repeats his song several
times, and he may sing several songs, each repeated several times. When
he gets tired he is relieved by another man. In a dance that lasts for
any time, one singer succeeds another, and the singing and dancing are
kept up continuously, sometimes for five or six hours.
The above description applies to all the tribes of the Great Andaman,
but there are some differences between the four tribes of the North
Andaman, and the tribes of the Middle and South Andaman.
In the North Andaman the song is sung through once from beginning to
end by the singer, and is then repeated three or four times by the
chorus. In the South Andaman each song consists of one verse and a
refrain, if we may speak of them thus. The singer sings the verse and
the refrain, and then the refrain only is repeated an indefinite number
of times by the chorus.
In the dance of the Southern tribes, each dancer dances alternately on
the right foot or on the left. When dancing on the right foot the first
movement is a slight hop with the right foot, then the left foot is
raised and brought down with a backward scrape along the ground, then
another hop on the right foot. These three movements, which occupy the
time of two beats of the song, are repeated until the right leg is
tired, and the dancer then changes the movement to a hop with the left
foot, followed by a scrape with the right and another hop with the
left. The time of the movement is as follows, the upper line being the
rhythm of the dance, while the lower line shows the beats of the song,
which is marked on the sounding-board and by the clapping of the women.
[Music Notes] or [Music Notes]
The body of the dancer is bent slightly forward from the hips, the legs
being flexed at the knees and the back being curved well inwards. There
are several ways of holding the hands and arms, one of the commonest
being to hold the arms outstretched in front on a level with the
shoulders, while the thumb and forefinger of one hand are interlocked
with those of the other. When a man does not wish to cease altogether
from dancing but desires to have a short rest, he marks the time by
raising each heel alternately from the ground. As a man dances he
remains in one spot for a short time, and then, still continuing the
same step, moves for a yard or two around the circle of the dancing
ground. Every now and then a dancer is to be seen trotting from one
position to another across the dancing ground, abandoning the step of
the dance, but still keeping time to the song.
The Northern tribes have now adopted the same kind of dance as the
tribes of the South, but formerly their dance was slightly different.
There was a little more attempt at forming a figure, the dancers moving
for the most part in a circle, some in one direction and others in the
other. The step was as follows: a step forward with the right foot, a
hop on the right foot, a scrape with the left, then another hop with
the right, a step forward with the left foot, a hop with the left, a
scrape with the right and a hop with the left. The rhythm is as
follows:—
[Music Notes]
The lower line shows the beats on the sounding-board.
Some of the dancers occasionally break into the regular Southern step.
A dancer sometimes changes from the usual step to another called ko̱i,
in which each foot is alternately struck on the ground and scraped
backwards. Other slight variations of the movement may be introduced.
In both the Southern and the Northern dance each dancer pleases himself
as to the direction in which he moves, and the step that he adopts at
any given moment. All the dancers, however independently of one another
they dance, keep strict time to the music.
Women do not, as a rule, join in the ordinary dances held in the
evening. Their share in the entertainment consists of forming the
chorus. When they do dance, as they do on certain occasions, such as
the dance at the end of mourning, their step is different from that of
the men. In the Southern tribes the female dancer stands at one spot
with knees flexed and lifts her heels alternately from the ground in
time to the music, thus producing a slight swaying or swinging motion
of the hips. After dancing thus at one spot for a few moments, she
moves forward a few steps to a new position, keeping time to the music
in all her movements, and then repeats the same performance. The arms
are swung in time to the dance, or else are held before the breast with
one wrist crossed over the other.
In the Northern tribes the common dance of the women is a sort of
modification of that of the men. A woman advances across the ground in
regular time, but at every third step she gives a peculiar little hop
which has something of the effect of a bobbing curtsey. The time is as
follows:—
[Music Notes]
l and r standing for left and right foot, and the accent indicating the
hop or curtsey. Every now and then a dancer stops and remains at one
spot, alternately scraping each foot backwards, holding her knees
flexed, and swinging both arms together.
The ordinary dance of the Andamanese, as described above, must always
be accompanied by a song, and the purpose of every song is to serve as
the accompaniment to a dance. Every man composes his own songs. No one
would ever sing (at a dance) a song composed by any other person. There
are no traditional songs. Women occasionally compose songs, but I never
heard a woman sing at a dance except in the chorus.
Every man composes songs, and the boys begin to practise themselves in
the art of composition when they are still young. A man composes his
song as he cuts a canoe or a bow or as he paddles a canoe, singing it
over softly to himself, until he is satisfied with it. He then awaits
an opportunity to sing it in public, and for this he has to wait for a
dance. Before the dance he takes care to teach the chorus to one or two
of his female relatives so that they can lead the chorus of women. He
sings his song, and if it is successful he repeats it several times,
and thereafter it becomes part of his repertory, for every man of any
age has a repertory of songs that he is prepared to repeat at any time.
If the song is not successful, if the chorus and dancers do not like
it, the composer abandons it and does not repeat it. Some men are
recognized as being more skilful song-makers than others.
The songs all deal with everyday subjects such as hunting or cutting a
canoe. The important thing about a song is not its sense, but its
sound, i.e., its rhythm and melody. A translation of an Akar-Bale song,
which is quite typical, is “Po̱io, the son of Mam Golat, wants to know
when I am going to finish my canoe. He comes every day. That is why I
make haste to get it launched as soon as possible.” Another on the same
subject runs: “Knots are very hard to cut with an adze. They blunt the
edge of the adze. How hard I am working cutting these knots.” The
singer here refers to the cutting of a canoe. A number of songs in the
native languages with translations, are given by Mr Portman [68]. To
these the reader may refer for further information.
According to the statements of the natives it was formerly the custom
to have a dance before setting out to a fight. There was no special
war-dance, the warriors joining in an ordinary dance such as has just
been described. Those who intended to take part in the attack on their
enemies, i.e., all the able-bodied adult males, decorated themselves
with red paint and white clay, and put on ornaments of Pandanus leaf or
netting and shells. Each man held in his hands or placed in his belt or
head-dress plumes of shredded Tetranthera wood (called čelmo in
Aka-J̌eru, uǰ in Aka-Bea). These plumes of shredded wood are now often
worn or carried in an ordinary dance, but I believe that in former
times they were the distinctive sign of a war-dance. To make them, a
short length of the wood is taken (generally a piece of an old broken
pig-arrow) and the wood is carefully shredded with a Cyrena shell, care
being taken not to break any of the longitudinal fibres. One end is
then tied with a piece of string or fibre. Similar plumes are made from
Pandanus wood, and are carried or worn in a similar manner.
When the attacking party set out from their village each man wears a
plume of shredded Tetranthera wood thrust into the back of his belt.
They rub their bows with the shredded wood, and say that this has the
effect of making their own bows shoot well and those of their enemies
shoot badly.
If a man kills another in a fight between two villages, or in a private
quarrel, he leaves his village and goes to live by himself in the
jungle, where he must stay for some weeks, or even months. His wife,
and one or two of his friends may live with him or visit him and attend
to his wants. For some weeks the homicide must observe a rigorous tabu.
He must not handle a bow or arrow. He must not feed himself or touch
any food with his hands, but must be fed by his wife or a friend. He
must keep his neck and upper lip covered with red paint, and must wear
plumes of shredded Tetranthera wood (čelmo) in his belt before and
behind, and in his necklace at the back of his neck. If he breaks any
of these rules it is supposed that the spirit of the man he has killed
will cause him to be ill. At the end of a few weeks the homicide
undergoes a sort of purification ceremony. His hands are first rubbed
with white clay (to̱l-odu) and then with red paint. After this he may
wash his hands and may then feed himself with his hands and may handle
bows and arrows. He retains the plumes of shredded wood for a year or
so.
In the North Andaman, and possibly in the South also, there was a
ceremony by which two hostile local groups made peace with one another.
When the two groups have agreed to make friends and bring their quarrel
to an end, arrangements are made for this ceremony. The arrangements
are made through the women of the two parties. A day is fixed for the
ceremony, which takes place in the country of the group that made the
last attack. In the village of this group the dancing ground is
prepared, and across it is erected what is called a koro-čop. Posts are
put up in a line, to the tops of these is attached a length of strong
cane, and from the cane are suspended bundles of shredded palm-leaf
(koro). The appearance of this construction may be seen from the
photograph reproduced in Plate XIX. The women of the camp keep a
look-out for the approach of the visitors. When they are known to be
near the camp, the women sit down on one side of the dancing ground,
and the men take up positions in front of the decorated cane. Each man
stands with his back against the koro-čop, with his arms stretched out
sideways along the top of it. None of them has any weapons.
The visitors, who are, if we may so put it, the forgiving party, while
the home party are those who have committed the last act of hostility,
advance into the camp dancing, the step being that of the ordinary
dance. The women of the home party mark the time of the dance by
clapping their hands on their thighs. I was told that the visitors
carry their weapons with them, but when the dance was performed at my
request the dancers were without weapons. The visitors dance forward in
front of the men standing at the koro-čop, and then, still dancing all
the time, pass backwards and forwards between the standing men, bending
their heads as they pass beneath the suspended cane. The dancers make
threatening gestures at the men standing at the koro-čop, and every now
and then break into a shrill shout. The men at the koro stand silent
and motionless and are expected to show no sign of fear.
After they have been dancing thus for a little time, the leader of the
dancers approaches the man at one end of the koro and, taking him by
the shoulders from the front, leaps vigorously up and down to the time
of the dance, thus giving the man he holds a good shaking. The leader
then passes on to the next man in the row while another of the dancers
goes through the same performance with the first man. This is continued
until each of the dancers has “shaken” each of the standing men. The
dancers then pass under the koro and shake their enemies in the same
manner from the back. After a little more dancing the dancers retire,
and the women of the visiting group come forward and dance in much the
same way that the men have done, each woman giving each of the men of
the other group a good shaking.
When the women have been through their dance the two parties of men and
women sit down and weep together.
The two groups remain camped together for a few days, spending the time
in hunting and dancing together. Presents are exchanged, as at the
ordinary meetings of different groups. The men of the two groups
exchange bows with one another.