Several women considerable mental capacity which is respected. trained in a former local Mission Orphanage from early childhood have shown much mental aptitude and capacity, the 'savagery' in them, however, only dying down as they grew older. They can read and write well, understand and speak English correctly, have acquired European habits completely, and possess much shrewdness and common sense one has herself taught her Andamanese husband, the dynamoman above mentioned, to read and write English and induced him to join the Government House Press as a compositor. She writes a wellexpressed and correctly-spelt letter in English, and has a shrewd notion of the value of money. Such women, when the instability of youth is past, make good' ayas,' as their menkind make good waiters at table. "The highest general type of intelligence yet noticed is in the Jarawa tribe." = = P. 310. The name Andaman.—To my mind the modern Andaman is the Malay Handuman Hanuman, representing "monkey" or savage aboriginal antagonist of the Aryans also the Rakshasa. Individuals of the race, when seen in the streets of Calcutta in 1883, were at once recognised as Rakshasas. It may amuse you to know that the Andamanese returned the compliment, and to them all Orientals are Chauga or Ancestral Ghosts, i.e., demons (see Census Report, pp. 44-45 for reasons). I agree with you that Angamanain is an Arabic dual, the Great and the Little Andaman. To a voyager who did not land, the North, Middle, and South Andaman would appear as one great island, whereas the strait separating these three islands from the Little Andaman would be quite distinctly seen. P. 311. Cannibalism.-The charge of cannibalism is entirely untrue. I quote here my paragraph as to how it arose (Census Report, p. 48). "The charge of cannibalism seems to have arisen from three observations of the old mariners. The Andamanese attacked and murdered without provocation every stranger they could on his landing; they burnt his body (as they did in fact that of every enemy); and they had weird all-night dances round fires. Combine these three observations with the unprovoked murder of one of themselves, and the fear aroused by such occurrences in a far land in ignorant mariners' minds, century after century, and a persistent charge of cannibalism is almost certain to be the result." The real reason for the Andamanese taking and killing every stranger that they could was that for centuries the Malays had used the islands as one of their pirate bases, and had made a practice of capturing the inhabitants to sell as slaves in the Peninsula and Siam. P. 311. Navigation. It is true that they do not quit their own coasts in canoes, and I have always doubted the truth of the assertions that any of them ever found their way to any Nicobar island. Andamanese men go naked, but the only Andamanese women that I have ever seen entirely naked in their own jungles are of the inland tribe of Jarawas. Nov. 29, 1919. R. C. TEMPle. |