438 THE ANDAMAN ISLANDERS. 



intelligent Kandyan chief, with whom Mr. Bailey visited 

 these Veddahs, was " perfectly scandalized at the utter bar- 

 barism of living with only one wife, and never parting until 

 separated by death." It was, he said, "just like the wan- 

 deroos" (monkeys). Even in their marriage relations, how- 

 ever, the Veddahs cannot altogether be commended, as it is 

 or was until lately very usual with them for a man to marry 

 his younger sister. This is the more remarkable, as marriage 

 with an elder sister seemed to them as horrible as it does to 

 us. 



The Andaman Islanders. 



The Mincopies, or inhabitants of the Andaman Islands, 

 have been described by Dr. Mouatt,* Sir E. Belcher,-)- Mr. 

 Day,| Mr. Man, and Prof. Owen, who considers that they 

 " are, perhaps, the most primitive, or lowest in the scale of 

 civilization, of the human race." Their huts consist of four 

 posts, the two front ones six to eight feet high, the back ones 

 only one or two feet. They are open at the sides, and covered 

 with a roof of bamboo, or a few palm-leaves bound tightly 

 together. The Mincopies live chiefly on fruit, mangroves, arid 

 shell-fish. Sometimes, however, they kill the small pigs which 

 run wild in the jungle. 



They have single-tree canoes, hollowed out with a ^-shaped 

 axe, assisted probably by the action of fire. They are ac- 

 quainted with the use of outriggers, which, however, appear 

 to have been of recent introduction, as they are not alluded 

 to by the earlier writers. || Their arrows and spears are now 

 generally tipped with iron and glass, which they obtain from 

 wrecks, and which have to a great extent replaced bone. 



* Adventures and Researches t Proc. Asiat. Soc. of Bengal, 

 among the Andaman Islanders. 1870. 



t Belcher, Trans. Ethn. Soc., Transactions of the Ethnologi- 

 New Series, vol. v. p. 40. cal Society, New Ser. vol. ii. p. 34. 



il Mouatt, 1. c. p. 317. 



