158 MAN: PAST AND PRESENT. [CHAP. 



During the hopeless struggle with the early settlers, the natives 



developed a degree of ferocity equal to that of 



ment" 136 their exterminators. But when first encountered by 



Cook, Peron and other navigators, they appeared 



to be a mild, inoffensive people, disposed to be friendly or at 



least not hostile, diffident rather than distrustful. Little or no 



reference is made to atrocious tribal practices, mutilations and 



other horrors, which make detailed accounts of the Australian 



peoples such unpleasant reading. The reason is obvious enough. 



The Tasmanians had not yet passed from the rude primitive state 



of the family life to the social condition of the clan and tribe, 



when complications arise, and the " commonweal " has to be 



safeguarded by all manner of drastic measures. In the general 



evolution of human progress the intermediate stages will often be 



found more unpleasant than either extreme. 



THE OCEANIC NEGRITOES. 



In Africa the Negrito substratum, partly sheltered by trackless 

 tropical woodlands, may still be traced in scattered fragments from 

 Mangbattuland to the Cape. In Oceania the Negrito substratum, 

 formerly diffused throughout the Malayan lands, survives only in 

 four widely separated enclaves the Andaman Islands, the Malay 

 Peninsula, the Philippines, and parts of New Guinea. 



The " Mincopies," as the Andamanese used to be called, no- 

 body seems to know why, were visited in 1893 by 



f nda ' Dr Louis Lapique, who examined a large kitchen- 



rn ctncst. A * * * 



midden near Port Blair, but some distance from 



the present coast, hence of great age 1 . Nevertheless he failed to 



find any worked stone implements, although flint occurs in the 



island. Indeed, chipped or flaked flints, now replaced by broken 



glass, were formerly used for shaving and tattooing. But, as the 



present natives use only fishbones, shells, and wood, Dr Lapique 



somewhat hastily concluded that these islanders, like some other 



primitive groups, have never passed through a Stone 



Age at all. The shell-mounds have certainly yielded 



arrow-heads and polished adzes "indistinguishable from any of the 



1 A la Recherche des Negritos, &c. in Tour dii, Monde, New Series, Livr. 

 35 38. The midden was 150 ft. round, and over 12 ft. high. 



