igoS.] 



THE ANDAMAN AND NICOBAR ISLANDERS. 53 



hoops from wrecked ships into jagged knives. The only thing 

 resembhng a musical instrument is a wooden shield-like drum upon 

 which the performer keeps time by striking it with his foot. They 

 make some pottery ; the base of the pot is in the form of a cup. To 

 this roll after roll is added and the sides built up, the inner and 

 outer surfaces are smoothed off with an area shell and ornamented 

 with wavy, checkered or striped designs by means of a pointed stick 

 and baked by placing pieces of burning wood both inside and around 

 the vessel. They make cane baskets, wooden trays and buckets. 

 String is made from vegetable fiber (orchid and Anadendron) and 

 used in making harpoon lines, turtle nets, fishing nets, bowstrings 

 coated with wax, lashings, reticules and necklaces. Bows and ar- 

 rows, harpoons and fish spears are used in hunting. They build 

 outrigger canoes and simple dugouts which are propelled by pad- 

 dles, or, in shallow water, by poles or the shaft of a turtle harpoon. 

 Morphologically, the Andamanese form a definite group. The 

 following criteria are given by Duckworth ■} 



Cranial index 82.1 



Alveolar index 102.0 



Nasal index 50.9 



Height index 77.9 



Cranial capacity 1,266 c.c. 



The skull is small and round, with prominent jaws. It is crypto- 

 zygous, muscular ridges are not very prominent, the mastoid processes 

 are small, and the external auditory meatus is shallow. Brow- 

 ridges are not developed, and sexual differences are often obscure 

 in these skulls. The face is prognathous, the prognathism aft'ect- 

 ing chiefly the alveolar maxillary margin and being therefore sub- 

 nasal. The chief distinction is the association of a highly brachy- 

 cephalic skull of small capacity with dwarf stature and progna- 

 thism. The lumbo-vertebral index denotes simian affinities. The 

 sacral curve is very slight, indicating a low position among hominidae. 

 The scapula is the most pithecoid amongst hominid?e with the pos- 

 sible exception of the Bambute dwarfs of Africa. The proportions 

 of the limb-bones are simian as regards the radio-humeral and the 

 tibio-femoral, but not as regards the in termembral of humero- femoral 

 indices. 



^ Duckworth : " Morpholog>' and Anthropology," Cambridge Biological 

 Series, 1904. 



