484 BUR.VA, ITS PEOPLE AXD PRODUCTIOXS. 



on posts. An interesting account of the ' Kjokkenniuddlngs' of the islands has been 

 given by Stoliczka (Proceedings As. Soc. Bengal, 1870, p. 13). The bulk of the 

 materials consisted, of course, of such shells as are now common on the coast, save 

 that a species of 'cockscomb oyster' appears to have been formerly more abundant 

 than now, and the common oyster, so prized by ourselves, appears to have been 

 as little esteemed formerly as it is by the living Andamanese. Perhaps the difficulty 

 of detaching the largo oyster, without the aid of iron implements, may account 

 for the paucity of its valves, though oysters of any sort ajjpear to be little relished 

 among them, ])ossibly from not being susceptible of as much chewing and mastication 

 as a tough old lim])et or cartilaginous chiton. 



The long bones of the Andaman wild pig were pretty common, split as usual 

 for the marrow, but no human bones were observed, and among numbers of chipped 

 stone fragments a celt was found by M. Roepstorff " undistinguishable from any 

 of the European or Indian celts of the so-called Neolithic period." The celts found 

 and a fine arrow-head were all fashioned of a tertiary sandstone. 



The only fragments of pottery found in these heaps were portions of rude cups, 

 hand-mado, and sun-dried only, and not baked, with rude lines on them both inside 

 and out, made apparently with the obtuse point of a shell or stone. 



In addition to the above-described friomlly tribes of Rutland Island, South 

 Andaman and the southern half of Middle Andaman, there are other tribes, or 

 perhaps a distinct race, on Interview Island, North Andaman, and the northern 

 extremity of Middle Andaman, of whom we know nothing, beyond their determined 

 hostility to all strangers. "The Andamanese,'' says Hume {I.e. p. 67), "call them 

 savages, cannot understand them, and are much afraid of them. Little has been seen 

 of them. A party of them not long ago pounced upon a party of convicts working 

 in the jungle, tied them up, and stript them of everything, but did not hurt them ; 

 on the contrary, after stripping them, hugged them, cried over them, patted them 

 affectionately, and took their departure. These are probably the aborigines, and are 

 similar to the jungle race, the Ourang-utan of the Nicobarese, who inhabit the 

 dense forests of the mountainous interior of the great Nicobar. Then on the Little 

 Andaman we have a distinct people, whom our Port Blair and Rutland Island 

 Andamanese cannot in the smallest degree nnderstand. Very unreclaimed savages 

 whom it has hitherto been found impossible to conciliate in any way, and who 

 mm-der all strangers tlie instant they can. They are not, however, cannibals, as has 

 been asserted ; the bodies of shipwrecked persons, and others killed by them, have 

 always been found intact, lightly buried in the sand." AVhat a mine of ethnological 

 research do not these words suggest, within a day's steam of thriving English ports, 

 and but little removed from the direct highway between Intlia and China ! 



