476 ABBOTT COLLECTION FROM ANDAMAN ISLANDS. 



panying- his notes on the collections made by him, Dr. Abbott sa^^s that 

 a small tri))e of hostile Andamaneso wanders about South Andaman, 

 and another one inhabits the south end of Rutland Island. 



From Port Blair Dr. Abbott went to MacPherson Strait, dropping 

 anchor between South Andaman and Rutland Island. Here he set his 

 trap^ iiud ciiu^ht n, Paradoxur us, ov "musang," an animal belonging 

 to the civet-cat family, the bones of which the natives f requentl}" make 

 into necklaces. Dr. /V})])ott was struck by the absence of squirrels, 

 which on the neighboring coasts of the continent and on many islands 

 adjacent to it are abundant. The next stoppage was at North Cinque 

 Island, whence he went to Little Andaman, anchoring oil" the mouth 

 of Bumila Creek, at the northern extremity. The natives were friendly, 

 but brought off to the ship with them "quantities of a beastly little fly 

 that made life well-nigh unendurable." The commissioner at Point 

 Blair had warned Dr. Abbott not to touch at Little Andaman except at 

 Bumila Creek, as the natives elsewhere are more or less hostile, "and 

 the first warning of a hostile Andamanese is an arrow whizzing past 

 you or sticking in your body, while it is utterly impossible to see the 

 little black men in the dark forest." 



Dr. Abbott's collection of ethnological material includes a number 

 of interesting specimens from South Andaman Island, illustrating the 

 arts and customs of the Bo-jig-ngi-ii tribe. He calls attention to the 

 decided difference between these articles and those collected by him at 

 Rutland Island, only 15 miles south of Port Blair. Mr. E. PI. Man, 

 who has written many interesting papers on the Andamanese in the 

 Journal of the Anthropological Institute, had retired from the Gov- 

 ernment service shortly before Dr. Abbott's visit. At that time the 

 station at Port Blair was in charge of Mr. Vaux, who received his 

 party and looked after them during their sta3^ 



HISTORY. 



From the earliest times the inhabitants of the Andaman Islands 

 have been considered one of the most primitive and most savage races 

 on the face of the earth. Fabulous stories have been told of them by 

 early writers. Accounts of their alleged cannibalism are found in 

 Chinese writings. It is thought that the}^ were included by Ptolemy 

 in the ''Hnsidse, honx fortune'''' d.Qi>Q.Y\hQdi by him, the inhabitants of 

 which were "anthropophagi, whose heads do grow" beneath their 

 shoulders;" and other writers have referred to the natives as having 

 tails like Jiorsex. Whatever may have been the exaggerations of these 

 early accounts of the personal attrilmtes of the Andamanese, it is 

 undoubtedly true that they were cruel and merciless savages, who 

 destroyed all those so unfortunate as to be cast upon their shores. 

 Their own heads were not situated beneath their shoulders, but the}^ 

 did frequently wear the skulls of departed relatives suspended b}^ a 

 band around the neck (see PI. I, figs. S and 1>); and their "horse-like 



