1888.] on the Pygmy Baces of Men. 273 



fertility of the island supplies them with abundance and variety 

 of food all the year round, the purveying of which afifurds occupation 

 and amusement for the greater part of the male population. This 

 consists of pigs (^Sus andamanensis), which are numerous on the islands, 

 paradoxureSjdugong. and occasionally porpoise, iguanas, turtles, turtles' 

 eggs, many kinds of fish, prawns, mollusks, larvae of large wood-boring 

 and burrowing beetles, honey, and numerous roots (as yams), fruits, 

 and seeds. The food is invariably cooked before eating, and generally 

 taken when extremely hut. They were ignorant of all stimulants or 

 intoxicating di'inks — in fact, water was their only beverage ; and 

 tobacco, or any substitute for it, was quite unknown till introduced by 

 Europeans. 



As with all ether human beings existing at present in the world, 

 however low in the scale of civilisation, the social life of the Andama- 

 nese is enveloped in a complex maze of unwritten law or custom, the 

 intricacies of which are most difficult for any stranger to unravel. 

 The relations they may or may not marry, the food they are obliged 

 or forbidden to partake of at particular epochs of life or seasons of the 

 year, the words and names they may or may not jDronounce ; all these, 

 as well as their traditions, sujjerstitions, and beliefs, their occupations, 

 games, and amusements, of which they seem to have had no lack, would 

 take far too long to describe here ; but before leaving these interesting 

 people, I may quote an observation of Mr. Man's, which, imless he has 

 seen them with too coideur-de-rose eyesight, throws a very favourable 

 light upon the primitive unsophisticated life of these poor little 

 savages, now so ruthlessly broken into and destroyed by the exio-encies 

 of oui' ever-extending empire. 



" It has been asserted," Mr. Man says, " that the ' communal 

 marriage ' system prevails among them, and that ' marriage is nothing 

 more than taking a female slave ' ; but, so far from the contract 

 being regarded as a merely temporary arrangement, to be set aside at 

 the will of either party, no incompatibility of temper or other cause 

 is allowed to dissolve the union ; and while bigamy, polygamy, 

 polyandry, and divorce are unknown, conjugal fidelity till death is 

 not the exception but the rule, and matrimonial difierences, which, 

 however, occur but rarely, are easily settled with or without the in- 

 tervention of friends." In fact, Mr. Man goes on to say, " One of 

 the most striking features of their social relations is the mai'ked 

 equality and aflection which subsists between husband and wife," and 

 " the consideration and respect \\dth which women are treated micrht 

 with advantage be emulated by certain classes in our own land." 



It should also be mentioned that cannibalism and infanticide, two 

 such common incidents of savage life, were never practised by them. 

 We must now pass to the important scientific question, Who are 

 the natives of the Andaman Islands, and where, among the other 

 races of the human species, shall we look for their nearest relations '? 

 It is due mainly to the assiduous researches into all the docu- 

 mentary evidence relating to the inhabitants of Southern Asia and 



