82 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



Mr. Man's results give as the average height of the men 4 feet, lOf 

 inches, and of the women 4 feet, 7\ inches, while their average weight 

 is 98| pounds and 93J pounds, respectively. 



It would probably be impossible, as Mr. C. Boden Kloss remarks, 

 to find a people of purer descent, because ever since they peopled the 

 islands in the Stone Age they have remained secluded from the outer 

 world. To this isolation, furthermore, is due the uniformity so marked 

 in their physical and mental characteristics. 



Many were the fabulous stories told of these islanders in early times. 

 Ptolemy is supposed to have referred to the Andamanese when he de- 

 scribes a people as "anthropophagi whose heads grew beneath their 

 shoulders." It was also said that they had tails like horses. As re- 

 gards the charge of cannibalism, not a particle of evidence has been 

 discovered of such a practice among the Andamanese, even in remote 

 times. The belief that their heads grew from below their shoulders 

 and that they had tails like horses, may be traced to their custom of 

 wearing the skulls of departed relatives suspended by a strap about the 

 neck, and a tail-like bunch of pandanus leaves attached to their belts 

 behind. 



Clothes, as we understand the word, were unknown among the early 

 Andamanese. Circlets about the neck, arms and legs and a waist- 

 band with a pendant bunch of leaves, shells, beads or other objects 

 were generally worn, but even these were dispensed with in some lo- 

 calities. Some time after the establishment of the penal settlement at 

 Port Blair, the aborigines in the vicinity were recjuired, by law, to wear 

 a sort of frock, but the idea in the minds of the islanders, concerning 

 the purpose of this regulation is well illustrated by an amusing incident 

 related by Dr. G. E. Dobson, who visited the Andamans in 1872 for 

 the purpose of collecting zoological specimens. He says, "We were re- 

 ceived by the wife of the chief, who had hastily donned the frock pro- 

 vided by the Government to receive visitors in, but very soon afterwards 

 perceiving that no ladies were in our boat, she got rid of that unneces- 

 sary encumbrance, and presented herself in nature's garb, adorned by a 

 single leaf, a garter tied below one knee, and a necklace composed of 

 the finger and toe-bones of her ancestors." Tattooing is very gen- 

 erally practiced throughout the islands. The instrument formerly in 

 use for incising the designs was a flake of quartz, but since the advent 

 of the whites, a piece of glass has become the favorite tool. 



