66 



NATURE 



[May 17, 1888 



•nothing over the edge for many hundreds of feet. As Wali 

 hewed the steps we advanced step by step after him, leaning 

 back against the slope, all the time facing th± precipice, and 

 knowing that if we slipped (and the ice was very slippery, for 

 the sun was just powerful enough to melt the surface of it), we 

 should roll down the icy slope and over the precipice into 

 eternity. After a time we reached terra firmx in the shape of a 

 projecting piece of rock, and from here began the descent of 

 the cliff. We had to let ourselves down from any little ledge, 

 taking every step with the greatest possible care, as the rock 

 was not always sound ; and once a shout ca ne from above, and 

 a huge rock, which had been dislodged, came crashing past me 

 and as nearly as possible hit two of the men who had already 

 got some way down. At the bottom of the cliff we came to 

 another steep ice-slope." After eighteen hours of this task the 

 party were glad to lie clown for a few hours' rest. At daybreak 

 next morning they were on their legs again, and after a few 

 hours' travelling emerged on to the great Baltoro Glacier, which 

 was explored by Colonel Godwin- Austen in i852, when making 

 the Kashmir survey. They travelled all that day, and for two 

 days more, till they reached Askoli, a little village on the Braldo 

 River, surrounded by trees and cultivated lands. 



Lieut. Younghusband remarked as follows on the Altai 

 Mountains : — " These mountains are perfectly barren, the 

 upper portion composed of bare rock and the lower of 

 long gravel slopes formed of the debris of the rocks above. 

 In such an extremely dry climate, exposed to the icy cold 

 winds of winter and the fierce rays of the summer sun, 

 and unprotected by one atom of soil, the rocks here, as also in 

 every other part of the Gobi, crumble away to a remarkable 

 extent, and there being no rainfall sufficient to wash away the 

 debris, the lower features of the range gradually get covered with 

 a mass of debris falling from the upper portions, and in the 

 course of time a uniform slope is created, often 30 or 40 miles in 

 length, and it is only for a few hundred feet at the top that the 

 original jagged rocky outline is seen." Again, with regard to 

 Chinese Turkistan : — "If you could get a bird's-eye view of 

 Chinese Turkistan, you would see a great bare desert surrounded 

 on three sides by barren mountains, and at their bases you would 

 see some vivid green spots, showing out sharp and distinct like 

 blots of green paint dropped on to a sepia picture. In the 

 western end round Kashgar and Yarkand the cultivation is of 

 greater extent and more continuous than in the eastern half, 

 where the oases are small and separated from each other by 15 

 or 20 miles of desert. These oases are, however, extraordinarily 

 fertile, every scrap of land that can be cultivated is used up, and 

 every drop of water is drained off from the stream and used for 

 irrigation." At the conclusion of Monday's meeting of the 

 Royal Geographical Society, General J. T. Walker proposed, 

 and Sir Henry Rawlinson seconded, that the peak in the Kara- 

 korum known as K2, 28,500 feet high, be baptized Mount 

 Godwin- Austen — a proposal heartily approved by the meeting. 



The Paris Geographical Society has awarded gold medals to 

 the Rev. P. Roblet, for his map of Madagascar ; to MM. 

 Bonvalot, Capus, and Pepin, for their journeys in Kafiristan 

 and the Pamir; to M. Chaffanjo-i, for his exploration of the 

 sources of the Orinoco. 



General Prjevalsky will start in August next on his 

 fourth journey in Central Asia. His ultimate destination will be 

 Lhassa, the capital of Tibet, and he will be equipped for two 

 years' travel. He will be accompanied by an escort of twenty - 

 eight persons, including twelve Cossacks, and two scientific 

 companions, Lieut. Robrowsky and Sub-Lieut. Koslow. 



THE PYGMY RACES OF MEN} 

 II. 



T IKE all other human beings existing at present in the world, 

 ' however low in the scale of civilization, the social life of the 

 Andamanese 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 nam 2s they may or may 

 not pronounce : all these, as well as their traditions, sopsrsti- 



1 A Lecture delivered at the Royal Institution on Friday even'n<", April 13 

 1888, by Prof. Flower, C.B., LL.D., F.R.S., Director of the Natural History 

 Departments of the British Museum. Continued from p. 46. 



tions, 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, unless he has 

 seen them with too couhur-de-rose eyesight, throws a very favour- 

 able light upon the primitive unsophisticated life of these poor 

 little savages, now so ruthlessly broken into and destroyed by 

 the exigencies of our ever-extending Empire. 



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

 munal 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 differences, which, however, occur but rarely, are 

 easily settled with or without the intervention of friends." In 

 fact, Mr. Man goes on to say, " One of the most striking 

 features of their social relations is the marked equality and 

 affection which subsists between husband and wife, and "the 

 consideration and respect with which women are treated might 

 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 the Indian Archipelago, conducted through many years by 

 M. de Quatrefages, in some cases with the assistance of his 

 colleague M. Hamy, that the facts I am about to put before you 

 have been prominently brought to light, and their significance 

 demonstrated. 



It is well known that the greater part of the large island of 

 New Guinea, and of the chain of islands extending eastwards 

 and southwards from it, including the Solomon Islands, the 

 New Hebrides, and New Caledonia, and also the Fijis, are still 

 inhabited mainly by people of dark colour, frizzly hair, and 

 many characters allying them to the Negroes of Africa. These 

 constitute the race to which the term Melanesian is commonly 

 applied in this country, or Oceanic Negroes, the " Papouas" of 

 Quatrefages. Their area at one time was more extensive 

 than it is now, and has been greatly encroached upon by the 

 brown, straight-haired Polynesian race with Malay affinities, 

 now inhabiting many of the more important islands of the 

 Pacific, and the mingling of which with the more aboriginal 

 Melanesians in various proportions has been a cause, among 

 others, of the diverse aspect of the population on many of the 

 islands in this extensive region. These Papouas, or Mela- 

 nesians, however, differ greatly from the Andamanese in many 

 easily defined characters ; which are, especially, their larger 

 stature, their long, narrow, and high skulls, and their coarser 

 and more Negro-like features. Although undoubtedly allied, 

 we cannot look to them as the nearest relations of our little 

 Andamanese. 



When the Spaniards commenced the colonization of the 

 Philippines, they met with, in the mountainous region in the inte- 

 rior of the Island of Luzon, besides the prevailing native popu- 

 lation, consisting of Tagals of Malay origin, very small people, 

 of black complexion, with the frizzly hair of the African Negroes. 

 So struck were they with the resemblance, that they called 

 them "Negritos del Monte" (little Negroes of the mountain). 

 Their local name was Aigtas, or Inagtas, said to signify 

 " black," and from which the word Aeta, generally now applied 

 to them, is derived. These people have lately been studied 

 by two French travellers, M. Marche and Dr. Montano ; the 

 result of their measurements gives 4 feet 8f inches as the average 

 height of the men, and 4 feet 6^ inches the average for the 

 women. In many of their moral characteristics they resemble 

 the Andamanese. The Aetas are faithful to their marriage 

 vows, and have but one wife. The affection of parents for 

 children is very strong, and the latter have for their father and 

 mother as much love and respect. The marriage ceremony, 

 according to M. Montano, is very remarkable. The affianced 

 pair climb two flexible trees placed near to each other. One of 

 the elders of the tribe bends them towards each other. When 



