.189 



These houses were built by the women on account of a superstition 

 that exists to the effect that if any portion of the camp is built by 

 men the party living in it would be eaten by tigers. * 



PHYSICAL CHARACTEKS. 

 Dealing witli the physical characters of these people the colour of 

 the skin, was found to be intermediate between shades 3-4 of Broca 

 as given in the " Notes and Queries on Anthropology " published by 

 the British Association in 1899, which at the moment was the only 

 scale to hand, though it is well to note that in the Indo-Malayan 

 region this scale is not sufficiently extensive to be of much compara- 

 tive value. In short the skin, though varying widely between the 

 two tints, neither of which it resembled, might be described as 

 essentially rufous chocolate, without any lustre or oily appearance. 



The colour on the whole body was very uniform but in two 

 instances was much bleached by an aggravated form of kurap 

 (Tinea sp.), to which these people, owing to their mode of life, are 

 especially liable. 



The hair, always a difficult character to describe, was dull black 

 in colour, not coarse in texture, but somewhat wiry. On the whole 

 it grew evenly over the scalp and it was difficult to detect any trace 

 of the peppercorn appearance characteristic of the true Andamanese 

 Negrito. It may be described as woolly or in cases where it had not 

 been recently shaved as fuzzy. The liair of the children was worn 

 longer than that of the adults and resembled the wool on the back 

 of a sheep. 



In some cases it was evidently shaved periodically over the whole 

 of the scalp (pi. xvii, third figure from left ; pi. xx, right hand figure) 

 which in others (pi. xvii, fourth figure from left ; pi. xx, left hand 

 figure) a nari'ow brow fillet about two inches wide extended from 

 ear to ear. The two women we saw, one of whom was nearly nubile 

 but unmarried, had a lock of hair an inch or two longer than the 

 rest on the back of the crown. 



The headman wore a slightly frizzly beard and one or two others 

 had indications of a moustache. Body hair including the axillary 

 and public regions and the lower limbs was scanty, the rest of the 

 body was practically glabrous. 



The eyes were the rich dark brown that is conventionally 

 described as black, the sclerotic was slightly stained yellow, the 

 plane of the eyelids was horizontal ; in only two instances was there 

 the slightest trace of an epicanthus : the eyelashes were particularly 

 long and fine. 



^* With further regard to the sexes we found that this party also maiutained 

 a custom which forbade father-in-law and daughter-in-law to comnmuicate 

 directly with each other. 



