THE CINQUES 37 



striking contrast to the jungle of the other islands, and bears 

 witness to the strength of the south - west monsoon. The 

 slopes of the hills are scantily covered with grass, and on the 

 lower ground, amongst the starved and twisted trees, numerous 

 dead branches show white against the scanty foliage of the 

 other wind - warped limbs. Below, the effect is stranger still, 

 for the shrubs and bushes grow in rows running inland from 

 the beach, so that one can walk up and down between them 

 as in the lines of an artificial plantation. 



The beach on which we landed was composed entirely of 

 white coral sand, and upon it we found graceful branches of 

 a brown and white coralline {Isis hippurus)^ and numbers of 

 pearly - chambered spirulas. After forcing a way through the 

 matted foliage, we reached the more protected parts of the 

 island, where the jungle was of a more luxuriant description; 

 but animal life was very scarce everywhere, and our list of 

 the avifauna contains the names of ten species only. 



There are no permanent inhabitants, but the Cinques are 

 occasionally visited by the natives (Onges of Little Andaman 

 and natives from Port Blair), who probably find it a good 

 locality for turtle and fish. We picked up in the jungle 

 an arrow of a kind afterwards obtained at Little Andaman, 

 and discovered a path that ran from south to north, where, 

 on the shore of a little sandy cove, stood a hut similar to 

 those already seen, save that sides had been added, thus making 

 a semicircular shelter, and a small platform of sticks erected 

 above the fireplace. A number of baskets hung from the roof, and 

 for flooring, instead of palm leaves, there was an old teak grating 

 and some planks — flotsam, perhaps, from a shipwrecked vessel. 



At midnight a fair breeze sprang up and we made sail, 

 crawling slowly southward by its help, until, twelve hours later, 

 we dropped anchor off the coast of Little Andaman. 



Eyubelong, as it is called by its inhabitants, the Onges — a 

 tribe, who, by their bows, absence of scarification, and other 

 indications, seem to be closely akin to the Jarawas — is in shape 

 an irregular ellipse, with an area of rather more than 250 square 



