184 ANDAMAN ISLANDS AND INHABITANTS 



steadily on, until there now remain but two or three groups of 

 Andamanese from whom any hostility is to be feared. 



In 1872-3 the Andamans were formed in a Commissioner- 

 ship with the Nicobars, and a year later general attention was 

 drawn to them by the death of Lord Mayo, Viceroy of India, 

 at the hands of a convict. 



The Andaman Islands are inhabited by people of pure Negrito 

 blood, members of perhaps the most ancient race remaining on 

 the earth, and standing closest to the primitive human type. 



Geologically, the islands are connected with the opposite 

 mainland, so that in remote times migration was probably possible ; 

 and we find in the Malay Peninsula, and in the Philippines, which 

 were at one time connected with it, aborigines who — known by 

 various names, such as Semang, Jakun, etc., and Aeta — are the 

 nearest existing relatives of the Andamanese. 



There is no reason to consider the Andamanese any other 

 than the aborigines of the islands, for we know from their 

 kitchen-middens, which are found throughout the group, that 

 they occupied it in very remote times. 



From the examination of fragments of pottery, arrowheads, 

 and other stone implements discovered in the shell-mounds, it is 

 now believed that the locality was settled some time during the 

 Pleistocene period, and certainly not later than the Neolithic age. 



" In the Andaman kitchen-middens have been found shells, 

 pig-bones, pottery (referred to a stone age — at least to the 

 Neolithic period — and almost identical with the fragments found 

 in the Danish kitchen-middens), and stone implements. Every 

 second stone picked up showed indications of being used in some 

 way ; some as hammers, others fastened to wood as rude hatchets, 

 knives, etc. : a beautiful polished celt was found, indistinguishable 

 from European or Indian celts of the Neolithic period, also a 

 typical arrow-head — all of Tertiary sandstone." — Stoliczka. 



The possession by the natives, in recent times, of implements 

 and weapons manufactured from wood and shells only, is easily 

 accounted for by their having found these equally suitable to 

 their needs, and far easier to construct. 



