186 ANDAMAN ISLANDS AND INHABITANTS 



while the lips of some show a slight purplish tinge, those of the 

 majority scarcely differ in tint from the skin of the face. 



The hair, which is similar in colour to the skin, and lustreless, 

 is woolly, and of what is known as " pepper-corn " type, for, when 

 kept short, it assumes the form of little knobs with bare spaces 

 between, giving to the head an appearance that has been rather 

 aptly likened to that of an old worn-out shoe-brush. When long, 

 the tufts take the form of a cone-shaped frizzly spiral. The body 

 is glabrous, but there are traces of hair about the armpits and 

 other parts, and adult males possess sometimes an excessively 

 slight moustache, and about a dozen hairs on the tip of the chin. 



The skull is mesocephalous, with an index of about 82 ; the 

 forehead of good size, round and prominent ; the face rather 

 short, and often quadrilateral. The nose is somewhat broad, 

 with rounded tip and nostrils, often short, and, when not straight, 

 as is most common, is as frequently convex as concave. The 

 e)'es are large, horizontal, and placed widely apart, with black 

 pupils and muddy yellow sclerotic ; and the lips, which are well- 

 formed and neither excessively prominent nor thick, are kept 

 closed when at rest, and cover teeth strong though irregular 

 and often stained from use of tobacco. The ears are of good 

 shape, small, and lie close to the head. 



Their speech is rapid and vivacious. Each tribe possesses a 

 distinct dialect, traceable, however, to the same source. 



" The Andamanese languages are one group, and have no 

 affinities by which we might infer their connection with any other 

 known group. They belong to the agglutinative stage of develop- 

 ment, and are distinguished from other groups by the presence, 

 in full development, of the principle of prefixed and affixed 

 grammatical additions to the roots of words. Their form of 

 speech is extremely intricate ; for instance, the possessive pronouns 

 have as many as sixteen possible variants according to the class 

 of noun with which they are in agreement. There is also a 

 distinct poetical dialect, and in their songs they subordinate to 

 rhythm, not only the form of words, but even the grammatical 

 construction of sentences." * 



* Lieut. -Col. R. C. Temple, quoted in The Aboriginal Inhabitants of the 



