190 ANDAMAN ISLANDS AND INHABITANTS 



and there are both hand and large seine nets for taking fish. 

 For food there are pigs, musang, dugong, porpoise, fish, turtle 

 and their eggs, molluscs, larvae (a delicacy), fruit, honey, and 

 roots. Food is cooked and eaten as hot as possible : of the pro- 

 duction of fire they, at least in modern times, have no knowledge : 

 this accounts for the great care taken in preserving fire at their 

 camping places, and when travelling. 



The coast people are extremely expert swimmers and divers, 

 but the interior tribes naturally not so, as their mode of life is 

 somewhat different. 



The natives are now known to be divided into twelve tribes, 

 if groups that in many cases number at present less than fifty 

 individuals can be so called. Beyond their speech there is 

 little otherwise to distinguish them from each other, except 

 in the case of the Ongds and Jarawas, who dififer somewhat 

 from the rest, but are in many ways both alike. 



The enmity that the Andamanese had ever shown to all 

 strangers was by some believed to have been greatly due to 

 the treatment they had received from early Chinese and Malay 

 traders, or beche-de-mer collectors; but, prior to 1858, extreme 

 jealousy and distrust prevailed among adjacent tribes, and 

 even amongst scattered communities of the same tribe, and 

 it was not till 1879 that members of all the Andaman tribes 

 (except 6ng6s and Jarawas) were able to meet on friendly 

 terms at the Homes of the Settlement. 



Friendly relations have lately been arrived at with most of the 

 inhabitants of Little Andaman [i.e. the Ong^s), but the Jarawas, who 

 inhabit the North Sentinel, Rutland Island, and South Andaman, 

 have proved to be quite irreconcilable, and their attitude often 

 explains the total disappearance that sometimes follows escapes 

 of the convicts. 



They are generally feared by all their native neighbours 

 and, with the boldness of ignorance, do not hesitate still to 

 attack even superior numbers of Europeans, as an instance 

 that occurred during the late census operations shows. 



At Port Campbell a body of natives were seen who were 



