68 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE ORNITHOLOGY OF INDIA. 



have noticed that they wear skulls suspended about their necks, 

 and have thence inferred a sanguinary disposition, but in reality 

 these ai'e only tokens of love, and when a man dies, his widow 

 and all those who knew and liked him, wear his skull in turns 

 in remembrance of him. 



They are all as low in the scale of humanity as any race of 

 which I have ever read ; they have no conception of Grod or 

 -of a future state ; they neither plough nor sow; they build no 

 houses, wear no clothes, and make no provision for any wants 

 besides those of the immediate moment. They live normally 

 on shell and other fish, with a little pork and a few jungle roots 

 and woody fruits as a change. Until recently they but rarely 

 succeeded in killing a wild pig, but of late years Homfray has 

 got them a number of dogs, (there were six in one and four 

 in the other of the two canoes that boarded us), and with the 

 help of these they now get as much pork as they desire. 



They are very fond of their dogs, and it would seem very 

 kind to them ; they appear to be amongst themselves, good- 

 tempered, generous, sharing everything they get, and virtuous 

 in their sexual relations. 



They have a supreme contempt for money, but have con- 

 ceived an intense devotion for tobacco, and we divided amongst 

 our visitors our whole stock of cheroots to their great delight. 

 We got from them bows, arrows, numbers of splendid nautilus, 

 shells, and other curiosities. 



Time was passing rapidly ; we had had these visitors 

 already at least three hours on board, and now wanted to be 

 moving ; the men, when we succeeded in making them un- 

 derstand, went off one by one, but the ladies, especially 

 the princess, w T ould persist in laughing and jabbering ad infi- 

 nitum. We lifted her gently on her feet, pointed to the 

 men who were already in the canoes, and in fact did everything 

 we could think of to induce her to go, but go she would'nt. 

 At last the Geologist, in hopes of quickening her movements, 

 gently prodded her from behind with one of the blunt arrows 

 she had given him ; the effect was magical ! Each grade of 

 society has its own special etiquette ; clearly he had gone too 

 far; even in the most innocent manner you must not, it seems, 

 according to Andamanese etiquette, prod a princess's nude 

 natural bustle with a blunt arrow. She turned round with 

 a look of offended dignity, that no Duchess, suddenly slapped 

 behind by a passing street-imp as she got into her carriage, 

 could have surpassed, and stalked off statelily to her canoe ; 

 in another moment we were off. 



