ON SECLUDED TRIBES OF XJNCIVIiilZED MEN. 329 



it that no tradition of a region more abundantly supplied with the 

 means of supporting animal life has stimulated them to migrate to a 

 more favoured locality ? With still more surprise may we ask how 

 it is that some of these tribes when even but a short distance re- 

 moved from the settlements of civilized men, appear content with 

 their degraded and miserable lot, seeking no intercourse with or 

 assistance from their more favoured neighbours ? "What is the cause 

 of their persistent and determined seclusion ? Is it natural ferocity 

 and hatred towards all mankind ? Is it an inherent timidity of cha- 

 racter ? Or is it a mere stolidity and incuriosity, the result of their 

 degraded intellectual condition ? 



Such questions are more easily propounded than satisfactorily 

 answered. Probably none of them, in our present state of ethno- 

 logical and anthropological knowledge, can be thoroughly solved. 

 But it is reasonable to suppose that the most direct way towards a 

 solution of these will be an examination of the actual condition, 

 character, habits, and (if possible) history of the tribes ia question. 

 As our time is limited, it will, of course, be impracticable for us to ex- 

 amine into such circumstances in connection with all known secluded 

 tribes. I shall, therefore, ia order to stimulate investigation and 

 elicit opinions upon this important subject, give slight sketches of 

 two of these segregated tribes, whose condition and history are 

 peculiarly interesting. One of these tribes is of the vindictive and 

 ferocious class : the other is of the mild and inoffensive. One re- 

 sides on a group of sterile islands ; the other in a region of great 

 fertility. 



The first of these tribes to which I shall call attention is found 

 upon the Andaman Islands, lying on the eastern side of the Bay of 

 Bengal. The people who compose this tribe are, in more ways than 

 one, ethnological curiosities. In the first place, they are not of that 

 Turanian family, to be found in their vicinity on the main-land, but 

 of that dark-skinned race with frizzly hair, known formerly as the 

 Negrillos, or Negritos, but now termed Melanesians. The great 

 puzzle in their case is, how they became isolated from the rest of 

 their race, and chanced to take up their residence upon these islands. 

 There have been several wild conjectures upon this subject, on the 

 supposition that they were of the same stock as the African Negro. 

 It was supposed that a Portuguese slave-vessel had been wrecked 

 upon the islands, and the crew murdered, the slaves landing and es- 

 tablishing themselves as lords of the soil. But this, as well as 



