16 THE PIGMIES. 



clayey mud, which soon dries and forms a regular cuirass. They 

 can thus sleep in peace ; but it is obvious that this night-dress goes 

 a long way towards developing the rheumatic and abdominal diseases 

 to which they are particularly subject. 



Perpetually wandering as they do, along their shores, the Anda- 

 manese are not given to erecting permanent dwellings. Pour 

 poles secured together at the upper ends and covered with broad 

 leaves give them a perfect hut, which is quickly ereeted and affords 

 capital shelter against rain — the only thing they seem to dread. 

 Such a hut is in reality a kind of impervious tent, the materials of 

 which are entirely supplied by the neighbouring jungle, and which 

 need not be transported from place to place. They could not 

 possibly have contrived anything better, and our own African 

 soldiers would deem themselves lucky, could they but do the same. 



The Aetas are scarcely better clad than their Andamanese 

 brethren. ( x ) Further, such of their tribes as are subject to the 

 continual attacks of formidable enemies do not even erect tem- 

 porary sheds, but sleep in trees, or, as a protection against cold, 

 roll themselves up in the hot ashes of a large fire kindled for the 

 purpose. But we have seen already that, when placed in normal 

 conditions of life, they know how to erect permanent houses and 

 settle clown. 



The photographs of M. de Saint Pol-Lias represeut the Sakais 

 as wearing a simple waist cloth tied round the waist with the 

 ends hanging down on the thighs. M. Mcxntano has described 

 the bamboo hut of a Manthra family whom he met living by them- 

 selves in the midst of the forest. ( 2 ) Though anything but luxuri- 

 ous, this dwelling exhibited the peculiarity of having a floor 

 raised two feet off: the ground. In almost all of the houses of 

 our own peasants the bare earth is the substitute for plank floors 

 and in this respect at all events the Malay savage understands 

 hygienic conditions better than the European. 



(i) A portrait of an Acta chief, engraved after a photograph by M. 

 Montano has been given by me in a memoir called — Nouvelles Etudes sur la 

 flhlr'ibut'wih geograjjhique des Negritos et svr lew identification avec les Pgg- 

 )iip<-n asiatiqnes de Ctesiaa et de Pline. {Reeve d ' Etlinograpliie, Vol. I, p. 183). 



(2) Loc. cit p. 46. 



