6738 



Zoology of the Andaman Islands. 



smaller ; but in some cases, especially snakes, the size of life. Considering the extra- 

 ordinarily degenerate state of a Bushman's cranium, compared with that of an 

 European, these productions are singular, and would be an interesting fact to the 

 phrenologist." 



The Zoology of the Andaman Islands. By the Editor of the 

 < Indian Field. 1 



We learn from the 6 Moulmein Advertiser' that " Dr. Walker is pre- 

 paring a very interesting account of the Andaman people, furnished 

 by a Pandy who has been domesticated amongst them for more than 

 a year." Pandy's information will of course have to be well sifted ; 

 but it should not be difficult to eliminate truth from fable and 

 exaggeration, or the flightiness of an Oriental imagination. We have 

 therefore pleasure in anticipating some trustworthy revelations on the 

 habits and mode of life of this remarkable wild tribe, one of the far- 

 scattered remnants, as we hold, of a wide-spread primaeval population, 

 of no proved African origin, nor indeed greater probability of African 

 descent than the negroes have of Oriental origin, but which races of 

 higher culture and prowess would appear to have long since com- 

 pelled to take refuge in mountain fastnesses or remote islands,*where 

 not a few of such remnants yet survive, including a population still in 

 great force on the extensive and little-known island of Papua, or New 

 Guinea (whence, of course, so denominated), and its vicinity. On the 

 principal island of the neighbouring group of the Nicobars, such a 

 race still inhabits the mountainous interior, and is stated to be ever 

 at war with the coast population ; which latter is derived obviously 

 from the adjacent territories of Burma and Malasia. 



Inclining strongly to these views, we do not venture to indulge the 

 hope or expectation expressed in the recently-published Government 

 Report on the Andaman Islands, with reference to their Negrillo 

 inhabitants, that "to ascertain their manners and customs, and to 

 establish their identity with any existing portion of the negro race, to 

 which they clearly belong, would solve the mystery of ages, and lead 

 to a knowledge of the probable manner in which Asiatic islands came 

 to be occupied by an African people." This, we opine, is rather 

 like "jumping to a conclusion." We are not at all surprised to learn 

 that the individual captured by the expedition did not " comprehend 

 a word of the several African dialects spoken by the Seedees in the 

 service of the Peninsula and Oriental Company, with whom he was 

 confronted." On the contrary, we should have been exceedingly 

 astonished had he done so. 



