Zoology of the Andaman Islands. 



6739 



The inhabitants of the Andamans, we are told, " are dwarf Negril- 

 los, strong and robust when their supply of food is abundant, as it 

 was during the time of our visit; intensely black, and possessing most 

 of the physical characters of the true negro, with the exception of the 

 projection of the heel. 



" The individual captured at Interview Island was singularly quiet 

 and docile, imitated regularly the actions and gestures of those by 

 whom he was surrounded, and never, from first to last, exhibited the 

 smallest indication of ferocity." Of the vulgarly reputed cannibalism 

 of the Andamanese there does not appear to be the slightest proof, 

 but every indication that, however ancient and prevalent the notion, 

 it is utterly unfounded ; nor can we learn that any Negrillo tribe has 

 been elsewhere convicted of the abomination. 



Vague as may be the information derived from Ptolemy, from Marco 

 Polo, and from the two Arab travellers of the ninth century of our era, 

 we still gather sufficient, even from these imperfect records, to feel 

 incredulous of the story in the ' Calcutta Monthly Register' for No- 

 vember, 1790, quoted in the Government Report. "We are told 

 that when the Portuguese had a settlement near Pegue, two of their 

 ships, with cargoes of slaves on board, amounting in number of men 

 and women to three hundred, were cast away there ; and as the inha- 

 bitants are of the Coffree caste [caste !], it must be allowed that pro- 

 bability favours this opinion or conjecture." It did so, perhaps, 

 when so little was known of the Negrillos or Negritos of the Philip- 

 pines and elsewhere, and when Ethnology was more completely in its 

 infancy than at present. But we happen to have heard how the 

 domestic pig found its way to the islands from a wrecked ship ; 

 whereas the fact is that the little wild pig of the Andamans {Sits an- 

 damanensis) is of a totally different species from the domestic porker, 

 and peculiar (so far as hitherto known) to the Andaman Archipelago, 

 though identical on the islands of Great and Little Andaman, which 

 are separated by some thirty miles of sea. On conversing with a 

 well-known gentleman who has often visited the Nicobar islands, and 

 is familiar with their ordinary productions, we once asked him, by 

 way of jest, how the potato came to grow wild on certain of the Nico- 

 bars, and were duly informed of the manner of its introduction. 

 Indeed, it may be remarked that if a few domestic swine were actually 

 to find their way on shore from a wrecked vessel, their tameness 

 would at once betray them to the human inhabitants, and so lead to 

 their immediate destruction. Besides which, the chances would be 

 very great against there being an unmutilated boar amongst them, to 

 continue the race if allowed the chance. 



