166^ 
THE ANDAMAN GROUP. 
is ratber smooth than guttural, and their melodies are in 
the natiu'e of recitative and chorus, not unpleasing. In 
dancing they may he said to have improved on the 
strange republican dance, asserted by Voltaire to have 
been exhibited in England. Tlie Andamaners likewise 
dance in a ring, each alternately kicking and slapping 
the lower part of his person ad libitum. Their ealntation 
is performed by lifting up a legj and smacking with their 
band the lower part of the thigh. 
" Their dwellings are the most wretched hovels ima- 
ginable. An Andaman hut may be considered the radest 
and most imperfect attempt of the human race to procure 
ahelfcer from the weather, and answers to the idea given 
by Vitruvius of the buildings erected by the earliest 
inhabitants of the earth. Three or four sticks' are planted 
in the ground, and fastened together at the top in the 
form of a cone, over which a kind of thatch is formed 
with the branches and leaves of trees. An opening is 
left on one side, just large enough to creep into, and the 
ground beneath is str-ewed with dried leaves, upon which 
they lie. In these huts are frequently found the skulls 
of wild bogs suspended to the roofs. 
" Their canoes are hollowed out of the trunks of trees 
by means of fire and instruments of stone, having no iron 
in use among them, except such utensils as they may 
have procured from the Europeans and sailors who have 
lately visited these islands, or from the wrecks of vessels 
formerly stranded on their coasts. They use also rafts 
made of bamboos to transport themselves across their 
harbours, or from one island to another. Their arms 
having already been mentioned in part, I need only add 
