Chapter XXVI: Appendix: A (4)

Necklaces and garters of string. Both men and women are often to be seen with a simple piece of string, usually of Anadendron fibre, tied round the neck or around the leg just below the knee.

Ornaments of Pandanus leaf. Every married woman always wears a belt of Pandanus leaf which she is never without for even a moment. When the belt she is wearing needs renewing she puts the new one on before taking the other off. To make such a belt two leaves of the Pandanus Andamanensium are taken and cut to a sufficient length (about 20 cm.). The thorns at the edge of the leaf are removed by cutting off a strip of about 3 mm. wide from the edge, leaving a strip of leaf about 4 cm. broad. The two leaves are placed one on the other and are wound spirally round in three turns so as to give a belt of six thicknesses of leaf, the upper surface of the leaf being on the outside of the belt. The leaves are secured together by tying with thread at the back where the two ends just overlap. At the point where the leaves are tied one or two bundles of strips of Pandanus leaf are attached with thread. The bundle is made of a number of strips of leaf about 90 cm. long and 2·5 cm. broad which are chewed in the mouth to make them soft and then placed together and served over with thread for about 12 cm. in the middle. Belts of this kind are generally worn by married women, but precisely similar belts are worn by men on certain ceremonial occasions. They are called toto t’er-bua in Aka-Jeru.

A very similar belt is made in exactly the same way save that the tassel of leaves at the back consists of narrow strips of Pandanus leaf instead of broad strips. This kind of belt is worn by women only. Examples may be seen in Plate IV (the lower belt of the two) and in Plate XVIII. It is called toto t’er-nyarab in Aka-Jeru.

A belt is made in much the same way out of Pandanus leaves split in half down the midrib, giving strips of about 2·5 cm. broad. Such belts have only a scanty tassel of thin strips of leaf at the back. They are worn by girls and women only. They are called kudu in Aka-Jeru.

Yet another variety of belt is made of whole leaves in exactly the same way as the toto t’er-bua but has no tassel at the back. An example may be seen in Plate IV (the upper belt). It is worn by women.

Girdles are made of strips of Pandanus leaf of about 1·25 cm. broad without any tassel, but with strings of Dentalium shell attached at various points. A girdle of this kind is shown in Plate XV.

Girdles are also made by cutting a number of strips of leaf and softening them by chewing them in the mouth. These strips are laid together and either served over or marled with thread so as to make a girdle of round section. A tassel of leaves similar to that of the toto t’er-bua is attached to the back, and very frequently strings of Dentalium shell are attached at various points. Such a girdle may be worn by either men or women. It is called toto t’er-ŋau in Aka-Jeru.

Yet another kind of girdle is made by splitting Pandanus leaves into thin strips and making them into a kind of wrapped cord, one strip being wrapped spirally round one or more others by the same technique as that used in making bow-strings. A number of coils of strands made in this way are tied together with thread at various points and a tassel similar to that of the toto t’er-bua is added at the back. Such girdles are usually improved by the addition of a few pendent strings of Dentalium shell. They may be worn by either men or women. Their name in Aka-Jeru is toto t’er-mo̱i.

Ornaments of Pandanus leaf to be worn either round the leg just below the knee or round the wrist are made in exactly the same way as the belt called toto t’er-bua, each having a tassel of Pandanus leaf strips attached. Such garters and bracelets are worn at a dance by men.

Other ornaments for wearing round the wrist or knee when dancing are made by the same method as the girdle called toto t’er-ŋau, each having a tassel of strips of leaf.

Similar dancing ornaments are made by plaiting strips of leaf into a three-plait cord of the right length, a tassel of loose leaf strips being left at each end. These are tied round the wrist or knee.

Ornaments for the knee or wrist, such as those shown on the legs of the man in Plate XII, are made by winding spirally a narrow strip of leaf and sewing it. A number of pendent strings of Dentalium shell are attached round it, and often strings are attached at the end of which small shells hang suspended which rattle against one another as the wearer walks or dances.

Chaplets or headdresses worn by men when dancing, and occasionally by women, are made of fairly broad strips of leaf in the same way as the toto t’er-bua. Such a chaplet may have a tassel of narrow strips of Pandanus leaf at the back to which are attached shells that rattle as the wearer moves, or it may have pendent strings of Dentalium shells round the hinder half of its circumference.

In making ornaments of Pandanus leaf such as the toto t’er-bua the upper surface of the strip of leaf is usually ornamented with a design scratched on it with a pointed piece of wood. The design usually covers not only the portion of leaf that is visible when the belt or other object is finished, but also that portion which is not visible, being underneath. Many ornaments of this kind are further decorated when finished with the composition used for covering the bindings of arrows, which is applied with a pointed stick in simple geometrical patterns. The woman shown in Plate X is wearing two belts that have been ornamented with composition in this way.

Woman’s leaf apron. In the South Andaman the women wear a sort of small apron consisting of a number of leaves of the Mimusops littoralis laid one over the other, the stalk ends of the leaves being tucked in between the layers of a belt of Pandanus leaf. The leaves thus hang suspended so as to cover, somewhat inadequately, the pudenda. The natives say that the leaves of the Mimusops are chosen because they remain green longer than those of any other species. As soon as the leaves fade and turn yellow they are renewed. The appearance of the leaf apron may be seen in Plates IV and XV.

The women of the North Andaman have within recent years adopted the fashion of those of the South Andaman in this matter, but formerly they made a similar use of a different kind of leaf from a plant called čainyo in Aka-Jeru, and over the top of the leaves they wore a tassel of the fibre called ko̱ro.

Ornaments of netting and Dentalium shells. Bands of netting (in shape of a cylinder or bag open at both ends) are made of suitable size to tie round the waist, the neck, the leg below the knee or the wrist. Such netting is generally ornamented as it is being made with strips of Dendrobium skin worked in the net. Along the lower edge of the band of netting are attached a number of threads each having Dentalium shells strung on to it like beads. Ornaments of this kind are shown in Plates V and IX. They are worn by both men and women, but usually only on the occasion of a dance or some other ceremony.

Ornaments of bone, etc. These are made with human bones, with the bones of such animals as pig, turtle, dugong, Paradoxurus, monitor lizard, or with pieces of wood or cane, or of coral, of suitable shape. A length of cord, of the fibre of the Hibiscus tiliaceus or of the Ficus laccifera, is taken, and the bones are attached to it by thread. As a rule, strips of Dendrobium skin are worked in, being laid on the bone and bound over with the thread.

Ornaments of shell. Various kinds of shells are perforated and attached to string and are worn round the neck, the head, the knee, or the wrist. A necklace of fresh-water shells (ino ko̱lo to̱i in Aka-Jeru) is shown in Plate IX. A necklace of small sea-shells is shown in Plate XIII. The favourite shell of the Great Andaman tribes is the Dentalium octogonum. The shells are collected from the shore by the women. The closed end of each is bitten off with the teeth and the shells, which thus form cylindrical beads, are strung on to a piece of thread. These strings of shell are worn as necklaces, as shown in Plates IV and XII, and are tied round the wrist and knee and ankle as shown in Plate IV.

Ornaments of seed. The seed-tops of two or three species of mangrove are collected and strung on to thread and worn round the neck. Fig. 40 shows the two kinds of mangrove seed commonly used in this way.

Bamboo necklaces. A necklace is sometimes made of a number of short pieces of bamboo arrow-shaft threaded on to a string. The pieces of bamboo are ornamented with simple designs scratched or cut on them with a shell.

Sling of bark. Another object that may perhaps be mentioned amongst objects of personal ornament is the sling used in carrying children. It is made of a broad strip of the bark of the Hibiscus tiliaceus. Some slings are covered entirely with netting, while others are ornamented with shells in various ways. Plate XIV shows one with strings of Dentalium shell sewn on to it.

Dancing ornaments of Tetranthera wood. A piece of Tetranthera wood, usually part of the shaft of an old pig-arrow, about 30 to 35 cm. long, is taken and made into shavings with a Cyrena shell. The wood is shaved carefully round and round, so as to make a continuous sheet of fibre, as though unwinding a roll of material. A bundle of these shavings is tied at one end and covered with red paint, and forms an object that is carried in the hand or worn in the belt at dances.

PERSONAL ORNAMENT; LITTLE ANDAMAN.

The personal ornaments of the Little Andaman and of the Jarawa are different from those of the Great Andaman Division, and therefore need to be described separately.

Ornaments of bark. Strips of bark (? Celtis cinnamonea) are worn by the men round the waist and round the arm.

Ornamental cord. These are the ornaments most frequently met with both in the Little Andaman and amongst the Jarawa. The basis is a strip of cane, varying in breadth in different examples. On one side of this are laid strips of the yellow skin of the Dendrobium, varying in number according to the breadth of the cane, and the whole is served over or bound with thread. The technique in shown in Fig. 41, which represents diagrammatically the method adopted when there are two strips of Dendrobium skin. Such ornamental cord is made in pieces of considerable length. Often tassels of thread (of Ficus hispida fibre) are attached to it at intervals. The cord is worn wound round the waist, the neck, or the arm. Both men and women wear it.

Woman’s girdle. In the Little Andaman this is made of a number of fine strips of cane tied together with thread. At the front is attached a tassel of fibre made from young unopened palm-leaves (the fibre called ko̱ro in Aka-Jeru).

Woman’s shoulder strap. The women of the Little Andaman wear a strip of bark over the shoulders, crossing over the chest and passing beneath the breasts.

The above brief description of the ornaments of the Andamanese is perhaps sufficient for the purpose of this appendix, which is to determine as far as possible the elements of a primitive Negrito culture. Any complete account of the subject would need a large number of figures and a discussion of many comparatively unimportant details. The first point of importance to be noted is that the personal ornaments of the Little Andaman Division differ markedly from those of the Great Andaman Division. One difference is that the Pandanus leaf, which is used so much and in so many ways in the Great Andaman, seems not to be used at all in the Little Andaman. Another is that shells, which are much used in the Great Andaman, are used to a far less extent in the Little Andaman. The natives of the Little Andaman told me that they sometimes make ornaments of Dentalium shell, but I did not see any such ornament, nor any other ornament of shell, in use. The ornaments of netting worn in the Great Andaman, and forming the usual dancing costume, seem not to be used in the Little Andaman. Finally, perhaps most important of all, there is at present no evidence that the natives of the Little Andaman make ornaments of either human or animal bones. In the Little Andaman the lower jaw of a child is preserved by the parents and is worn by them, but I never saw a human skull (whether of child or adult) so worn, and I was not able to obtain any evidence of the use of strings of human bones such as are constantly seen in a camp of the Great Andaman.

The points of similarity between the ornaments of the Little Andaman and those of the Great Andaman are very few. One of the most striking is the great use that is made in both divisions of the yellow skin of the Dendrobium. It seems probable that here we have evidence of one element of a primitive Negrito culture, for the Negritos of the Philippines also are fond of using a yellow vegetable fibre for their personal ornaments. So far as it is possible to judge from the figure and description, the armlet given by Meyer in Plate iii, No. 11, seems to be very similar to the ornamental cord of the Little Andaman. It is described as a “mit schwarz und gelben Grasstreifchen umflocktener Bambus-reif.”

Another point of resemblance between the Great Andaman and the Little Andaman is that in both very little use is made of feathers or flowers. The natives of the Great Andaman never make use of the feathers of birds. The Jarawa occasionally wear in a chaplet a feather of the king-crow (Dicrurus macrocercus) if we may judge from a specimen in the British Museum. The natives of the Little Andaman certainly do not as a rule make any use of feathers. It would seem, from all accounts, that the Semang and the Philippine Negritos do not make any considerable use of feathers for personal ornament. We may perhaps hazard the conclusion that this is a mark of the Negrito culture distinguishing them from such people as the Papuans or Australians in whose personal ornaments the feathers of birds occupy an important place.

In the Great Andaman flowers are not used as personal ornaments. In the British Museum there is an ornament from the Little Andaman consisting of a strip of bark-fibre with a few flowers attached.

As regards personal ornament, therefore, the only elements of a primitive Negrito culture that we seem to be able to trace in the Andamans at the present day are (1) the use of yellow vegetable fibre, and (2) the absence of any considerable use of feathers.

One element of a primitive Andamanese culture, though not necessarily of a primitive Negrito culture, would seem to be the use of a tassel of the fibre obtained from an unopened palm-leaf which is used by women to cover their genitals in the Little Andaman, and was similarly used until recently in the North Andaman.

HAIR-DRESSING, SCARIFICATION, AND BODY-PAINTING.

At the present time the usual method of hair-dressing in the Great Andaman is to shave a portion of the scalp all round so as to leave a sort of skull-cap of hair, as may be seen in many of the plates of this volume. In some cases a “parting” is made by shaving a narrow strip over the crown. (See Plate XV, for example.) When the hair grows so long as to be uncomfortable the whole head is shaved, and it is then permitted to grow again. In these days the natives cut their hair whenever they have an opportunity of obtaining a pair of scissors. In the Little Andaman women and old men are frequently to be seen with the head entirely shaved. The younger men shave away the lower edge of the hair all round in the same way as the natives of the Great Andaman, but this may be a recent practice.

The fashion of hair-dressing, at any rate for women, has changed within recent times, for Mr Man wrote in 1882 that “the majority of the women every week or ten days shave their heads almost entirely, leaving only two narrow parallel lines of hair, termed gor, from the crown to the nape of the neck [256].” At the present time this style of hair-dressing has fallen entirely into disuse, and the women do their hair in the same way as the men.

The operation of shaving, which is done with a flake of glass or quartz, is performed by women, and never, or very rarely, by men.

Mention has been made in an earlier part of the work of the way in which the natives of the Great Andaman scarify the skin of the body and limbs with a flake of glass or quartz. The Semang do not scarify themselves in this way, but some, at any rate, of the Negritos of the Philippines do.

The natives of the Great Andaman, as described earlier in this work, paint their bodies with a grey clay called odu or og, with a fine white clay, and with red paint made by mixing burnt oxide of iron with fat or oil. The natives of the Little Andaman use the same kind of clay as that called odu or og in the Great Andaman, but instead of applying it in patterns they smear it roughly on the back and front of the trunk. They also use red paint, with which they smear their hair, a practice never met with in the Great Andaman.

ORNAMENTATION.

The Andamanese have simple designs which they paint or incise on their bodies and on a great number of the objects that they make and use. A few typical designs such as are incised or painted on belts of Pandanus leaf are shown in Fig. 42. A very large number of designs are based on the zig-zag line. Examples are shown in Fig. 42 c, e, and g. In all parts of the Great Andaman and also in the Little Andaman the zig-zag line is associated with snakes. Thus in the Little Andaman the simple zig-zag line is called dobo kwolage (dobo = snake). In the North Andaman the design of zig-zag lines painted on the body with white clay is called or-čubi t’era-bat, or-čubi being the name of a species of large snake.

A number of other common designs consist of parallel lines of dots or of short strokes, an example of which is shown in Fig. 42 f.

By far the greater number of the Andamanese designs are based on the following elements, (1) parallel lines crossing a surface from side to side at right angles to the edge or else in a sloping direction (about 45°), (2) parallel lines of dots or of short lines, i.e. parallel broken lines, as in Fig. 42 f, (3) zig-zag lines, which may be single, or parallel or opposed so as to make lines of lozenges. As an example of the way in which these elements may be combined two designs copied from bamboo necklaces are shown in Fig. 43.

It would perhaps be possible to show that there is a real connection between the ornamentation of the Andamanese and that of the Semang, as there is certainly a considerable degree of superficial resemblance, but at present we understand so little the psychological processes underlying the use of ornament amongst primitive peoples that the subject is one of considerable difficulty.

CANOES.

Canoes are in regular use on the coast in all parts of the islands. There are three types of canoe. (1) The Little Andaman canoe, with one outrigger, propelled with paddles or with a pole. (2) The Great Andaman small canoe, with one outrigger, propelled with paddles or with a pole. (3) The Great Andaman large canoe, without outrigger, propelled with oars.

The third kind of canoe mentioned above is a recent innovation. The natives themselves say that such canoes have only been made in recent times, since they have been able to obtain a plentiful supply of iron tools, and so have been able to cut down and hollow out large trunks [257]. They seem to have been invented by the natives of the South Andaman, and copied by those of the Middle and North Andaman.

Canoes of this type are propelled by rowing with short oars, except in shallow water where they are poled. This method of propulsion (rowing as opposed to paddling) was adopted in imitation of the boats with which they have become familiar since the European occupation.

For the small canoe of the Great Andaman five or six species of soft-wooded trees are used, of which three are species of Sterculia. A suitable tree is selected near the shore or a creek, and is felled. Care is taken to make it fall in a particular direction. Thus, if the trunk is curved, the convex side of the curve will have to be the bottom of the canoe, and the tree should fall so that this side lies on the ground. Trees are very rarely regular and before beginning the work of cutting the natives have to decide how it should be cut so as to give the best result, i.e., the greatest stability.

After the tree is felled the trunk is cut to the requisite length. The inside of the canoe is first roughly hollowed out with the adze, no use being made of fire. The bark is then removed from the outside of the trunk and the two ends are shaped. Finally, the inside is carefully finished with the adze so as to reduce the sides and bottom to the requisite thickness.

Except at the stem and stern, the canoe retains the shape of the tree, only the bark being removed, and the sides and bottom being formed of the alburnum or sap-wood. At the stern a small platform is cut projecting over the water, which serves as a seat for the steersman. At the prow a larger platform is cut, on which the harpooner stands when he is harpooning turtle or fish. Below these two platforms the ends are not cut away squarely but are rounded from side to side. The prow of the canoe is in every case the lower and therefore broader end of the trunk. It is only in this way that a sufficiently large platform can be provided for the harpooner.

The trees used for canoes have a pithy core and there is therefore a small patch in both the prow and the stern which would admit the water. In former times these two places were caulked with bees’-wax. At the present time the natives often nail a piece of tin (part of an old kerosene tin, for example), with some rags beneath it, on the outside of the canoe at these two places.

When the hull of the canoe is finished it is moved to the shore or to the bank of a creek and the outrigger is attached. The float is a straight spar of light wood. In the North Andaman the wood of the Hibiscus tiliaceus is often used, but Mr Man says that in the South Andaman the float is always made from a species of Sterculia (mai in Aka-Bea) [258]. The ends of the float are only roughly shaped. The broader end of the float is forward.

The float is attached to a number of booms, of which there are never less than three in the smallest canoes, while there may be as many as eight or nine in a large canoe. A medium-sized canoe has five or six booms. The boom is a thin straight piece of tough wood, of which one end is sharpened and thrust right through two holes cut in the gunwales of the canoe opposite to one another, the sharpened end projecting for a few inches on the port side of the canoe. The boom thus projects about three feet on the starboard side on the level of the gunwale.

Where the boom passes through the gunwales of the canoe it is bound with cane, and the cane is bound round the whole of that part of the boom that is within the canoe between the two gunwales. (See Fig. 44.) This portion of the boom forms a seat for the man paddling the canoe, so that he sits on a level with the gunwale with his feet on the floor of the canoe.

The boom is attached to the float by means of sticks of tough wood. These sticks, having pointed ends, are driven into the float, one perpendicular, and the other two at an angle on each side. The tops of the three sticks are fastened to the boom a few inches from its end by means of a strip of cane. The arrangement of the three sticks is shown in Fig. 45.

The strip of cane with which the sticks are bound to the boom is wound spirally round the boom itself for a few inches and is then carried down round the float and back to the boom again on the other side. The three sticks provide an efficient resistance against a longitudinal thrust (i.e., a thrust in the same direction as the line of the canoe). The strip of cane passing from the boom round the float and back to the boom again provides a resistance against any lateral thrust on the float. The three sticks, being driven in when the wood of the float is dry, do not readily work loose, as the water in which it is constantly immersed keeps the wood swollen. The cane binding, including the stays on each side, may work loose, but can readily be tightened or renewed. Each of the booms is attached to the float in exactly the same way, and the whole arrangement is very efficient in keeping the float rigidly attached to the hull in such a position that it rests on the surface of the water when the hull itself rides freely balanced.

Canoes of this type vary in dimensions within wide limits. A small canoe with only three booms, which would carry three persons, measured 4·85 metres in length over all with a beam of about 35 centimetres. A large canoe may measure as much as 9 metres with a proportionate beam.

A well-made canoe will often balance well enough as it stands, but it is sometimes necessary to balance it with ballast of stones or pieces of coral. In any case the canoe is easily overturned in a rough sea unless the occupants can maintain the balance with their bodies. As the canoe is made of light wood it cannot sink even when full of water, and the natives easily right an overturned canoe, bale it out, and get in again, even in a rough sea.

The furniture of a canoe consists of the ballast (of stone), a piece of stone (or sometimes a piece of tin) on which to keep a small fire smouldering, an anchor consisting of a lump of coral or stone attached to a length of rope, a Nautilus shell or two for baling out the canoe, a bamboo pole of about 18 feet in length for poling the canoe in shallow water, and paddles.

In the platform overhanging the prow a few holes are cut. These holes are sometimes used to attach the rope by which the canoe is fastened to an anchor. One or more turtle skulls are often attached so as to hang down beneath the platform. In turtle-hunting expeditions on dark nights a torch is slung beneath the forward platform so as to shed its light on the water while the harpooner remains in shadow.

When a canoe is finished it is decorated with designs painted on it with red paint and white clay, particularly on the forward platform and along the gunwale. These designs soon wear off when the canoe is in use and are not renewed.

The paddles used by the Andamanese vary considerably in size and to some extent in shape, but the following description with its accompanying figure gives a fair idea of a typical specimen. The whole paddle has a length of 123·5 centimetres, the shaft being 85 centimetres and the blade 38·5 centimetres. The diameter of the shaft from the blade to the middle is 2·6 centimetres, and from the middle towards the handle end it tapers to a point. The shaft is circular in section throughout its length. The blade is leaf-shaped, pointed bluntly at the apex. In section it is plano-convex, with a maximum thickness of 1·3 centimetres and a width of 8·7 centimetres. Paddles are cut with an adze from the wood of the Myristica longifolia and planed with a boar’s tusk. They are often ornamented, when new, with painted designs in red and white.

In deep water the canoe is paddled. Each of the occupants sits facing forward. The steersman sits on the stern platform. The others sit on the seats provided by the outrigger booms. Each man paddles on which side he chooses. It rests with the steersman to maintain the canoe in its proper course. In shallow water the canoe is propelled with a pole. A man stands on the forward platform and poles the canoe, steering as he does so. In a fairly large canoe a man at the stern may also take a pole and, standing up, help to propel the canoe.

All the work connected with the making of canoes and paddles is done by men alone, except the painting, which is usually done by women. It is the men also who make most use of canoes.

The large canoe, that is now made by all the tribes of the Great Andaman Division, is simply a canoe of the same general shape as the Great Andaman outrigger canoe, cut from a larger tree and without the outrigger. The shape of the hull, with its platforms fore and aft, is exactly the same. It seems that when the natives obtained a plentiful supply of iron tools (after 1858) they began to cut down and hollow out larger trees than formerly. Having made these larger canoes they found that they would, when well cut and ballasted with stone, float quite well without an outrigger. (It may be mentioned that the hull of a small canoe is always tested on the water before the outrigger is attached.) Indeed a well cut canoe of large size floats and balances better in a rough sea than a smaller one with an outrigger. It is possible that at first these large canoes were propelled with paddles just as the outrigger canoes are, the paddlers facing forward. Having learnt to understand the principle of the oar, through their contact with the Penal Settlement, the natives applied this principle to their own canoes. It could not, of course, be applied to the small canoes, as the shape of the canoe and the position of the paddler make the use of an oar impossible. It could be applied very easily, however, to the new large canoes. In these the oarsman does not sit on a level with the gunwale, but sits down in the hull itself on a piece of wood resting on the two sides of the hull a few inches above the floor. The gunwale of the canoe is thus about on a level with the bottom of his sternum. A number of holes are made in the gunwale on each side, and by means of these, loops of cane are attached to the gunwale. The oar, which is shaped in imitation of European oars, but with a short shaft, is thrust through the loop of cane, which serves as a fulcrum or rowlock. The rowers face aft. A man at the stern steers with a paddle. In shallow water the large canoes are propelled with poles in exactly the same way as the smaller canoes.

In the bow, at about the position that would be occupied by the foremost boom in an outrigger canoe, holes are made in the gunwale on each side and a piece of wood is thrust through them as a sort of thwart. This is to provide a means of making fast the end of the harpoon line or the anchor line, and thus serves a purpose that is served by the foremost boom in the outrigger canoe.

The large canoes are not quite so useful in turtle-hunting as the smaller outrigger variety, as they cannot be so quickly turned when the pursued turtle doubles. Very often a large canoe and a small canoe are taken together on an expedition, the harpooning being mostly done from the smaller one while the captured turtles are placed in the larger one. A small canoe with three or four men cannot hold more than one or at most two big turtles, whereas as many as ten or a dozen can be stowed in one of the large canoes.

The chief use of the large canoes is to make journeys from place to place. One of the largest will hold as many as thirty men and women with their baggage, whereas an outrigger canoe would never carry more than nine or ten. Further, there is less chance of an even heavily laden big canoe capsizing in a rough sea than of an outrigger canoe doing so. One result of the introduction of the large canoe has therefore been to enable the natives to move much more freely about the islands than formerly. The passage from the South Andaman to Ritchie’s Archipelago, for instance, would only be attempted in an outrigger canoe on a very calm day, whereas in a large canoe it can be successfully accomplished even when there is something of a sea running.

The small canoe of the Little Andaman is fairly similar to that of the Great Andaman. There are three differences. (1) The stem and stern are squarely cut in the Little Andaman, instead of being rounded off. (2) The outrigger booms are attached to the top of the gunwale by cane binding which passes through holes made in the gunwales, instead of being themselves passed through holes in the gunwale. (3) The float is attached to the booms in a different and less efficient manner. Three pointed hard-wood sticks are driven into the float, but they are all three approximately perpendicular. They are bound at the top to the boom, but there are no stays of cane to maintain the float rigid against a lateral thrust. In other respects the Little Andaman canoe is the same as the Great Andaman canoe.

The Jarawa of the South Andaman do not at the present time make use of canoes. This is apparently because, through their hostility with the Aka-Bea, they have been confined to the interior of the island. They make rafts of bamboos lashed together for crossing creeks and inlets. The forest-dwellers of the Great Andaman Division seem also to have made occasional use of similar rafts for the same purpose.

A canoe of the North Sentinel was seen by Mr Gilbert Rogers during a visit to that island in 1903 [259]. It had been hollowed out of a tree and was about 15 feet long. The ends of the canoe were cut off perpendicularly to its length leaving a piece of the tree about one inch thick projecting for about three inches beyond either end to form a small but rickety seat. The log from which the canoe was cut was curved so that the ends were slightly higher than the middle. It had a float supported by six booms passing through holes cut in the sides of the canoe. These booms were fastened to smaller pieces of stick fixed into the sides of the canoe beneath them. The outrigger was attached to each boom by two small pointed sticks driven into the float and tied to the boom above with cane. There was one small paddle, a Nautilus shell for a baler, and five poles resting on the outrigger booms. These point to the canoe being poled along in the lagoon, which is quite shallow, rather than to its being used for long journeys or outside the reefs which surround the island. The canoe was 18 inches in diameter at the smaller end and perhaps 30 inches wide at the larger end.

This description shows that the canoe of the North Sentinel is on the whole more like that of the Little Andaman than like that of the Great Andaman.

It seems probable that the Andaman Islands were peopled by sea from the coast of Burma. If this were so, then the original ancestors of the Andamanese must have been in possession of canoes. A consideration of the present Andaman canoes suggests that their ancestors had canoes with a single outrigger on the starboard side, with a number of booms. Of the different methods of attaching the booms to the float, it is possible that the method now in use in the Little Andaman (and apparently also in the North Sentinel) is primitive, and that the Great Andaman attachment is an improvement that has been invented since the separation of the two divisions. On the other hand it is not impossible that the Great Andaman attachment is primitive, and that in the Little Andaman we have a degeneration that might be due to the fact that the Little Andaman (and equally the North Sentinel) provides much less scope for maritime pursuits than the Great Andaman.

The recent invention of the large canoe in the Great Andaman and the adoption of the principle of the oar shows that the Andamanese readily adopt new inventions when these are clearly of service to them.

Turning now to the Semang, as these people live inland they have no use for canoes. They make rafts of bamboos lashed together with which they float down the rivers, returning overland.

Some of the Philippine Negritos seem to live on the coast and possibly have canoes, but nothing is known about these.