National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
Digital Archive of Toyo Bunko Rare Books

CHAP. XIII. p. 309.   SUPPLEMENTARY NOTE.

147

~

products of the Nicobars in your note on p. 309 in view of the state-

ments made in those pages of the Report, bearing in mind that the

details of the Nicobar Islands are now practically as well known as

those relating to any other part of the East.

P. 312.—The Nicobarese tradition is that they are descended from

a man and a dog, but this is only one phase of the ordinary Far

Eastern animal-descent story.

The projecting teeth mentioned by Colonel Man are common in

the Nicobars in the case of adults only, usually confined to men and

women advanced in life. They are not natural, but caused, as stated

above, by the excessive use of betel and lime, which forms a dark un-

sightly incrustation on the teeth and finally destroys them. Children

and youth of both sexes have good white normal teeth.

P. 312.

NARCONDAM.

Narcondam, an island I know well, has a separate bibliography of

its own. It belongs to the Sunda group of volcanoes, but it has been

so long extinct that there are no obvious signs now of its ever having

been active. It has a 'species of hornbill which I have captured and shot

that has differentiated itself from all others. I do not think, therefore,

it can have been recognised as a volcano by mariners in historical times,

and consequently the derivation of Narakakundam is to my mind

doubtful. The obvious volcano in the neighbourhood is Barren Island,

which is still alive.

ANDAMANS.

Pp. 309-31o, Note z. The Andamanese are not an ill-looking race,

and are not negroes in any sense, but it is true that they are Negritos

in the lowest known state of barbarism, and that they are an isolated

race. Reasons for the isolation will be found in the Census Report,

p. 51, but I should not call their condition, mentally or physically,

degraded. The mental characteristics of the race will be found on

pp. 59-61 of the Census Report, and for your information I here

extract from my remarks thereon the section on character.

" In childhood the Andamanese are possessed of a bright intelli-

gence, which, however, soon reaches its climax, and the adult may be

compared in this respect with the civilised child of ten or twelve. He

has never had any sort of agriculture, nor until the English taught him

the use of dogs did he ever domesticate any kind of animal or bird, nor

did he teach himself to turn turtle or to use hook and line in fishing.

He cannot count, and all his ideas are hazy, inaccurate, and ill-defined.