THE PIGMIES OF ASIA.

Otago Witness, Issue 2433, 31 October 1900, Page 66

THE PIGMIES OF ASIA.

(R: liYJjsikkeij, ir Knowledge.)

So recently as the year 1858, when they i were selected as a carries settlement by the Government oT India, the Group of inlands in the Bay of Bengal known as the Andamans were practically cuL off from the lest of the world ; and no definite knowledge was extant in Europe as to the peculiarities ~of the natives by Avhom they were inhabited. It is true that the existence ox such aborigmes had been ascertained long befoie, Arabic writers of the ninth century having referred to them, while they were also mentioned at a later date by the Venetian traveller, Marco Polo.' Moreover, so far back as the year 1788 the Ease India Company attempted to form a, penal station on tlune island a, which Avas, however, abandoned a few years later without any accurate information having bean obtained with regard to the affinities and characteristics oi' iheir original inhabitants. This lack oi information with regard Io the natives appears to have been largely due to tho reputation they had gained xor fcrocioiionciss and hostility to strangers, in consequence of which they were avoided as much as possible by the officials sent to establish the proposed settlement. To a ceitaiu extent this wss a fortunate circumstance, as it prevented the native race from being oontaminnted by foreign admixture u. ii.il a, much later period, when competent ob&orvers Avere foilunately among Lho&e stationed by Government on the islands. . . . Ass regards height, the Andamanese present a very marked contrast to negroes, some ol whom, like Ihe Zulus, are very tall. According to Mr E. H. Mann (formerly assistant superintendent of the islands), the average height of the men is only 4ft 10-jiu, and that of the women 4ft T^in ; the tallest man measured by that observer being sft 4^in, and the shortest woman 4ft 4in. The skin does not appear to b& absolutely black ; but there is some degree, of discrepancy in this respect' between the accounts given by different observers. . . . Previous to the founding of the European settlement at Port Blair, in the neighbourhood of which certain regulations are now enforced Avith regard to clothing, the Andamanese Avere in the habit of going about in a perfectly nude condition, save that the Avomen Avore a leaf suspended from a girdle made of the fibres of rattan or the screAV-pine. This absence of dress is probably to some extent due to the nature of the "Andaman climate, which renders it unnecessary to keep the body Varm by artificial means. With the exception of a small, and probably introduced, 'race of Avild pig& (Avnoye flesh afforded an Important food supply), the islands are "'inhabited by no animals larger than palm?civefcs, and even 'of these the natives never learnt the art of dressing the skins. Neither did they practise agriculture nor attempt to domesticate the indigenous pigs and jungle fowl, but lived entirely by hunting and fishing, and on such edible roots, fruits, and berries as groAv naturally in the jungle. In addition to pork, their animal tood included the flesh of palm-civets, dugongs, monitor lizards, turtles, and occasionally porpoises, together with turtles' eggs, fish of various descriptions, prawns, shell-fish, and even the larvfe of large Avood-boring and burrowing beetles. Tiio hostility displayed to strangers (apparently largely due to kidnapping raids on tho part of Chinese and Malays) not improbably gave rise to Ihe statement that the Andamanese were cannibals ; but this chargejias been completely disproved. Both sexes Avere thoroughly at home in the water from an extremely early age, and tho creeks and straits of the island were navigated in dug-out canoes and outriggers oi homo nuraiifacture. ... In modern times their speais r.nd arroAVS have been Lipped with bone or shell, but in the old refuse heaps of the islands polished arroAv-hca,ds and adzes of stone have been discovered, evidently manufactured by the forefathers of the present aborigines. And it has been suggested that the me of stone has been superseded by shell and bone oaving to the greater facilities with which the two latter substances are Avorked. Till Avithin a comparatively recent time chips or flakes of flint Avere, hoAvever, still used for pha-A-ing, although these have noAv been completely supersets! by glass. Professor Ball relates how he Avitnessed the manufacture of such glass flakes by a woman i avlio chipped them off from a piece of dark 1 bottle-glass with, a pebble,. "Eavi n S

struck off a flake of suitable character," he writes, " she forthwith proceeded with astonishing .rapidity to shave off the spiral twisLs of hair which covered the head of her son.'' But even at this date (1873) the writer wa^ informed that the art of making flint-flakes was entirely lost, the process of flaking being facilitated by first heating the stones in a fire. Serviceable knives were manufactured from a large bivalve shell to be met with in numbers on the shores of the islands.

The mention of fire affords an opportunity of referring to the extraordinary circumstance that, although the Andamanese were well acquainted with its use (always eating their meat and fi&h in a more or less cooked condition), yet they were totally unacquainted with any method of producing it. According to the legend, fire was originally obtained from a volcano' .in Barren Island, situated to the eastward of the Middle Andaman, and ifc was ever since kept going by maintaining a constant supply of smouldering or burning wood. . . Although subject to passionate outbursts of temper during which arrows may be shot recklessly smong friends and relations, the Andamanese are described by all who have known them well as singularly amiable and kind in their mutual relations ; and in many respects they resemble the Melanesians, being merry, talkative, inquisitive, restless, prone to' resent an injury, but fond of a joke so long as it does not assume a practical form. Fiom the majority of pa,vage peoples they stand out in pleasing contrast on account of the treatment accorded to the women by their hvis-

bands. A man has but ono wife, to whom he is nearly always faithful throughout life, and whom her regards as an equal, and treats with an affection which might be copied by some civilised people.

— The ago of faith is not yet past. "In answer to believing prayer," says the report of Muller's Or*phan Houses at Ashley Down, 1 Bristol, "over a million of money has been given to the institution, and over 10,000 orphans cared for." That is for 64 years, during which time not a single application for help has besn mad© "to any human being." Forty-three thousand pounds were received last year.

— Although the Grosvenor estates now bring in some £600,000 a year, the trustees havo had to raise an enormous sum — probably nearly two millions — in order to pay the death duties, and this is to be paid ofE within the next few years, and not allowed to remain as a charge on the estate. The young Duke of Westminster will, therefore; have to "go gently" €or the next two or three years, but as he has only just attained his majority he can very well afford to do so.

— What is the duration of a v/ink? The time occupied by the several phases of the movement has been measured, and it -is found that the mean duration, of the descent of "the lid is from. sev«nty-five to ninety-one thousandths of a second. The interval while the eye is shut wa3 in one case only fifteeuhundredths of a second. A specially arranged photographic, apparatus was used. The colloquial phrase that something is -done " quicker than a wink . is therefore expressive to a degree that may be stated in fractions of "a second.