On the aboriginal inhabitants of the Andaman Islands / by Edward Horace Man. With report of researches into the language of the South Andaman Islands by A. J. Ellis.

  • Man, Edward Horace.
Date:
[1932]
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: On the aboriginal inhabitants of the Andaman Islands / by Edward Horace Man. With report of researches into the language of the South Andaman Islands by A. J. Ellis. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    highly coloured, and failed, therefore, in imposing on the almost excusable credulity which existed at a time when next to nothing of a trustworthy nature was known concerning these savages. 22. With regard to a deceased husband’s property, tlie widow disposes of everything, which she does not require for her personal use, among his male relatives. 23. It seems superfluous to add that no such custom as suttee prevails or has ever been known to exist among them. Death and Burial.—1. Amongst other erroneoiis opinions held regarding these tribes is that which declares that “ no lamenta- tion is publicly made at death,” whereas, in point of fact, the demonstrations of grief on such occasions are generally excessive, and are shared, in a greater or less degree, by every member of the community in which the melancholy event occurs. 2. In the case of an infant, the parents and relatives remain weeping for hours beside the corpse; afterwards they smear their persons with a wash composed of dg- (the common olive- coloured clay) and water, and, after shaving their heads, place a lump of the same, called dela-, just above their foreheads,' where it hardens, and is left, much to the individual’s discomfort, until the expiration of the days of mourning f should it fall off in the meantime it is renewed. 3. The burial usually takes place within 18 hours of the decease, which time is spent by the mother in painting the head, neck, wrists, and knees of her dead child with kbroh- and tdia- bg-; she also shaves off the hair, and folds the little limbs so as to occupy the least possible space,® the knees being brought up to the chin and the fists close- to the shoulders; the body is then enveloped in large leaves, called Icd'^a-,* which are secured with cords or strips of cane. The father meantime employs himself in digging a grave with an adze (?cb7o-®), in the place where his hut fire usually burns; when all is prepared the little head is uncovered, and the parents gently blow upon the face fishing, which, as they seem to indicate a Munchausen-like facility of exaggera- tion in the narrator we decline to repeat ” (Mouat). * This applies to men, for women usually place the del'a- on the top of the head. It is worn by neither sex until after they hare attained maturity, and only for a father, mother, husband, wife, brother, sister, son, or daughter, the bg- wash alone being deemed sufficient “ mourning ” in the case of other relatives or friends. ^ The term d'kd-bg- is therefore applied to mourners, since they are ptohibited from the use of kbi oh-. ^ “ If we knew no further details as to the opinions of the intellectually gifted Hottentots, formerly so greatly underrated, it would be enough that, previous to burial, they place the body of the deceased in the same position which it once occupied as an embryo in the mother’s womb” (Peschel). * Vide Appendix B, item 74. * V^ide Appendix B, item 15.