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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    sides, abdomen, and also on the upper part of the feet and back of the hands. 5. Cicatrices are often observed on the persons of both sexes, but these are due to scarification {tuyke^), or some accidental circumstance whereby the cut has been obliterated, or has failed to heal in the same manner as the others forming the design.^ 6. The AIa-xhdridr-,AIa-.jdro-,.d'ka-.ked-e-,a,YLdL.6‘ko-.ju-wai-^ are most given to tattooing their persons, and may be specially distinguished by three rows of cuts down the back and chest: these latter marks are ordinarily much fainter than the former. Though women do the greater part of this work, the three lines down the back are almost exclusively made by some male friend with the e'la-^ or pig arrow; except the three lines in front, the women of these tribes have no special marks, but are covered, like the females of South Andaman, with small raised cuts, which are inflicted by their own sex, with the ordinary glass or quartz flake, and not with the e'la-. 7. The A'kd-Ml- differ from the four tribes just mentioned, only in that they omit the centre row of the three down the back. 8. The .bo'jig-ngvji-, .bo'jig-ydb-, and .bakawa- are covered with plain tattooing consisting merely of perpendicular and horizon- tal incisions all over® the persbn, thus : 9. There is no distinction made in the mode of tattooing a chiefs child and the other children of the tribe; the marks have no special signiflcance, being merely regarded as ornamental; * Vide ante “ Medicine,” paragraphs 5, 6, 12, 16 and 17. • They are not raised by producing ‘‘ proud ” flesh. ® Among these tribes the first and most severe operation'consists in making the three rows down the back ; during the time the wounds take to heaj, the patient abstains from pork, in the belief that his recovery will thus be expedited. ■* Vide Appendix B, item 5. ® 1 he special poss. pron. denoting the various parts of the body are also used, in connection with tattooing, to express the particular limb or member to which reference is intended ; thus ot-yl tinga- tattooing on chest or neck. ig-yi tinga- „ arm, shoulder, or breast. ar-yvtinga- „ leg. ah-yl'tinga- „ back, body, or thigh, ong-yrtinga- , foot or hand. d'kft-yl'tinga- ., side. “ Vide Plate II, fig. 1. Where, however, it will be seen that they do not quite attain to the regularity in marking here represented by the printing press.