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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    themselves in their effort to maintain the credit of their ship, their cutter, and their flag.” 2. Nowhere on Great Andaman, at all events at the present day, have any aborigines been found capable of propelling a canoe at more than half the speed of one of the ordinary gigs in common use at Port Blair; moreover, in respect to the extreme buoyancy of their skiffs, but little Kvho<; seems due to the Andamanese boat-builder, for having had, until quite lately, no other implement than a rude, though tolerably effective, adze with which to form them, he was compelled to select for his purpose the lightest and softest woods that were procurable. At the same time there is no doubt that if they possessed the requisite knowledge, and the means were available for con- structing stronger and more seaworthy craft, they would lose no time in employing them; for they fully recognise the inferiority of their boats, both in regard to workmanship and speed, to those used by Europeans, or by their neighbours the Nicobarese. In one respect only do they consider that their own canoes surpass all others, and that is in the projecting prow, wliich enables them to spear fish and turtle with more ease than is possible in boats of a different construction.^ 8. The current tradition^ of the escape of four persons in a boat when the world was submerged, may be faiirly considered as affording some evidence that this mode of transit is not regarded as of recent introduction. 4. Many conflicting opinions have been expressed by different writers under this head, and the form of canoe originally manufactured by the Andamanese has been much discussed. They themselves declare that the outrigger {chd'rigma-) was adopted immediately after the Deluge, in consequence of the deterioration of a species of Pandanus tree, called mdng-I of which, prior to that catastrophe, they had been able to make large plain “ dug-outs.” Until recently^ the outrigger continued * In the South Kensington Museum there are models of canoes made by the natives of the Andamans and Nicobars, which will give to any interested in the subject a fair idea of their relative merits, as well as of the skill of their respective makers ; and it may be added that in the entrance court of the India kduseum (South Kensington) a specimen of a fair-sized Andamanese canoe is now to be seen minus its outrigger. - Vide “ Mythology,” paragraph 16. ^ Vide “ List of Trees,” Appendix L. ■' The following information was obtained from an Andamanese chief:—“We have used outrigger canoes from time immemorial. It is in recent times that we have commenced making the large plain canoes, and this we were induced to do from the.facility with which we have been able to obtain iron. Owing to their large size they do not require outriggers. When the sea is rough we prefer these large dug-outs, and the small outrigger canoes when it is calm ; the latter are more easily made, but do not last many months when in constant use, whereas the former will serve for a year or more.” L 2