[99] Since 1879, when the Cocos were transferred from the Commission of the Andamans to that of Burma, several settlements, less unfortunate, have been made in the same island for the purpose of trade in coconuts and timber. There is now a lighthouse on Table Island—the most northerly of the group—where many wild cattle (originally domestic) roam.
[100] As one goes from South to North, the tribes become larger in stature and redder (less black).—M. V. Portman, Jour. Royal Asiatic Soc., 1881.
[101] Lieut.-Col. R. C. Temple, quoted in The Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Andaman Islands, by E. H. Man—a work that deals in a most exhaustive manner with the subjects indicated in the title, but is now, unfortunately, out of print.
[102] "The dead are often disposed of on platforms erected in the fork of some suitable tree. Old people and infants are generally buried."—E. H. Man.
[103] In the Jour. Royal Asiatic Soc., 1881, Mr M. V. Portman writes:—"Although traditions of a Creation, a Fall, a Deluge, and a future state have been recorded as extant among the Andamanese, there is reason to believe that these accounts are merely the Christian religion as formerly taught in the Andaman orphanages, and distorted among the natives; for, while the southern tribes have a legend of a stone house where the Deity was born, the northern tribes, who have not been brought into contact with the Settlement, have no such tradition;" but Mr E. H. Man records traditions of a Creation, Fall, and Deluge, obtained from aborigines possessing no knowledge of what had been taught to the few small children at the Orphanage (chiefly reading and writing, sewing, basket work, etc.), and moreover, doubts whether any of the latter were capable of giving an intelligent—if any—account of the views held by Christians on these subjects.
"The Andamanese traditions do not resemble those of Christians.... Savages in other parts of the world," writes Mr Man, "possessed traditions on the same subjects before missionaries or other Christians ever visited them."
[104] The pukuta yemnga, a shield-shaped piece of wood, placed with the narrow end in the ground. Andamanese songs are in solos and choruses, the latter invariably sung by both sexes if available, and are accompanied by a dance, which takes place in the evening and at night, in the jungle, when both men and women quite lose themselves in the excitement.
Specimens of Andamanese songs:—
(1) "From the country of the Yerewas the moon rose; it came near; it was very cold,—I sat down." Chorus.—"I sat down."
(2) "Maia Poro saw a big turtle in the water, and hit him in the eye. Poro laughed when he hit him in the eye." Chorus.—"Poro laughed when he hit him in the eye."