Its
inhabitants are very ugly, having red hair, black bodies, teeth like
beasts, and claws like hawks. Sometimes they traded with Lin-yih
(Champa), but then at night; in day-time they covered their faces." (G.
Schlegel, Geog. Notes, I. pp. 1-2). - H.C.]
Mr. Phillips, from his anonymous Chinese author, gives a quaint legend as
to the nakedness of these islanders. Sakya Muni, having arrived from
Ceylon, stopped at the islands to bathe. Whilst he was in the water the
natives stole his clothes, upon which the Buddha cursed them; and they
have never since been able to wear any clothing without suffering for it.
[Professor Schlegel gives the same legend (Geog. Notes, I. p. 8) with
reference to the Andaman Islands from the Sing-ch'a Sheng-lan,
published in 1436 by Fei-sin; Mr. Phillips seems to have made a confusion
between the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. (Doolittle's Vocab. II. p. 556;
cf. Schlegel, l.c. p. 11.) - H.C.]
The chief part of the population is believed to be of race akin to the
Malay, but they seem to be of more than one race, and there is great
variety in dialect. There have long been reports of a black tribe with
woolly hair in the unknown interior of the Great Nicobar, and my friend
Colonel H. Man, when Superintendent of our Andaman Settlements, received
spontaneous corroboration of this from natives of the former island, who
were on a visit to Port Blair. Since this has been in type I have seen in
the F. of India (28th July, 1874) notice of a valuable work by F.A. de
Roepstorff on the dialects and manners of the Nicobarians. This notice
speaks of an aboriginal race called Shob'aengs, "purely Mongolian," but
does not mention negritoes. The natives do not now go quite naked; the men
wear a narrow cloth; and the women a grass girdle. They are very skilful
in management of their canoes. Some years since there were frightful
disclosures regarding the massacre of the crews of vessels touching at
these islands, and this has led eventually to their occupation by the
Indian Government. Trinkat and Nancouri are the islands which were guilty.
A woman of Trinkat who could speak Malay was examined by Colonel Man, and
she acknowledged having seen nineteen vessels scuttled, after their
cargoes had been plundered and their crews massacred. "The natives who
were captured at Trinkat," says Colonel Man in another letter, "were a
most savage-looking set, with remarkably long arms, and very projecting
eye-teeth."
The islands have always been famous for the quality and abundance of their
"Indian Nuts," i.e. cocos. The tree of next importance to the natives is
a kind of Pandanus, from the cooked fruit of which they express an edible
substance called Melori, of which you may read in Dampier; they have the
betel and areca; and they grow yams, but only for barter. As regards the
other vegetation, mentioned by Polo, I will quote, what Colonel Man writes
to me from the Andamans, which probably is in great measure applicable to
the Nicobars also! "Our woods are very fine, and doubtless resemble those
of the Nicobars. Sapan wood (i.e. Polo's Brazil) is in abundance;
coco-nuts, so numerous in the Nicobars, and to the north in the Cocos, are
not found naturally with us, though they grow admirably when cultivated.
There is said to be sandal-wood in our forests, and camphor, but I have
not yet come across them. I do not believe in cloves, but we have lots
of the wild nutmeg."[2] The last, and cardamoms, are mentioned in the
Voyage of the Novara, vol. ii., in which will be found a detail of the
various European attempts to colonise the Nicobar Islands with other
particulars. (See also J.A.S.B. XV. 344 seqq.) [See Schlegel's
Geog. Notes, XVI., The Old States in the Island of Sumatra. - H.C.]
[1] It was a mistake to suppose the name had disappeared, for it is
applied, in the form Pulo Gaimr, to the small island above indicated,
in Colonel Versteeg's map to Veth's Atchin (1873). In a map chiefly
borrowed from that, in Ocean Highways, August, 1873, I have ventured
to restore the name as Pulo Gomus. The name is perhaps (Mal.)
Gamas, "hard, rough."
[2] Kurz's Vegetation of the Andaman Islands gives four myristicae
(nutmegs); but no sandal-wood nor camphor-laurel. Nor do I find
sappan-wood, though there is another Caesalpinia (C. Nuga).
CHAPTER XIII.
CONCERNING THE ISLAND OF ANGAMANAIN.
Angamanain is a very large Island. The people are without a king and are
Idolaters, and no better than wild beasts. And I assure you all the men of
this Island of Angamanain have heads like dogs, and teeth and eyes
likewise; in fact, in the face they are all just like big mastiff dogs!
They have a quantity of spices; but they are a most cruel generation, and
eat everybody that they can catch, if not of their own race.[NOTE 1] They
live on flesh and rice and milk, and have fruits different from any of
ours.
Now that I have told you about this race of people, as indeed it was
highly proper to do in this our book, I will go on to tell you about an
Island called Seilan, as you shall hear.
NOTE 1. - Here Marco speaks of the remarkable population of the Andaman
Islands - Oriental negroes in the lowest state of barbarism - who have
remained in their isolated and degraded condition, so near the shores of
great civilised countries, for so many ages. "Rice and milk" they have
not, and their fruits are only wild ones.
[From the Sing-ch'a Sheng-lan quoted by Professor Schlegel (Geog.
Notes, I. p. 8) we learn that these islanders have neither "rice or corn,
but only descend into the sea and catch fish and shrimps in their nets;
they also plant Banians and Cocoa-trees for their food." - H.C.]
I imagine our traveller's form Angamanain to be an Arabic (oblique)
dual - "The two ANDAMANS," viz.
