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.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 595 of 1350
Words from 159366 to 159620
of 370046
