They
speak dialects of one language, though the dialects as spoken are mutually
unintelligible. There is no Negrito tribe in the Nicobars. A detailed
grammar of the language will be found in the Census Report, pp. 255-284.
The Nicobarese have long been pirates, and one of the reasons for the
occupation of their islands by the Indian Government was to put down the
piracy which had become dangerous to general navigation, but which now no
longer exists.
P. 309. - The great article of trade is the cocoanut, of which a detailed
account will be found in the Census Report, pp. 169-174, 219-220, 243. I
would suggest the recasting of the remarks on the products of the Nicobars
in your note on p. 309 in view of the statements made in those pages of
the Report, bearing in mind that the details of the Nicobar Islands are
now practically as well known as those relating to any other part of the
East.
P. 312. - The Nicobarese tradition is that they are descended from a man
and a dog, but this is only one phase of the ordinary Far Eastern
animal-descent story.
The projecting teeth mentioned by Colonel Man are common in the Nicobars
in the case of adults only, usually confined to men and women advanced in
life. They are not natural, but caused, as stated above, by the excessive
use of betel and lime, which forms a dark unsightly incrustation on the
teeth and finally destroys them. Children and youth of both sexes have
good white normal teeth,
P. 312.
NARCONDAM.
Narcondam, an island I know well, has a separate bibliography of its own.
It belongs to the Sunda group of volcanoes, but it has been so long
extinct that there are no obvious signs now of its ever having been
active. It has a species of hornbill which I have captured and shot that
has differentiated itself from all others. I do not think, therefore, it
can have been recognised as a volcano by mariners in historical times, and
consequently the derivation of Narakakundam is to my mind doubtful. The
obvious volcano in the neighbourhood is Barren Island, which is still
alive.
ANDAMANS.
Pp. 309-310, Note 1. - The Andamanese are not an ill-looking race, and are
not negroes in any sense, but it is true that they are Negritos in the
lowest known state of barbarism, and that they are an isolated race.
Reasons for the isolation will be found in the Census Report, p. 51, but
I should not call their condition, mentally or physically, degraded. The
mental characteristics of the race will be found on pp. 59-61 of the
Census Report, and for your information I here extract from my remarks
thereon the section on character.
