Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-06-23
WHAT THEY CAN'T DO
Natives of Andaman Islands
Are a Poor Lot.
HELPLESS AS CHILDREN
Ignorant of the Simplest Comforts of
Life.
AND UNABLE TO LEARN
Dress a Good Deal Like Adam and
Eve-Can't Even Kindle

Most people are remarkable for the things
they can do. The Andamanese the aborigi-
nal inhabitants of the Andaman group of
Islands in the bay of Bengal, are truly re-
markable for the very simple things they
cannot do. As a result they are among the
most interesting and queerest peoples to be
found on the footstool today.
They cannot count, and with rare excep-
lions they cannot be taught to count The
art of scratching even a rude picture in
sand is unknown among them; the cave
jewellers of thousands of years ago fash
toned pictures that are easily recognized
today
Although ardent hunters OF the turtle.
these islanders never thought to turn the
turtle to keep it from escaping. They do
so now only because the trick was patiently
impaired to them by the English after they
had established a penal settlement on Great
AEdaman in the late fifties OF the last CEN
fury.
To kindle a fire is beyond their ken. But
they are experts at keeping fires from dying
out, and wherever they go, by land or sea,
they carry smouldering logs with them and
when fire is wanted fan the embers into
flames. On leaving a settlement tempo
rariiy they always put some smouldering
logs in q place where they will burn slowly
and last till the return home. One of the
greatest wonders in the world to an Anda-
manese is to see a white man, in the penal
settlement at Port Blair, obtain fire by
means of a match when desired.
No Medicine, No Religion.
Not even the medicine of witchcraft is
found among the islanders. About all the
medicine they know is to scarify, as a last
resort, for rheumatism and internal pain,
and to use a cncture of human bones in
the childlike belief that it will alleviate
bodily suffering.
There is no discoverable form of religion
among any of the twelve tribes that go to
make up the less than 5000 native popula-
ton of the archipelago. The Andamanese
say there Is Creator also several evil
spirits, but they neither worship nor en-
deavor to propitiate one or another.
Until the English set the scum of India
and Burma TO gardening around Port Blair
the soil of the Andaman Islands had never
been scratched by the hand of an agricul-
turist 1t has been found impossible to
teach the average Andamanese even the
rudimentS of husbandry.
Indeed to give him instruction of any
sort is weli-nigh hopeless TASK lttie
mental training either breaks him down,
urally possesses. or he tires of it more easi-
iy than a white child at its first alphabet
lesson.
The Andamanese are a people with almost
no music in their souls They cannot re-
peat or catch an air. Their only musical M
strument (ff such 1t can be calieD is rude
sounding board shaped somewhat like
crusaders shield, which the player strikes
with his feet whenever he feels so inclined
The songs are about sport, adventure,
travel song of love, of children, of any
poetic object, has never been composed by
the Andamahese man. Every man Is his
own song composer. Here are two typical
songs:
..Maia Poro saw 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
II am cutting the underpart or canoes