Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-06-23

prov. am cutting a canoe" Chorus: II
am cutting canoe"
The Anoamanese song Is doubtless the
queercst song m the world. 1t is a mere
statement of fact or facts: it is absolutely
free of the fantest trace of sentiment.
Other savage peoples have songs that tell
of the days work and its incidents, but SEN
timent or color Is always interviewer by the
singer at some stage Not SO with the AM
damanese song.
Beds of Ashes and Sand.
The people have never bothered their
heads over trading They never will, Judg-
ing from the futile attempts of the English
to get them interested in trade. The only
time they draw the wonderful natural
resources of their islands is when they are
In need of the necessities; only then do they
make bows and arrows and fashion canoes.
spears and rude domestic utensils of wood
and woven materials
In the jungles the pig IS found IN great
numbers-a diminutive animal about TWEEN
ty inches high at the shoulders and twice as
long. The native is exceedingly fond of the
pig as food, but ii has never occurred to
him to domesticate it. A domestic animal
was thing undreamed of in the islands I'M
til the English arrived with their dogs.
What sleeping place could be more print
tive than the bed of wood ashes of the Jar
ava tribe, or of leaves of other tribes?
Sand holes serve as beds for other Anda-
manese. The most advanced type of bed is
found among the Onges. who sleep on
raised platforms of split bamboo.
The simplest form of dwelling is a sloping
framework of thin branches. This is raised
about four feet at the upper edge and COW
ers a ground space about six feet square
Palm leaves make the roof weather proof,
but the sides and front are exposed. TIE
furnishings are palm leaves strewn on the
ground. A more pretentious sort of hut is
of mats and shaped somewhat Ike a big
beehive. Pig skulls decorate it.
Dresses of Leaf and Mud
Surprisingly simple is the Andamanese
dress. When a woman wants a new toilet
she pulls a leaf from a friendly branch,
and attaches it to a bark glrdle clasped
about her hips Then she strings new
necklace of beads or shells fastens it about
her throat. and is arrayed according TO
the custom of her foremothers There is no
worrying over keeping up with the fash
ions in the Andaman Islands.
The dress problem of the man, as is the
case with man almost everywhere else, is
still more simple. Sometimes he sports
necklace, sometimes breech clout of red
cotton. but more often he goes about with a
body innocent of the least yestige of COW
ering.
OF course the woman has a best dress,
or she wouldn't be a daughter of the first
Woman. 1t is of mud She puts It on when
receiving visitors. An ochreous clay is
used. and all of the body, except the eyes,
nose and-lips, is daubed with it. The babies
are dressed up in like manner; mothers the
world over always want their offspring to
appear to best advantage before strangers.
To describe the different patterns of these
mud dresses would prove too long a task.
Sufficient to say they are as varied as the
designs in an occidental woman's fashion
book.
The Andamanese dandy also picturesque
ly smears himself with mud.
Human Bones as Souvenirs.
The treasured ornaments of both men and
women are the bones OF departed relatives.
After a body has been buried in a shallow
grave or been on a platform in some tree
for a number of months the bones are
skull is worn by widow, widower or nearest
relative. as the case may be. Its place is
round the neck and on the back between
the shoulders
When his fellows want to honor an An
damanese after death they sew the body up
in bundle and place it on a. tree platform.
fasten Wreaths of cane about the encamp-
ment and then desert the place for the
mourning period of three months A baby
is buried underneath the floor of its par
ents' hut.
No marriage ceremony could be simpler
than that followed by the Andamanese I'm
medfately that IL comes to the knowledge
or the elders OF a sept-a communal subdl-
vision of the tribe-that a young couple are
anxious to marry, the blushing bride is
carried to a new hut and made to sit down
therein. The bashful groom in the mean,
time runs into the jungle, but somehow,
is always oyertaken before he has gone far
and, after pretense at struggling against
his Fate, Is taken by force to the hut, where