The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1908-07-23
pUEEREST MEN ON EARTH.
Wear No Clothes, While Few
Leaves Satisfy Their Women.

1
Leaves Satisfy Their Women.
Earths oldest and oldest race OF
nen has been brought prominently
into notice again through the wide
spread interest aroused by sending
batch of Indian political agitatorg
| to the penal settlement on the Anda-
| man Islands, that beautiful coral
| bound archipelago in the Bay of Ben
| gel. This remnant Of this most prim-
itive human species In evidence will
| soon be nothing but an chronological
memory, says a Calcutta Correspon-
dent. Contact with advanced civili-
xation has been followed, as usual.
with train of infectious diseases
which are steadily thinning the
ranks.
owing to the ancient course of
trade, the Andamanese have been
known about from the earliest times.
Ptohmy's Agathan Daimonos Nesos
probably preserves the misunder-
standing of some term applied by
sailors to place In or near the
modern Andamans. Notices of them
by travellers. Asisstic and European,
are continuous from the seventh
century, and the islands regularly
appear in some shape on MAPS OF
those regions from the Middle Ages
down.
The Andamanese live in a Hes
peridian garden, where they toll not,
ppithpr do thpy cpip For tha pro-
duct of the spinner they have no
use, as the men go stark naked and
the women wear one or more leaves
In front and bunch of leaves tied
round the waist behind.
The average height of the men Is
5S inches; that of the women "a in
ches.
They appear to dwell free from
care in country that is everywher-
beautiful and varied.
In the ordinary attainments OF
human beings, however, unenlight-
ened. the Andamanese are amazingly
deficient. During all the ages OF
their intercourse by word of mouth
they have not developed a medium
worthy of the name of language.
Before the arrival of the British the
tribes, except actual neigh bors, had
no intercourse. Even clans OF the
same tribe found difficulty in the
details of dialogue with one another.
There is q change Of jargon along
about every twenty miles of the
coast. They have no words for Or
dinary greetings. salutations, or ex-
preston of thanks.
Such language as they have. how
ever, is exceedingly interesting from
the pathological point of view. 1t
possesses a quality which would be
Invaluable were the Adamanese
business people. In their speech only
what is absolutely necessary is usu-
ally expressed. These mites of hu-
manity could do just as we'll probably
without any words at all. They
have an expressive sign language,
which they employ almost as much as
the spoken words. Their speech is
jerky, disjointed. and helped out
often by grimace, gesture, or a
sudden change In tone.
The Andamanese knows scarcely
anything and has no desire to in
crease his stock OF knowledge. He
has never learned any sort of agri-
culture. Until the English taught
him to keep dogs he did not know
how to domesticate any animal or
bird. He cannot count even with his
fingers. and doesn't see the need of
counting. All his ideas are hazy and
Inaccurate. On one point, however,
he ID levelheaded. He belongs to a
race OF fighters, knows it and will
never attack unless certain of src-
cess.