The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1908-12-31
ouEEREST MEN ON EARTH.
Wear No Clothes, While Few Leaves
Satisfy Pride of Their Women.

Wear No Clothes, While Few Leaves
Satisfy Pride of Their Women.
Earth's oldest and oldest race of men
has been brought prominently into no
| tice again through the widespread in
| terest aroused 10y sending bash or
Indian political agitators to the penal
settlement on the Andaman Islands,
| that beautiful coral-bound archipelago
| in the Bay of Bengal. This remnant
of the most primitive human species
| In existence will soon be nothing but an
chronological memory, writes Calcutta
correspondent in the New York World.
Contact with advanced civilization has
been followed, as usual, with a train
of infectious diseases, which are stead
| lily thinning the ranks.
Owing to the ancient course OF trade,
| the Andamanese have been known
about from the earliest times. Ptole-
| my's Agathan Daimonos Nesos probab-
| ly preserves the misunderstanding of
some term applied By sailors to place
| in or near the modern AND; mans. No
tlces of them by travellers, Asiatic and
European, are continuous from the
| seventh century. and the islands regu-
| larry appear In some shape on maps
| Of those regions from the Middle Ages
down.
The Andamanese live in a IIesperid-
| ian garden, where they toll not, neither
do they spin For the product 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 around the waist
| behind
The average height of the men is 5S
| inches; that of the women 53 inches.
They appear to dwell free from care
in a country that is everywhere beau-
/ tiful and varied.
In the ordinary attachments of hui
man beings. however unenlightened, the
| Andamanees are amazingly deficient.
| During all the ages of their intercourse
| by word of mouth they have not de-
veloped a medium worthy OF the name
| of language. Before the rival 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 a change of jargon
along about every twenty miles on the
| coast. They have no words for ordi-
nary greetings. sautations or express
sions of thanks.
Such language as they have, however,
| is exceedingly Interesting from the phil
illogical point of view. 1t possesses a
| quality which would be invaluable were
| the Andamanese business people. In
necessary is usually expressed. These
mites of humanity could do just as well
| 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 a grimace, gesture, or a sudden
change in tone.
The AndaInanese knows scarcely any
| thing and has no desire to increase his
stock of knowledge He has never
| learned any sort of agriculture 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
hay and inaccurate.
On one point. however, he is level
headed. He belongs to a race of bad
| fighters, knows 1t, and will never at
| tack unless certain of success.