inhabited; these occur chiefly in the west of the province. The horses and bulls of Andalusia are celebrated all over Spain; sheep and swine are extensively bred, and game is abundant. The inhabitants are a lively, good-humoured, and ready-witted people, fond of pleasure, lazy, and extremely superstitious, great boasters, and, like most boasters, very cowardly and unwarlike. The men are tall, handsome, and well-made, and the women are among the most beautiful in Spain; while the dark complexion and hair of both sexes, and their peculiar dialect of Spanish, so distasteful to pure Castilians, are as evident traces of the long rule of the Moors, as are the magnificent architectural remains
which adorn many of the Andalusian towns.ANDAMAN ISLANDS. These islands lie in the Bay of Bengal, 590 geographical miles from the Hoogly mouth of the Ganges, 1GO miles from Cape Negrais in British Burma, the nearest point of the mainland, and about 340 from the north extremity of Sumatra. Between the Andamans and Cape Negrais intervene two small groups, Preparis and Cocos; between the Andamans and Sumatra intervene the Nicobar Islands, all seeming to indicate a submarine range stretching in a curve, to which the meridian forms a tangent, between Cape Negrais and Sumatra; and though this curved Hue measures 700 miles, the widest sea-space is less than 90. Some zoological facts are held to point to the former existence of con tinuous land from Negrais to Achin Head. If we can accept the doubtful authority of Wilford, Hindu legends notice this remarkable chain, and ascribe it to Rama, who attempted here first to bridge the sea, an enterprise after wards transferred to the south of India, and accomplished at the place we call Adam s Bridge.
The main part of the group is a band of four islands, so closely adjoining, end to end, but slightly overlapping, that they have long been known as one, viz., "the Great Andaman." The axis of this band, almost a meridian line, is 156 statute miles long. The four islands are (north to south) North Andaman, 51 miles long; Middle Anda man, 59 miles; South Andaman, 49 miles; and Rutland Island, 11 miles. Of the three straits which part these four islands, the two most southerly, Macpherson s and Middle Straits, though narrow are navigable. Andaman Strait, between Middle and North islands, is at low water a fetid swanipy creek, not passable by a boat.
Little Andaman, 30 miles by 17, forming the southern extreme of the group, is detached from Great Andaman by Duncan Passage, 28 miles in width. One considerable island (Interview Island) lies immediately west of Great Andaman, and many islets are scattered round. The highest point in the group is Saddle Mountain, in North Andaman, approaching 3000 feet. From this southward the hills sink in height.
People.—These islands, so near countries that have for ages attained considerable civilisation and have been the seat of great empires, and close to the track of a great commerce which has gone on at least 2000 years, continue to our day the abode of savages as low in civilisation as almost any known on earth. Our earliest notice of them is in that remarkable collection of early Arab notes on India and China which was translated by Eus. Kenaudot, and again in our own time by M. Eeinaud. It accurately represents the view entertained of this people by mariners down to our own time. "The inhabitants of these islands eat men alive. They are black, with woolly hair, and in their eyes and countenances there is some thing quite frightful They go naked, and have no boats. If they had, they would devour all who passed near them. Some times ships that are windbound, and have exhausted their provision of water, touch hero and apply to the natives for it ; in such cases the crews sometimes fall into the hands of the latter, and most of them are massacred." The traditional charge of cannibalism has been very persistent ; but it is entirely denied by themselves, and rejected by all who have taken part in our recent colony. Of their massacres of shipwrecked crews, there is no doubt ; such horrors have continued to our own day on these islands, as well as on the Nlcobars.
The people are Oriental Negroes, and idle stories were once current of their descent from wrecked cargoes of African slaves. Eacea of somewhat like character are found in the mountains of the Malay peninsula (Scmangs) and in the Philippine group (Ajitas or Aetas) ; there is reason to believe a similar race exists in the interior of Great Nicobar ; there are recent rumours of the like in Borneo ; and, strange to say, late research has shown a possibility of near connection with the Andamanners of the aboriginal race of Tasmania, recently extinct circumstances which seem to indicate a former diffusion of this variety of mankind over a large space of the south-eastern world. But, in truth, accurate comparison of these tribes has yet scarcely been attained. The Andaman countenance has generally impressed Europeans at first as highly repulsive, and as African in character ; but when we come to particulars, it has usually neither the exaggerated blubber-lip, nor to a like extent the prognathous profile, of the true Negro ; nor has the Andamanner the Negro s large or ill-formed feet. The ear is small and well-formed ; the hair grows in short detached tufts, curled in small rings close to the head, but is declared not to be woolly. (There are tribes of a long-haired race on Interview Island, and it is also said on Rutland. These are of superior stature, and may have been modified by alien blood from shipwrecked crews.) The skin is of a lustrous black ; the people, especially the men, are often robust and vigorous, though their stature is low seldom 5 feet, and generally much less. In this respect they can look down on the Cape Bosehmen alone. The general resemblance of countenance ascribed to the people in some accounts is entirely denied by those who have become familiar with them. Professor Owen, in a skull which he examined, found none of the distinctive characters of the African Negro. The people, as a rule, are absolutely devoid of clothing. The men s nearest approach to it is to twist a few fibres round the forehead or neck, or below the knee ; the women sometimes make a slight attempt at decent covering with leaves or tails of plaited fibre the last appear ing to be only a modern innovation, and the result of partial contact with our settlement. Adult males are alleged to be tattooed, or rather cicatrised (though photographs do not confirm the universality of this). The process begins about the age of eight, and goes on at intervals. It used to be done with a flint ; now usually with bottle-glass. Till the process is complete, the youth is ineligible for marriage. "With both sexes all hair is shaven off, except a narrow strip from crown to nape, which is kept cut close. The men rarely have beard, and in general their eye-lashes are few. The people are neither long-lived nor healthy. Indeed, few are believed to pass forty. They suffer especially from fevers, colds, and lung complications ; but also from bowel complaints, headache, tooth ache, abscesses, and rheumatism. The malarious influence of newly cleared jungle affects them as violently as Europeans. Formerly their almost sole remedial treatment was to coat themselves in whole or part with mud and turtle-oil. This mud daubing in various forms is also used as mourning, and as a protection against musquitoes or the sun s rays. Paint made from ferruginous red earth is used as a decoration. Of late the natives round the colony appreciate quinine highly.
They have nothing whatever approaching to agriculture, nor does their rude shelter of leaves deserve the name of hut. Their chief food in the hot season consists of turtle, wild fruits, and honey, which they procure with great dexterity. In the rains the seeds of an Arlocarpus are a staple, and in the intermediate season the wild hog; when the hog becomes scarce, fish and turtle. They have large appetites : a man will consume 6 Ib of fish at a sitting, and soon be ready to begin again. At their haunts kitchen-middens are formed from bones and shells till the stench becomes unbearable ; then they shift quarters. Col. Man mentions a kitchen-midden at Hope Town 15 feet high and nearly 50 in diameter, almost exclusively composed of shells. They seem kindly among themselves, and capable of strong attachments ; and though irritable, they are not vindictive. They arc very fearless, and are formidable archers, shooting strongly and truly with a bow between 5 and 6 feet long, of tough wood, hard to bend. They shoot and harpoon fish with skill, and catch it also by hand ; and have hand-nets, and stake-nets for turtle.
Monogamy seems the rule. A young man proclaims himself a candidate for marriage by eating a special kind of fish (a species of ray), whilst marriageable girls wear certain flowers. The young man, if a pig-hunter, abstains from pork for a year ; if a turtle-hunter, from turtle ; and during the probationary year honey is for bidden. The wife provides shelter and mats to lie on, docs the cooking (all food is cooked), procures water and shell-fish, carries loads, shaves and paints her husband, and tends him when sick. The husband protects his wife, makes canoes, weapons, &c., and sometimes goes in search of food ; but this generally devolves on the unmarried. They pet their children, but many perish. A family of three living children is rare. If an adult dies, he is quickly buried, and the tribe migrates 8 or 10 miles for about a month. Some months later the bones, as they dry, are taken up, and these, the skull especially, arc carried about by the kinsfolk for how long we are not told. Mourning is shown by a daily daubing of
