Add to this, that they lie on the very road of commerce from India to China and Ceylon. A shipwreck on their shores, the landing of a cargo of slaves, may have added. to the ethnical confusion, for on these islands we come first upon unmistakable Negritos, of whom we shall hear more in the Malayan Family further on. However much it may be asserted by some, that Negritos exist in India, Nearer or Further, except in the Peninsula of Malacca and the islands of the Andamans and Nicobars, they never have been exhibited to view. The Mergui Archipelago is a cluster of islands lying close to the shore of the lower portion of the Tenasserim Province of British Burma, to which they are politically attached. Their inhabitants are called Silong. They are said to be a kind of sea-gipsy, one thousand in number. They are Pagan. Mason thinks, that they are Polynesian, but they have a Mongolian cast of features. Their Language, represented by a Vocabulary, is quite distinct from Burmese. They are mild and peaceful. The Andamans comprise an area of about 1800 square miles, and have now finally passed into the possession of the Government of British India, and are used as a convictsettlement. Although twenty years have passed since our occupation, still the inhabitants, called Mincopies, are unwilling to have any dealings with the intruders. Cruel massacres have generally been the rule, when any boat's crew or escaped convict fell into their hands. They are intensely black, woolly-haired Negritos, in the very lowest stage of uncivilisation, and totally nude. There is evidence of entirely distinct and mutually unintelligible Languages. Wallace considers that these Negritos differ in a marked manner from any Papuan race, but resemble the Samang of the Malacca Peninsula, who will be noticed further on. De Roepstorff, a Dane, in charge of the Nicobar Islands, published in 1875 a Vocabulary of the so-called Andamanese; but in 1877 Temple of the Indian Army, and Mann, Assistant-Superintendent of the Andamans, put forth a translation of the Lord's Prayer in Bojínjijída, or South Andamanese, with a Preface and Notes, and announce further elementary studies, Grammatical Notes, specimens of Language, Vocabulary of words, and analysis of the Lord's Prayer. When we receive this, we shall indeed be able to judge as to the classification of this Language; but unfortunately these later authors commence by throwing entire discredit on the labours of all their predecessors, including De Roepstorff, and annihilating all inductions based upon these data. They seem to show that the Language is Agglutinative in its method, but they can hardly mean to imply, that the Language is Dravidian, unless they take that Family as typical of the whole order, which is manifestly not correct. They give the names of seven Languages:1. Bojínjijída, South Andaman, near Port Blair. 2. Bojigiah, South extremity of Middle Andaman. 3. Akakol, East of Middle Andaman. 4. Awkojuwai, West of Middle Andaman. 5. Balawa, Andaman Archipelago. 6. Yéréwa, North Andaman. 7. Jarawa, Little Andaman and Rutland Island. The two first are well known; of the others nothing is known. They will probably all be traced to one common parent. There are considerable affinities betwixt the two first. We shall hope to know more, when the promised Grammar and Vocabularies appear, but it is disheartening to have all previous knowledge cut away. There may possibly be Australian affinities, but a careful comparison with the neighbouring Tibeto-Burman, Mon, and Malayan Families should be made. The Nicobar group is geographically not far from Achin in the island of Sumatra. The island contains an area of less than 600 square miles. Their inhabitants somewhat resemble the Malayan race, being yellow or copper coloured with high cheek-bones, flat noses, thick lips, intellectually greatly superior to the savage tribes of the Andamans. In the interior of the Great Nicobar Island exists a race of men resembling the Andamanese, termed Shobong by the Nicobarese. These are probably the remnants of an earlier race, and savage and shy. Thus we find the further complication of two distinct and totally antagonistic races in this restricted area. The Nicobarese Language has a remote connection with some of the Languages of the Malayan Archipelago. The general conclusion drawn is, that they are Malayan. They are Pagan, and backward in civilisation. De Roepstorff, Superintendent of the islands, gives a Vocabulary of four islands: 1. Nancowry, 2. Great Nicobar, 3. Car Nicobar, 4. Theressa; he gives also a Vocabulary of the Shoboeng. It is remarked of the Nicobarese, that owing to intercourse with foreign ships they speak Malay and other foreign Languages. They have no peculiar Character, but Mr. Ball of the Survey has brought away a flag with figures upon it, which he fancies to be pictorial Characters. We may hope in a few years to get more satisfactory knowledge of the Language of the Andamans and Nicobars, and to be able to classify them. De Roepstorff's last communication is, that in 1877 he had had an interview with a Shobong, and found that he was a Mongolian, and not a Negrito, and had no connection with the Andamanese, though his Language is quite distinct from that of the Nicobarese. CHAPTER VI. KHASI FAMILY. IN the range of hills which separates the valley of Assam from the district of Sylhet, and the basin of the Brahmaputra from that of the Surmá, betwixt the Garo tribe on the West, and the Naga tribes on the East, is the country. of the Khasi-Jyntia tribes, in which is situated Shillong, the seat of government of the Province of Assam. Their government is described as that of little republics, but their Language is quite peculiar, and they occupy a linguistic oasis in the midst of the Tibeto-Burman Family; nor can they be classed with any other Monosyllabic Family, though they belong to that Morphological Order. There is an excellent Grammar by Pryse, a Missionary, and a Dictionary; and the New Testament has been translated into this Language in the Roman Character; therefore we have sufficient knowledge to form a judgment, as it has attracted the attention of scholars like Von der Gabelentz and Schott, who have written about it. There are six Dialects; 1. Synteng, 2. Battoa, 3. Amwee, and 4. Lakadong, and 5, 6. two other varieties without names. The Dialects of the Jyntia Hills are almost unintelligible to the Khasi. All grammatical relations are denoted by prefixes; the genitive relation of a noun is frequently denoted by position, and after the noun on which it depends. There is a complete grammatical gender, like that of the Aryan Languages, but no neuter. The construction of the sentence is direct. There is a relative pronoun. Vowels are sometimes elided under a phonetic law to prevent a hiatus. The population amounts to about two hundred thousand, who are Pagan |