Abstract
A Communal House on Little Andaman.—The supplement to The Indian Antiquary for January is an instalment of Sir Richard Temple's “Remarks on the Andaman Islanders and their Country”, which consists of extracts from a report by Mr. P. Vaux on a reconnaissance in Little Andaman on Jan. 25–Feb. 4, 1902. Mr. Vaux had been detailed to operate against the Jarawa. This tribe lived in the then untouched forests of Little Andaman, and had not been brought under the control of the administration. They indulged in periodical raids, in which murder regularly played a part. Their exact location was not known, and they had proved both elusive and unapproachable. Shortly after the date of this report, another punitive expedition was successful in dealing with them, but Mr. Vaux was killed in the attack. In this extract he describes several camps of the Jarawa, empty when he reached them, and a large communal house or camp, situated at the top of a steep hill, and approached by seven paths. It was in a clearing which had been carefully prepared. Several large trees had been felled, not only for space, but also to give outlook. Two of the entrances had sloping log platforms to serve as look-outs, and probably when the tribe was in residence (it left the camp for small hunting huts in the dry season) each entrance was guarded by similar platforms. The hut was roughly oval, being sixty feet by forty feet in dimension, with a circumference of fifty-four yards. Seven stout posts in the centre supported the roof, and from the top of the roof between these posts were 250 pigs skulls neatly fastened up in a basket. Below the skulls was a big fireplace, while round the walls were the smaller family fireplaces, probably a dozen in number when the hut was full. Each fire place consisted of four stakes driven in the ground. About three feet from the ground a piece of matting fastened to the stakes formed a shelf for the meat. The thatching was decorated with hundreds of fan-like bunches of leaves, and honey pots, baskets, unstrung bows, leaf water-vessels, etc., hung from the roof.
Article PDF
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Research Items. Nature 125, 330–332 (1930). https://doi.org/10.1038/125330a0
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/125330a0