In the Andamans and Nicobars: The Narrative of a Cruise in the Schooner "Terrapin"Kloss, C. Boden (Cecil Boden)
History
In the Andamans and Nicobars: The Narrative of a Cruise in the Schooner "Terrapin"
Kloss, C. Boden (Cecil Boden)
Andaman and Nicobar Islands (India) -- Description and travel; Natural history -- India -- Andaman and Nicobar Islands
These variations occurring in size, features, and hair, show that the
Nicobarese are a thoroughly mixed race, for the points do not coincide
with each other; that is to say, curly hair does not always go with a
prominent nose, or straight hair with Malayan features.
It is hardly possible to describe a representative specimen who combines
all the prominent prevalent characteristics, but they seem capable
of division into two classes, the smaller of which is superior in
appearance to the other, and is often strikingly Caucasian, with oval
face, straight eyes, aquiline nose, and thin lips.[147]
The result of about forty measurements shows that the maximum height of
an adult male Nicobarese is 70-3/4 inches; the minimum, 59-1/4 inches;
and the average stature, 63.9 inches.[148] While thus somewhat under
middle height, they are well built (average chest measurement, 35.3
inches) and proportioned, muscular, and on the whole a sturdy-looking
race.
The colour of the skin is a brown much resembling in colour the tint of
a sun-burnt, weather-beaten Malay, such as a sailor; it is darker than
the ordinary native of that race, and has less of the olive or yellow
about it.
The hair is of a rusty black, but generally glossy with oil: it is thick
and luxuriant, and reaches to the shoulders, varying between a slight
waviness and pronounced curls. It is somewhat coarse, and when kept
short with boys, is almost bristly, and stands up stiffly all over the
head. In about 5 per cent. of the men there are traces of moustache and
beard, otherwise the faces are smooth, but the axillæ and elsewhere, and
often legs and thighs, are profusely covered with hair.
The form of skull is brachycephalic, with an index of about 80.5, and
the back of the head, among the natives of the central and southern
groups of islands (excepting the Shom Pe[.n]), is noticeably flat.[149]
The face is broad, and, but for the cheek-bones, which are generally
prominent and developed laterally, approaches the oval type. Often,
however, it has a somewhat rectangular outline, owing to the squareness
of the lower jaw in the rear. The features are somewhat flat. The
forehead is slightly rounded and even well-formed, but it is often
compressed at the temples, and falls away somewhat suddenly.
The supraciliary arch is prominent, and the eyebrows are generally fixed
in a permanent scowl; the pupil is black, and the eyes often--though not
as a rule--slightly oblique, with the Mongolian fold at the corner.
The nose is generally broad, and coarse in outline, is straight, and of
medium length, depressed at the bridge, flattened, with rounded tip,
has inflated _alae nasi_, and the plane of the nostrils directed
upward.[150]
There is often marked prognathism of the dental variety, and the teeth
are irregular and blackened, large and projecting--frequently growing
outwards at an angle, like those of a rabbit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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