[Illustration: Fig. 8.] It fell into, at least, four dialects--mutually unintelligible: probably into more. Writers who are not, otherwise, over-prone to exaggerate differences, have separated the Tasmanians from the Australians; and this arrangement is followed in the present work. The physical difference is chiefly that of the hair. The language, as far as the imperfect vocabularies have allowed me to examine it, has fewer affinities with the southern dialects of Australia than even the known amount of dissimilarity between fundamentally allied languages prepares us for. Furthermore--it was my impression, that such philological affinities as existed were with New Caledonia rather than Australia. If so, the philology and the physical appearance go together; and the Tasmanian population came _round_ Australia rather than _across_ it. The present position, therefore, of the Tasmanians is provisional. * * * * * _Necdum finitus Orestes._--There are two other Negrito localities; which, _geographically_ speaking, are scarcely Amphinesian, and not at all Kelænonesian. From the latter area they lie wholly apart. With the Protonesian portion of Amphinesia they are less disconnected; indeed they seem, at first, to form a prolongation of the northern extremity of Sumatra. I allude to two groups in the portion of the Bay of Bengal, on the Siamese side, almost parallel with the line of the continent, and forming a series of stepping-stones from Cape Negrais, in the Môn country, to the Malay island of Sumatra. These are--1. The Andaman Islands. 2. The Nicobar Islands. THE ANDAMAN ISLANDS. _Native name of the inhabitants._--Mincopie. _Nearest point of the Continent._--Cape Negrais. _Language._--Apparently not monosyllabic. Not considered to be Protonesian. _Native Fauna._--Rats, hogs, dogs. _Religion and habits._--Pagan cannibals.--_Lieutenant Colebrook's Asiatic Researches_, vol. iv. _Physical appearance._--Colour extremely dark, perhaps black. Heads woolly, lips thick, noses flat. Stature small, limbs ill-formed and slender, bellies prominent. Little as the Andamans, from the ferocious character of the inhabitants, are known, they are noticed by the Arabian travellers of the twelfth century, and also by Marco Polo; the early accounts being quite as unfavourable as the late ones. "Angaman is a very large island, not governed by a king. The inhabitants are idolators, and are a most brutish and savage race, having heads, eyes, and teeth resembling those of the canine species. Their dispositions are cruel, and every person, not being of their own nation, whom they can lay hands on, they kill and eat."--_Marco Polo, Marsden's Translation_. THE NICOBAR ISLANDS. _Locality._--Between the Andamans and Sumatra.