In some of these hamlets I was looked upon with positive awe, as being
the first white man the _Baigas_ had seen. But these simple savages
rank high in the scale compared with some others, of whom we have
as yet but imperfect descriptions.

Some years ago Mr. Piddington communicated to the Asiatic Society
an account of some "Monkey-men" he came across on the borders of the
Palamow jungle. He was in the habit of employing the aboriginal
tribes to work for him, and on one occasion a party of his men found
in the jungle a man and woman in a state of starvation, and brought
them in. They were both very short in stature, with disproportionately
long arms, which in the man were covered with a reddish-brown hair.
They looked almost more like baboons than human beings, and their
language was unintelligible, except that words here and there
resembled those in one of the Kolarian dialects. By signs, and by the
help of these words, one of the Dhangars managed to make out that they
lived in the depths of the forest, but had to fly from their people on
account of a blood feud. Mr. Piddington was anxious to send them down
to Calcutta, but before he could do so, they decamped one night, and
fled again to their native wilds. Those jungles are, I believe, still
in a great measure unexplored; and, if some day they are opened out,
it is to be hoped that the "Monkey-men" will be again discovered.[1]

[Footnote 1: There has been lately exhibited in London a child from
Borneo which has several points in common with the monkey--hairy face
and arms, the hair on the fore-arm being reversed, as in the apes.]

The lowest type with which we are familiar is the Andamanese, and
the wilder sort of these will hardly bear comparison with even the
degraded Australian or African Bosjesman, and approximate in
debasement to the Fuegians.

The Andamanese are small in stature--the men averaging about five
feet, the women less. They are very dark, I may say black, but here
the resemblance to the Negro ceases. They have not the thick lips
and flat nose, nor the peculiar heel of the Negro. In habit they are
in small degree above the brutes, architecture and agriculture being
unknown. The only arts they are masters of are limited to the
manufacture of weapons, such as spears, bows and arrows, and canoes.
They wear no kind of dress, but, when flies and mosquitoes are
troublesome, plaster themselves with mud. The women are fond of
painting themselves with r