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Religion
The
religion is Animism and consists in fear of the evil spirits of the wood, the
sea, disease and ancestors and in avoidance of acts traditionally displeasing to
them. There is neither ceremonial worship nor propitiation. An anthropomorphic
deity, Paluga, is the cause of all things though acts displeasing to him are
avoided for fear of damage to the products of the jungle. Paluga dwells now in
the sky but used to live on the top of Saddle Peak, their highest mountain. The
Andamanese have no idea of heaven or hell or any idea of a corporeal
resurrection in the religious sense. They have much active faith in dreams which
sometimes control subsequent conduct and in the utterances of wise men,
dreamers of prophetic dreams. These practice an embryonic magic and witchcraft.
There is no oaths, covenants or ordeals nor any forms of appeal to
supernatural powers.
Puluga
who is fundamentally to be identified with some definiteness with the storm (Wuluga)
mixed up with ancestral chiefs has many attributes of the deity that it is fair
to translate the term by God. He has a wife and a family of one son and many
daughters. He transmits his orders through his son to his daughters who are his
messengers. The two great harmful spirits are Eremchauga of the forest and
Juruwin of the sea. Like Puluga, both have wives and families. The sun is the
wife of the moon and the stars are their children, dwelling near Puluga. But
there is no trace of sun-worship. The people twang their bows and make fun of
the moon during an eclipse while a solar eclipse keeps them silent through fear.
Languages
The
Andamanese languages are extremely interesting from the philological stand
point on account of their isolated development. They exhibit the
expression of only the most direct and simplest thought. An Andamanese
will manage to convey his meaning without employing any of the subsidiary
and connecting parts of speech. He ekes out
with a clever mimicry a great deal by manner, tone and action and this
habit he exhibits abundantly in the form of his speech. Narration is
nevertheless clear and not confused.
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