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INDIA

still, and it is curious that the local name for the teak tree
(Sag) should be also the name for a snake. They burn
their dead, and have a profound belief in ghosts, witches,
and omens.
Sir Lepel Griffin, who knows them well, believes that
the Bhil country offers a fine field for missionary enterprise.

Yet more aboriginal, possibly, even than the Bhils are
certain races which we find in the islands adjacent to
India, notably the Andamans and Nicobars. The Andamanese
 appears to be a negritic race, with many of the
more strongly marked characteristics of the true negro
wanting in them. They are a race of small people,
exquisitely moulded and of perfect figures, with curly, but
not woolly, hair, dark skins, and the habits of savages.
They have yet to be properly placed on the ethnographical
scale of humanity. The yet more savage inhabitants of
the Nicobars are ethnographically entirely distinct from
the Andamanese, and their affinities are undoubtedly with
the Malays.
Many of the races of Western India, who are of no
political importance and who are never brought into
contact with Europeans through the ranks of the native
army are well worth the attention of ethnographers.
Such, for instance, are the Coorgs, whose mountainous
habitat is dovetailed in between Mysore and the Malabar
and Kanara districts. The men are described as muscular,
 handsome, and tall, and the women fair, wellproportioned,
 and good-looking, although they are as a
rule small compared to the men. The Coorg race has
ever been noted for its loyalty, and the Coorgs afforded
material assistance to the Government in the third Maisur
Campaign against Tippu Sultan. They are permitted to
carry arms, and are noted for their marksmanship and
their prowess as hunters. They are, nevertheless, ignorant
and superstitious, worshippers of ¢ demons and ancestors,
and dealing in charms and sorceries,” and blood feuds
are sustained amongst them with all the hereditary vindictiveness
 of the Pathan.