Chapter ANDAMAN to ANICUT of A by The Hobson Jobson Dictionary

ANDAMAN to ANICUT

ANDAMAN, n.p. The name of a group of islands in the Bay of Bengal, inhabited by tribes of a negrito race, and now partially occupied as a convict settlement under the Government of India. The name (though perhaps obscurely indicated by Ptolemy—see H. Y. in P.R.G.S. 1881, p. 665) first appears distinctly in the Ar. narratives of the 9th century. [The Ar. dual form is said to be from Agamitae, the Malay name of the aborigines.] The persistent charge of cannibalism seems to have been unfounded. [See E. H. Man; On the Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Andaman Islands, Intro. xiii. 45.]

A.D. 851.—“Beyond are two islands divided by a sea called Andaman. The natives of these isles devour men alive; their hue is black, their hair woolly; their countenance and eyes have something frightful in them.… they go naked, and have no boats..…”—Relation des Voyages, &c. par Reinaud, i.8.

c. 1050.—These islands are mentioned in the great Tanjore temple-inscription (11th cent.) as Timaittiru, ‘Islands of Impurity,’ inhabited by cannibals.

c. 1292.—“Angamanain is a very large Island. The people are without a King and are idolators, and are no better than wild beasts.… they are a most cruel generation, and eat everybody that they can catch if not of their own race.”—Marco Polo, Bk. iii. c. 13.

c. 1430.—“… leaving on his right hand an island called Andemania, which means the island of Gold, the circumference of which is 800 miles. The inhabitants are cannibals. No travellers touch here unless driven to do so by bad weather, for when taken they are torn to pieces and devoured by these cruel savages.”—Conti, in India in XV. Cent., 8.

c. 1566.—“Da Nicubar sinò a Pegu é vna catena d’Isole infinite, delle quali molte sono habitate da gente seluaggia, e chiamansi Isole d’Andeman.… e se per disgratia si perde in queste Isole qualche naue, come già se n’ha perso, non ne scampa alcuno, che tutti gli amazzano, e mangiano.”—Cesare de’ Federici, in Ramusio, iii. 391.

1727.—“The Islands opposite the Coast of Tanacerin are the Andemans. They lie about 80 leagues off, and are surrounded by many dangerous Banks and Rocks; they are all inhabited with Canibals, who are so fearless that they will swim off to a Boat if she approach near the shore, and attack her with their wooden Weapons .…”—A. Hamilton, ii. 65.

ANDOR, s. Port. ‘a litter,’ and used in the old Port. writers for a palankin. It was evidently a kind of Muncheel or Dandy, i.e. a slung hammock rather than a palankin. But still, as so often is the case, comes in another word to create perplexity. For andas is, in Port., a bier or a litter, appearing in Bluteau as a genuine Port. word, and the use of which by the writer of the Roteiro quoted below shows that it is so indeed. And in defining Andor the same lexicographer says: “A portable vehicle in India, in those regions where they do not use beasts, as in Malabar and elsewhere. It is a kind of contrivance like an uncovered Andas, which men bear on their shoulders, &c.… Among us Andor is a machine with four arms in which images or reliques of the saints are borne in processions.” This last term is not, as we had imagined an old Port. word. It is Indian, in fact Sanskrit, hindola, ‘a swing, a swinging cradle or hammock,’ whence also Mahr. hindola, and H. hindola or handola. It occurs, as will be seen, in the old Ar. work about Indian wonders, published by MM. Van der Lith and Marcel Devic. [To this Mr Skeat adds that in Malay andor means ‘a buffalo-sledge for carting rice, &c. It would appear to be the same as the Port. word, though it is hard to say which is the original.]

1013.—“Le même m’a conté qu’à Sérendîb, les rois et ceux qui se comportent à la façon des rois, se font porter dans le handoul (handul) qui est semblable à une litière, soutenu sur les épaules de quelques piétons.”—Kitab’ Ajaib-al Hind, p. 118.

1498.—“After two days had passed he (the Catual [Cotwal] came to the factory in an andor which men carried on their shoulders, and these (andors) consist of great canes which are bent overhead and arched, and from these are hung certain cloths of a half fathom wide, and a fathom and a half long, and at the ends are pieces of wood to bear the cloth which hangs from the cane; and laid over the cloth there is a great mattrass of the same size, and this all made of silk-stuff wrought with gold-thread, and with many decorations and fringes and tassels; whilst the ends of the cane are mounted with silver, all very gorgeous, and rich, like the lords who travel so.”—Correa, i. 102.

1498.—“Alii trouveram ao capitam mor humas andas d’omeens em que os onrrados, custumam em a quella terra d’andar, e alguns mercadores se as querem ter pagam por ello a elrey certa cousa.”—Roteiro, pp. 54–55. I.e. “There they brought for the Captain-Major certain andas, borne by men, in which the persons of distinction in that country are accustomed to travel, and if any merchants desire to have the same they pay to the King for this a certain amount.”

1505.—“Il Re se fa portare in vna Barra quale chiamono Andora portata da homini.”—Italian version of Dom Manuel’s Letter to the K. of Castille.