GIFT OF 
 Prof. Benlarain P. Kurtz 
 
TWELVE ANDAMANESE SONGS 
 
 BY 
 
 BENJAMIN P. KURTZ 
 
TWELVE ANDAMANESE SONGS 
 
 BENJAMIN P. KUKTZ 
 
 By their introductory and general studies of the beginnings 
 of poetry, Gummere, Schmidt, Ridgeway, Mackenzie, and a few 
 others 1 have opened the way for specific investigation in the songs, 
 stories, and dramatic performances of each of the simpler peoples. 
 But at first this specific study must perforce be largely descrip- 
 tive and textual in character, for the fragmentary, inaccurate, 
 and confused condition of much of the material available for 
 examination makes indispensable a careful, preliminary checking 
 of information, texts, and translations. 
 
 Every one who has attempted to study at second hand the 
 emotional and imaginative utterances of the simpler peoples has 
 commented upon the incomplete and misleading reports by 
 travelers, explorers, missionaries, and resident European officials 
 with which he has had to deal. The initial difficulty of secur- 
 ing from the savages themselves accurate accounts of their beliefs, 
 customs, legends, and songs ; the probability that the fragmentary 
 results of first-hand inquiry have been rendered still more unsat- 
 isfactory by the inaccuracy of the reporter-; the certainty that 
 many translations from the native tongues are highly colored or 
 sentimentalized: these handicaps are generally recognized. But 
 what is not sufficiently realized is the substantial inaccuracy of 
 many translations by experienced and careful observers who are 
 themselves proficient in the native languages with which they are 
 working. Because they are interested not in the actual, aesthetic 
 form of the song or story, but rather in its general content its 
 
 1 For problems of study and bibliography see Gayley and Kurtz, Lyric, 
 Epic, and Allied Types of Poetry (Ginn & Co., 1920), pp. 369-374; cf. pp. 
 141-145, 149-182, 591-596, 605-609, 615-668; also Gayley and Scott, 
 Methods and Materials of Lit. Grit., Bases in Aesthetics (Ginn & Co., 1899). 
 pp. 266-274. 
 
80 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 11 
 
 meaning in relation to some particular research in the customs 
 or beliefs of the tribe these reporters have not seldom yielded 
 to the temptation of offering as a translation what really is a 
 summary of the original or even an expanded explanation of it. 
 The temptation to indulge in the latter is especially strong in 
 the case of songs, for most "primitive" lyrics are so abrupt, 
 allusive, and brief that their meaning has to be developed and 
 explained. The Andamanese, for example, have a brief song 
 (II, below) the actual form of which is fairly well represented 
 as follows: 
 
 By beetles my ears are rasped, 
 By cicadas my ears are rasped O. 
 My ears are rasped O and buzzing O. 
 My ears are rasped and Tzuzzing 0. 
 
 But from this faithful translation the complete meaning of the 
 lyric would never be guessed. The Andamanese audience, from 
 certain familiar allusions, understands at once that the composer 
 is telling why he failed to secure a wild pig in a recent hunting 
 expedition. To make the matter clear the British collector offers 
 the following expanded, explanatory "translation": 
 
 The beetles and cicadas are making such a noise in the jungle that 
 my ears are deafened and I cannot hear the sound of pigs. My ears are 
 deafened, and there is a singing in them. 
 
 Now it is just such substitution of explanation and para- 
 phrase for accurate translation that makes analyses of poetic 
 form and investigations in development well-nigh impossible. 
 Paraphrase, indeed, obscures parallelism in meaning the chief 
 formal trait of most of these songs. To detect parallelism and 
 discover its varieties complete or incomplete, synonymous, anti- 
 thetical, or incremental the investigator must know not only the 
 meaning of each word or agglutinative compound in the original, 
 but also how each word or compound is made up what is root, 
 prefix, infix, and suffix. Here is a case in point. In the first 
 chapter of his Beginnings of Poetry Gummere quotes "two" 
 
1922] Kurtz: Twelve Andamanese Songs 81 
 
 Cherokee songs of friendship, with translations by a "Mr. Hicks, 
 a Cherokee of half blood." 
 
 Can, nal, li, eh, ne-was-tu. 
 A friend you resemble. 
 
 Chorus. Yai, ne, noo, way. E, noo, way, ha. 
 
 Ti, nai, tau, na, cla, ne-was-tu. 
 Brothers I think we are. 
 
 And the chorus as before. A glance at the original verses reveals 
 the fact that these "two" songs are related in form, perhaps as 
 two stanzas of one scng, or as two similar songs composed at 
 the same time or at different times. They not only have the 
 same chorus, but the compound ne-was-tu appears in the same 
 position in each. Now the point to be observed is that the trans- 
 lation obscures this parallelism, and thereby misses a salient 
 characteristic of the original. Moreover, to appreciate the full 
 effect of this salient trait one must understand each part of this 
 compound. Finally, until we have a faithful word-for-word 
 translation we cannot determine whether or not any antithetical 
 or synonymous parallelism is contained in the Can, nal, li, eh of 
 the first and the Ti, nai, tau, na, cla of the second line. Professor 
 Gummere calls Mr. Hicks' translation "interlinear"; properly 
 speaking, it is nothing of the kind. To base any extensive ac- 
 count of primitive songs upon translations like this would be 
 unscientific. 
 
 Many other examples of unsatisfactory versions including 
 "interlinear" and professed literal translations by writers fa- 
 miliar with the original languages might be offered. The more 
 carefully the original texts are compared with the translations 
 the less satisfactory do the latter appear. Washington Matthews, 
 who lived for years among the Navajo Indians, knew their lan- 
 guage, and compiled a Navajo dictionary (still in MS.), pub- 
 lished many of their songs both in the original and in translation ; 
 but even his versions, as checked by his own dictionary or that 
 of the Franciscan Fathers, are not always verbally exact or suffi- 
 ciently representative of formal characteristics. Miss Frances 
 
82 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 11 
 
 Densmore, the accomplished student of Chippewa and Teton 
 Sioux music, is so deeply interested in the musical aspect of 
 Indian song that her translations, even though she has had the 
 assistance of educated natives, are demonstrably imperfect in 
 respect of the diction and syntax of the original. 
 
 Of course some interlinear versions especially those by 
 anthropologists with philological training are entirely satisfac- 
 tory, or nearly so. Versions by such men as Dorsey, Boas, and 
 Goddard leave little to be desired. But the mass of our materials 
 is not authoritative. 
 
 In the light of such facts as these it is easy to point out what 
 should be done in a descriptive and textual way before the student 
 of the beginnings of poetry can proceed to systematic analysis 
 of the materials available. Such texts as we have should be 
 checked, edited, and re-translated by specially qualified persons 
 with the assistance of trustworthy members of the native tribes 
 concerned. A "specially qualified person" would be a scholar 
 who had been trained in philological research and who had ac- 
 quired at first hand his knowledge of a given language. Investi- 
 gations should be carried on among the natives themselves, "on 
 the spot." 
 
 But these "shoulds" are a counsel of perfection. Desirable 
 as such procedure is, it is seldom possible, and as time flies the 
 simpler peoples perish. Therefore, the student of the simpler 
 poetries either must wait until the counsel of perfection is real- 
 ized and the probabilities are against its ever being realized in 
 a large measure or he must himself do what can be done under 
 the circumstances. In respect of a given original and a suspicious 
 translation he may attempt : ( 1 ) by means of a thorough study 
 of the proper dictionaries, grammars, and other apparatus to 
 separate each word or compound of the original into its parts 
 prefix, infix, root, suffix, etc. as in a literal, interlinear trans- 
 lation, and to explain the function of each part; (2) by means 
 of this word-analysis and interlinear translation to check the 
 inaccuracies, unwarrantable expansions, and omissions of the 
 given version, or to produce a new version, keeping as close to 
 
1922] Kurtz: Twelve Andamanese Songs 83 
 
 the form of the original as the genius of his own language will 
 anywise permit. 
 
 This possible task is in many cases made comparatively easy 
 by the general guidance which the purported translation affords. 
 Such a "translation," for instance, as the expanded explanation 
 of the Andamanese song given above would be a material help, 
 and many scientifically unsatisfactory versions give even more 
 help, of a general sort. Without this guidance the task might 
 well be vague and hopeless, but with it the problem is roughly 
 comparable, say, to working out a literal translation of a passage 
 of Homer or Dante by means of a dictionary, a grammar, and 
 a more or less free "pony." Of course it may be objected that 
 the genius of an agglutinative ' ' simple ' ' language is very strange 
 to the language-sense of a European. But though many of the 
 tongues with which the investigator may be concerned are com- 
 plex in respect of word-forms, most of them are rather simple 
 in principle, and a little study of one, under competent guidance, 
 goes a long way toward supplying a language-sense for others. 
 
 That mistakes in word-analysis and translation will be made 
 in the work proposed goes without saying. But four consider- 
 ations will largely offset the embarrassment of these inevitable 
 errors. An abbreviated, expanded, or otherwise too free transla- 
 tion that has been checked and supplemented in the way described 
 will measurably approach a complete and accurate representation 
 of the original in meaning and form, and as such will be prefer- 
 able as a basis for inductive studies. Moreover, just as to the 
 making of critical editions of texts in the unknown or little 
 known languages of antiquity many scholars and generations of 
 scholars have contributed, so it may be hoped that the attempt 
 to initiate study of these less important texts will lead to further 
 criticism by qualified students, and to some increase in the philo- 
 logical apparatus pertaining to the task. By the very conditions 
 of the study perfect translations are beyond the hope of the 
 pioneer, but he need not therefore be discouraged. If his errors 
 lead to corrections he has been of service. Again, if each text 
 is fully and honestly annotated the amount of error will be 
 
84 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 11 
 
 minimized. To each interlinear translation should be attached 
 extensive critical notes, comprising a precise and explicit account 
 of the authority on which each word-analysis is based, clear dis- 
 tinctions between well-grounded analyses and "guesses" (with 
 the reasons for each "guess"), and frank confession of the 
 difficulties that have proved insurmountable, of the problems of 
 word-study and syntax that are yet to be mastered. The amount 
 of error that may creep into a treatment as candid as this need 
 not be a serious deterrent. Finally, the detailed explanation 
 of the form and function of each word and compound will make 
 it feasible for any student who wishes to study a given song or 
 story in its relation to his particular problem of research to gain, 
 with comparatively little effort, a fairly intimate acquaintance 
 with the original text a very important desideratum. 
 
 A prerequisite, then, for specific study of the beginnings of 
 "literature" among the lower races is the critical preparation 
 of a series of original texts and approximately word-for-word 
 translations, annotated and emended as indicated above. So far 
 as possible the materials we have from each of the simpler peoples 
 should be treated thus, until by accumulation of these textual 
 studies we obtain a critical corpus, which will afford, in turn, the 
 basis for further analytic and comparative study of processes of 
 composition, of the differentiation, development, and function of 
 special forms or types, and of the technique of action, situation, 
 plot and character, diction and parallelism, rhythm and metre. 
 It is highly desirable, moreover, that to each special collection 
 there be prefixed a digest, with due indication of agreement and 
 disagreement of authorities, of our information concerning the 
 origin, composition, and occasion, the persistence, distribution, 
 and transformation, and the method of delivery of the sort of 
 compositions represented in the study, as well as a brief estimate 
 of the cultural conditions or level of the tribe or people concerned. 
 A bibliography of the more important works to be consulted 
 should also be added, annotated to give the student some idea 
 of the content and value of each work in its bearing upon the 
 general culture or poetic compositions of the people. 
 
1922] Kurtz: Twelve Andamanese Songs 85 
 
 The field of this project is very wide. If we consider only one 
 division of it, the songs of the simpler peoples, we shall find, 
 on a very rough estimate, that there are, exclusive of entirely 
 satisfactory editions by a few anthropologists and other scholars, 
 between two and three thousand songs which can be and ought 
 to be edited as has been proposed. We possess many songs, in 
 both the original languages and translations, of the lower races 
 of Africa, Australia, North and South America, Asia, and 
 Oceania (consider, e.g., the hundreds of Maori songs alone), 
 which must be edited as critically as possible before students of 
 literature can study them systematically. 
 
 To render this proposal clearer an attempt is here made, by 
 way of example, to study the texts of twelve Andamanese songs 
 contained in M. V. Portman 's Notes on the Languages of the 
 South Andaman Group of Tribes. 2 But it must be understood 
 that what is presented here is only a preliminary sketch for a 
 more thorough and extensive study which is in course of prepar- 
 ation and which will include all the available songs and stories 
 of this people, as well as a complete summary of our informa- 
 tion concerning the general culture and poetic practice of the 
 Andamanese. 
 
 2 Published by the Office of the Supt. of Government Printing, India 
 (Calcutta, 1898). M. V. Portman, for several years the officer in charge 
 of the Andamanese, made a careful study of the dialects of the South 
 Andaman group of tribes, compiling a grammar and a comparative vocab- 
 ulary with extensive explanatory notes. These, together with fairly 
 copious examples of Andamanese prose and verse, he published in the 
 volume noted above. His work is painstaking, accurate, and authoritative. 
 His intimate acquaintance with the natives and their language and his 
 constant endeavor to check all his information by comparison of several 
 first-hand reports offset the disadvantage, which he himself admits, that 
 he is not a trained philologist. To the thirteen songs included in this 
 work very little attention has been paid by students of the beginnings of 
 poetry. For reasons of space I have had to omit consideration of the last 
 song, which is somewhat longer than the others. The present account of 
 Andamanese culture is based for the most part upon Portman and E. H. 
 Man (reference below). 
 
86 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 11 
 
 THE ANDAMANESE 
 
 The Andaman Islands, situated in the Bay of Bengal, west 
 of the lower strip of Burma and one hundred and twenty miles 
 from the nearest point of the mainland, have been inhabited 
 from a remote past, perhaps since the Pleistocene period and 
 certainly since the Neolithic Age, by a people whose racial affini- 
 ties are obscure. The Andamanese are generally classed as of 
 negrito stock and it is probable that they are related to the 
 negritos who once inhabited the southeast portion of Asia and 
 certain adjacent islands, and who, probably, were the ancestors 
 of the Semangs of the Malay Peninsula and the Aetas of the 
 Philippines. The kitchen middens on the Andaman Islands are 
 of great age some of them are more than fifteen feet high and 
 the fact that identical forms of pottery and stone implements are 
 found at the surface and the base of the middens implies that 
 the aborigines have not varied greatly in culture from age to age. 
 Probably never numerous, the natives have been so disastrously 
 affected by contact with civilization that in 1883 they numbered 
 but four thousand souls, and their early extermination was antici- 
 pated. Eighteen years later that number was cut in half. 
 
 Their culture is so very simple that the Andamanese have 
 been regarded by anthropologists as among the most primitive 
 of existing human beings. They belong to the "collecting" and 
 lower-hunting peoples. They live on edible roots, wild fruits 
 and honey, molluscs, turtle, fish, the larvae of insects, and 
 certain small jungle animals, notably the wild pig. Food is so 
 easily procured that nomadism is restricted. Domesticated ani- 
 mals were unknown until the Europeans imported dogs, which 
 are now greatly prized for hunting. Agriculture was also intro- 
 duced by strangers and the natives still regard it as a degrading 
 occupation. Their habitations, even the most permanent, are 
 of the roughest. The art of producing fire they seem never to 
 have known, and probably they first obtained fire in the form of 
 glowing coals from some neighboring volcano. But they have 
 developed great skill in preserving it. 
 
1922] Kurtz: Twelve Andamanese Songs 87 
 
 Their life, socially and morally, is far from complicated. 
 The family is recognized. There is a marked equality of husband 
 and wife, and considerable mutual affection. Political organi- 
 zation is of the simplest, a division into tribes and septs, and 
 within the tribe a primitive communism modified by the more 
 or less nominal authority of the chief. Succession to the office 
 of chief is by popular choice, and the minority is always free to 
 transfer its tribal allegiance. The individual takes the "law" 
 into his own hands, but disputes are often settled through the 
 influence of the chief, who, however, has no authority to exact 
 obedience. Childish fits of temper, to which the natives are sub- 
 ject and which usually wear themselves out in a capricious de- 
 struction of property, go unpunished. Some murders are 
 avenged, but many a murderer succeeds in frightening off his 
 fellows, or has the good sense to leave the village until popular 
 excitement has died down, when he may return with impunity. 
 Ordeals, covenants, and oaths to guarantee performance of con- 
 tract seem not to be known to this primitive folk. 
 
 Their morality has been lowered by intercourse with civilized 
 peoples, but in their isolated and peaceful state they seem to 
 have been modest, self-reliant, candid, and rather veracious; de- 
 voted and tender in their care of the infirm, the aged, and the 
 very young; and sedulous to observe the duties of hospitality. 
 The women always wear aprons, and are modest to the point of 
 prudery. The men, unless prevented by the whites, go naked 
 except for certain ornaments. Commercial dishonesty, so far as 
 it exists, is an acquired trait. The Andamanese are little given 
 to trading among themselves. Their transactions are in the 
 nature of a generous making of presents for which equivalent 
 gifts are expected. Quarrels arise when an inadequate return is 
 offered. Greed for the material goods of life is rare, they are not 
 given to accumulation of possessions, and property is not handed 
 down from generation to generation. In warfare, cunning and 
 treachery are relied upon and heroic courage is lacking; but 
 cowards are ridiculed. 
 
88 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 11 
 
 The Andamanese have the bow and arrow, the spear, and the 
 harpoon; the objects made and used by them hardly amount to 
 one hundred items. Most of their manufactured articles are so 
 simple and so easily replaced that little care is taken to preserve 
 them. The weapons, tools, and other slight property of a given 
 individual may be used by his relatives ; such important articles 
 as a cooking pot, a canoe, or a sounding board (used for marking 
 time in the dance) , when the owner is not using them, are "looked 
 upon somewhat in the light of public property by members of the 
 same community." 
 
 In the possession of a knowledge of simple forms of pottery 
 they are superior to the Australians, Tasmanians, and Fuegiaiis. 
 The middens prove, moreover, that this knowledge is by no means 
 limited to recent times. Pots are made by the layer-and-scraping 
 method. Designs (plant and animal forms are never imitated) 
 are scratched on with a stick. The Andamanese are still in the 
 stone age. Natural forms of stones and shells are used as tools ; 
 shaped implements are of the simplest. Iron they now secure 
 from the British penal colony at Port Blair, but their only method 
 of working it is by hammering cold pieces. Basketry and the 
 weaving of mats are understood, but only in simple patterns; 
 leather work is unknown. 
 
 Of the mental capacity of the Andamanese it may be said 
 that in youth a certain precocity is displayed under foreign 
 instruction, but in its natural, untutored state the intellect is 
 largely dormant. A curious, inventive race the Andamanese are 
 not, but among them are individuals of penetrative mind, strong 
 will, and vivid imagination. As a people they "care little for 
 abstract ideas and their life is absorbed in their material wants 
 and pleasures, regarding which they generally converse. If you 
 see a number of Andamanese collected about one who is telling 
 a story, you find that story to be nearly always about a pig or 
 turtle hunt. They seem never to tire of hearing these stories, 
 though there is a great sameness about them (like English fox- 
 hunters discussing their ' runs ' ) , and the stories are related with 
 much acting and gesture." 1 
 s M. V. Portman, op. cit., p. 32. 
 
1922] Hurts: Twelve Andamanese Songs 89 
 
 Considerable interest and a spirit of emulation are displayed 
 in making weapons and other articles. Hour after hour may 
 be spent by the natives in the persevering, monotonous toil of 
 shaping arrow heads and spear heads to suit their taste, or in 
 improving the curve of a bow, even when there is no necessity, 
 immediate or prospective, to act as a stimulus. Yet they do not 
 preserve weapons and utensils of superior workmanship for 
 private use : they frequently make presents of the best that they 
 
 They have no writing of any sort, no signs or tallies, no 
 recognized standards of weights and measures. Their only spe- 
 cific numerals are one and two. Beyond "two" the idea of 
 quantity is exceedingly vague, though the more intelligent, by 
 using fingers and nose as counters, manage to indicate specific 
 numbers up to ten. Their geographical knowledge, until the 
 advent of the British, was entirely local. They knew nothing 
 of the coast of Burma, let alone the rest of the world. Voyagers 
 who from time to time came to their shores were regarded as the 
 spirits of deceased ancestors returning from some small neigh- 
 boring island of the dead to visit former haunts and friends. 
 
 They delight in multiplying terms to designate the various 
 aspects of life in which they are interested. Thirteen periods 
 of day and night are distinguished . and named ; three main 
 seasons and twenty minor seasons (named after trees which 
 flower in succession), four phases of each lunation, the four 
 points of the compass, four winds, and three kinds of clouds are 
 recognized. Of their language something is said below. 
 
 Of Andamanese superstitions, myths, and legends I have not 
 space to speak. Suffice to say that the superstitions are simple, 
 the expression of a timorous, childlike, and good-hearted people ; 
 not particularly numerous or ' ' suggestive of an insane asylum ' ' ; 
 etiological and animistic in character; most of them easily to 
 be accounted for as natural reactions to experience. Conduct 
 
 *E. H. Man, "On the Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Andaman Islands" 
 in The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 
 XII, 94. 
 
90 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 11 
 
 is shaped according to the warnings and advice received in 
 dreams. Certain individuals who are prolific of dreams are 
 credited with supernatural power (cf. Song X, below). There 
 are no forms of worship, no religious rites ; there is no devotion 
 to trees, stones, celestial bodies, or other objects; but a rather 
 complete etiology of creation, of the heavenly bodies, of the 
 larger aspects of nature, of life, death, and resurrection, of fire 
 and the arts has been developed. The creating agent is an im- 
 mortal being, Puluga, who is like fire, but is now invisible. He 
 created everything except the evil spirits. He lives in a large 
 stone house in the sky, with a wife whom he made for himself. 
 He is omniscient during the day; he eats and drinks and sleeps 
 much during the dry season, but when he is angry he comes out 
 of his house and growls and blows and hurls burning faggots. 
 He has many children, but only one son. The stories told about 
 him show Christian influence. 
 
 From these facts concerning the Andamanese and their way 
 of living, certain inferences which have an important bearing 
 upon the study of their poetry may be drawn. Andamanese 
 culture, certainly, is not "rising," or "mounting"; it shows no 
 vitality in expanding to meet new demands. The race is dis- 
 appearing. On the other hand, such evidence as we have of its 
 past indicates that this culture has always been so simple, so 
 close to an irreducible minimum, that there has been little op- 
 portunity for the loss of significant characteristics. We are 
 therefore justified, or, at least, fairly well justified, in regarding 
 both the material and intellectual features of this culture as the 
 products of a very simple ~but not decadent state of savagery. 5 
 In turn, then, we may infer that the rhythmic utterances of the 
 Andamanese illustrate at least one sort of poetry that is produced 
 at an early stage of man 's development. 
 
 s This remark is limited to the culture described in this article, i.e., to 
 the culture as observed by Man and Portman. What may have become 
 of the Andamanese in the last twenty years is another matter. 
 
1922] Kurtz: Twelve Andamanese Songs 91 
 
 ANDAMANESE POETEY 
 
 The narrow consciousness of the Andamanese, the simpleness 
 and limited range of their mental processes, and most of their 
 chief interests, are reflected in the content and form of their 
 songs. They sing most frequently of the exciting events of their 
 daily life pig hunting, fishing, travels and incidental adven- 
 tures, and fighting ; and there are many songs about the making 
 of weapons, boats, and other objects. Both Man and Portman 
 testify that the Andaman islanders have no reflective, religious, 
 or love lyrics ; their ' ' nursery ' ' songs seem to be limited to lull- 
 abies. Portman definitely states that legends are not transmitted 
 in rhythmical form, but Man speaks of songs "connected with 
 myths" (presumably incidental lyrics) and of magical songs. 
 Special ceremonial or rite compositions are lacking: differenti- 
 ation of performance at ceremonial occasions, if there is any, is 
 limited to the dance. 
 
 But the songs that are built about the events of daily life 
 are very numerous in spite of the limited number of subjects. 
 Every one composes. A man who could not make a song would 
 be looked down upon. Even children have their own songs. 
 Women occasionally make and sing lyrics, which, though hardly 
 equal in power, are yet similar in every way to those made by 
 men. Each person sings his own song. To sing the song of 
 another is a breach of etiquette that may lead to a fight, but 
 after the death of a man his songs may be sung by another 
 member of his tribe. When a man wishes to make a new song, 
 "he waits till he feels inspired to do so, and will then, when 
 alone and engaged in some occupation, sing to himself until he 
 has hit on a solo and refrain which take his fancy." He tries 
 his song over and over again, carefully improving it to his taste. 
 For several days, indeed, in some secluded spot of the jungle or 
 the shore where he is fashioning a weapon or hollowing out a 
 canoe the composer may continue to repeat and reshape his song. 
 Portman emphatically asserts that this is the method of compo- 
 sition ; he maintains that statements which stress an impromptu 
 method are erroneous. 
 
92 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 11 
 
 Regarding the origin of this habit of composing songs the 
 Andamanese have no traditions. They believe that "the 'An- 
 cestors' from time immemorial used to compose and sing songs 
 similar in rhythm and subject to those composed to-day. . . . 
 As songs by composers who have been distinguished men are 
 sung by others of their tribe after their death, we thus get a 
 few so-called ancient songs, which, however, are not really very 
 old, and are of little value, not being different from the ordinary 
 songs of the present day." 8 There is no evidence of communal 
 composition. 
 
 Let us return to the composer. When he is satisfied with his 
 solo and refrain he sings them at the campfire, where the vil- 
 lagers are collected for their nightly dance. If his composition 
 catches the popular ear he may repeat it on other evenings, and 
 may even keep it in mind to be sung at some future jeg, or 
 congregation of several tribes for entertainment. "The singer 
 chosen to repeat his song at such an occasion gains lasting recog- 
 nition for his accomplishment." Songs are occasionally sung 
 at other times and places, by small companies, but without the 
 accompaniment of dance. The usual time is the evening; the 
 usual place, the hard-tamped bulum (dancing ground) near the 
 campfire. 
 
 At one end of the bulum the composer takes his place, his 
 foot resting on the sounding board, ready to beat out the time 
 for the dance. Amid general silence he sings his solo, very likely 
 in a falsetto. Then his voice drops an octave as he delivers the 
 refrain. If the listeners catch the refrain they sing it at once, 
 but if not, the soloist repeats it two or three times until they 
 are able to sing it in chorus. "The dance commences with the 
 refrain being accompanied by a clapping of hands and thighs, 
 and the stamping of the soloist's foot on the sounding board. The 
 
 e M. V. Portman, op. cit., p. 166. Portman does not state in detail how 
 he collected the songs printed below, nor does he inform us whether any 
 of them are ' ' old. ' ' But we know that he got them direct from the 
 natives. There is no indication in them of foreign (European or Asiatic) 
 influence. 
 
1922] Kurtz: Twelve Andamanese Songs 93 
 
 time of this clapping and stamping is 
 
 but the time marked by the stamping of the dancers' feet is 
 1 1 jJ JJ == After the refrain has been repeated about ten 
 
 times the chorus pause to take breath, but the clapping of hands 
 and thighs and the stamping on the sounding board continue; 
 when the chorus have recovered their breath they again repeat 
 the refrain about ten times. The soloist will then repeat the 
 song, and the refrain will be taken up again as before ; and this 
 may be repeated as many as six times, if the song has been sung 
 before and is known ; when, if it has been a success, the soloist 
 sings a line which appears to be meaningless, and the chorus 
 answers with another line, also meaningless, which is sung once, 
 and the time beats then alter to a confused rattle, and the song 
 ends. If it has not been approved, it will die away after one or 
 two repetitions and this peculiar ending will not be given. . . . 
 At the conclusion of a song the same soloist may sing another 
 song under the same conditions as the first, or he may be relieved 
 by another soloist. Such songs and dances, with changes of 
 soloist, are kept up all night. The work of the soloist is hard, 
 as besides singing he has to give the time by stamping on the 
 sounding board, but the position is a proud one. ' n 
 
 Portman also observes that if the soloist in the middle of his 
 performance happens to forget his lines he repeats two or three 
 words, ' ' having regard to time and tune only and not in the least 
 to sense," until the rest comes to mind. The music, consisting 
 of monotonous phrases of two or three notes, lends itself to this 
 universal device of the "stumped" reciter. It is also interesting 
 to learn that the Andamanese have no method of taking breath 
 in a song, and that a soloist who loses his breath in the middle 
 of a long, agglutinative compound upon recovering begins a 
 word or two back of the one where he stopped, so that he may 
 not spoil the rln^thm ! Under these conditions it is easy to under- 
 
 7 M. V. Portman, op. cit., pp. 167-168. 
 
94 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 11 
 
 stand how a solo may be prolonged by repetition of phrases, quite 
 regardless of the meaning. "Andamanese songs," says Port- 
 man, ' ' occasionally remind me of Mr. Gilbert 's motto on the title 
 page of the Bab Ballads, ' Much sound and little sense. ' ' 
 
 Men, women, and children join in the chorus. According to 
 one authority, the men sing in unison, some women and the 
 children in falsetto, and the rest of the women in a minor sixth 
 above the men. No indication of the subject of a song is given 
 by the rhythm, accent, or intonation of delivery, and if the ob- 
 server has not a knowledge of the language he is quite unable 
 to guess what is being described. Gesticulation and acting are 
 not accompaniments of song, though they constitute the chief 
 part of story telling. 
 
 "The formal construction of all Andamanese songs is the 
 same, though the subject differs." To a short solo (seldom more 
 than five "lines," and generally only three) succeeds a brief 
 refrain, which is usually a mere repetition of the last ' ' line ' ' or 
 of its concluding words. The refrain may begin in the middle 
 of a "word." No attempt will be made in this sketch to analyze 
 in detail the construction (line length, rhythm, accents, assonance, 
 rhyme, etc.) of solo and refrain, but it should be noted that mean- 
 ing, grammatical form, and syntax are frequently sacrificed to 
 rhythm, especially in the refrain. Indeed, to satisfy his sense 
 of rhythm the composer may so mutilate his words that he is 
 obliged to explain the refrain to his audience. Man, however, 
 appears to magnify the amount of poetic license; or, rather, 
 what he says on this point applies primarily to the refrain. 
 Portman maintains, with reason, that the construction of the 
 sentences in Andamanese poetry is much the same as in ordinary 
 conversation, that the roots are altered very little, and that, in 
 general, only the suffixes and prefixes are omitted and altered 
 as the rhythm requires. A poetic dialect can hardly be said to 
 exist, though certain roots appear in poetry which do not often 
 occur in ordinary speech. Man's statement that a distinct poetic 
 dialect does exist is based upon a misconception either of what 
 a poetic dialect is or of the nature of Andamanese poetic license. 
 
1922] Kurtz: Twelve Andamanese Songs 95 
 
 Of the brief, abrupt, and allusive character of the lyrics of 
 the Andamanese an example has already been given. Like other 
 primitive poets, an Andamanese in composing a song is prone 
 to utter emotion without indicating its stimulus, to describe an 
 action without explaining its cause or purpose, and, in general, 
 to express himself so obliquely that only a native, and not always 
 even he, can be sure of the meaning of the composition. More 
 often than not the real motive of a lyric, the reason for its 
 existence, is hid in the assumptions and associations upon which 
 the song is built, in the inferences the native audience will draw, 
 in situations their imagination will supply, in allusions and im- 
 plications quite beyond the power of an outsider to understand. 
 The inclination to express one's feeling without explaining its 
 source we have all experienced, and therefore we can appreciate 
 the abruptness of these lyrics, especially after some one has ex- 
 plained the implied idea or adventure! We must remember, 
 too, if our sympathy is to be complete, that the experiences which 
 are the source and setting of our native's emotions are so limited 
 in number and so frequently the subject of song and story that 
 there is no need whatever of specifying them for an Andamanese 
 audience. In most of the pig hunting, turtle hunting, and 
 dugong fishing songs that are given below, for example, there is 
 no mention of pig, or turtle, or dugong. From the way a song 
 begins, from some descriptive touch, or from the nature of its 
 emotional appeal, the audience soon divines that it is another 
 of the countless but to them always interesting songs of this, 
 that, or the other kind of sport. 
 
 But the Andamanese lyric, however confused it may become 
 in delivery, however abrupt it may be in method, is far from 
 failing to be an aesthetically adequate expression of human feel- 
 ing. The songs are natural and realistic in their appeal, smooth 
 and sure in technique. The selected details are invariably vivid 
 and significant. The composer's art is equal to his theme, 
 powerful to excite emotion and discharge it, and easily capable 
 of controlling and shaping his subject in a unified but varied 
 pattern. Repetition is the device that secures unity, but in 
 
96 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 11 
 
 almost every song this repetition is modified by slight omissions 
 or additions, and accented by syllables like the ballad 0, or by 
 lyric exclamations, which are musically or emotionally appro- 
 priate. In these primitive lyrics there is nothing of immaturity 
 in technique, of crude fumbling, of archaic stiffness. With 
 their easy expressiveness and stimulating vigor, with their swing 
 and point, they make us forget that they are the songs of some 
 of the most primitive of savages. They touch us as human and 
 modern, and with a certain surprise we put aside the prejudices 
 of civilization to realize anew the identity of the human spirit. 
 
 THE ANDAMANESE LANGUAGE 
 
 This is not the place for a detailed account of the language 
 of the Andamanese, but a brief statement of some of its more 
 important principles will be of material assistance in studying 
 the songs given below. Each of the twelve tribes speaks a dialect, 
 and some of these dialects are more closely related than others. 
 The South Andaman group of tribes, which is the group with 
 which we are concerned, is composed of the Aka-Bea-da, the 
 Akar-Bdle, the Piichikwdr f t'h.Q Aukau-Juwoi, and the Kol. Their 
 dialects are sufficiently different to make an interchange of ideas 
 difficult. The vocabulary is comparatively copious; E. H. Man's 
 dictionary contains over six thousand words and M. V. Port- 
 man 's comparative vocabulary of the five dialects 2286 words. 
 Abstract terms are rare, but there is a profusion of names for 
 objects and for their parts, qualities, and conditions. 
 
 The general principle of word composition is agglutination. 
 To roots, which have more or less definite meanings but are not 
 inflected, are added prefixes and suffixes. These, with a certain 
 exception, occur only in combination with the roots, and the 
 latter are not split for the insertion of infixes. To distinguish 
 roots from affixes I have followed Portman's device of printing 
 the former in italics. 
 
 Roots may be divided into five groups: 
 
 (1) Names of parts of the body, with especial reference to 
 the human body ; roots referring to the human race generally. 
 
1922] Kurtz: Twelve Andamanese Songs 97 
 
 (2) Names of other natural animate or inanimate objects, 
 incapable of being converted into " adjectives" or " verbs." 
 
 (3) Roots which, being substantives, may be used as "adjec- 
 tives," or converted into "verbs" by suffixes. 
 
 (4) Pronouns. 
 
 (5) Postpositions, adverbs, conjunctions, exclamations, proper 
 names, honorific names, and particles. 
 
 In general, the prefixes particularize the meaning of the root 
 by relating it to some object or quality, and some of them have 
 a pronominal function. Thus the root eld, 8 which appears to 
 have the sense of "pouring water," may be modified as follows: 
 sib-ela, to wash another person 's body by pouring water upon it ; 
 ad-efo, to wash one 's own body by pouring water upon it ; akan- 
 ela, to fill one 's mouth with water ; 'en-ela, to tell another person 
 to fill something with water ; aian-efo, to fill the ears with water ; 
 ig-efo, to put a fire out by pouring water upon it; 6ng-ela, to 
 throw water with the hands, i.e., to splash ; 6t-ela, to throw away 
 (as to bale water out of a boat) . It is difficult to assign a precise 
 meaning to each prefix, for the Andamanese themselves have very 
 vague ideas on the subject. But ab- seems to refer to human 
 bodies and to be used of something done by one person to another ; 
 ad- refers to that which is done of one 's own accord ; akan- refers 
 to the mouth, to speech ; 'en- has the force of a pronominal dative ; 
 aian- refers to the ears or hearing; ong- or on-, to the hand or 
 foot ; 6t-, to round things, the head, etc. 
 
 With reference to roots in group (1) names of parts of the 
 body, etc. certain prefixes have a special function. The parts 
 of the human body are divided into several classes. Thus, one 
 class consists of head, brains, neck, heart, etc. ; another of hand, 
 wrist, knuckle, nail, foot, ankle, etc. For each of these classes 
 there is a special prefix : 6t- for the head-heart class, on- for the 
 hand-ankle class, and so on. But these prefixes do not modify 
 the meaning of the root ; they have a third-person pronominal 
 force, to signify which Portman prints before them the sign of 
 
 8 All examples are in Aka-Uea-da; tense suffixes are omitted in the 
 examples given above. 
 
98 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 11 
 
 the possessive case: thus, 'ot-longotd-da? means "his" or "her" 
 neck; 'on-kduro-da,, "his" or "her" hand. Unlike the ordinary 
 prefixes, these pronominal prefixes have singular and plural 
 forms, for they are really possessive pronouns in the third person 
 joined to the ordinary prefixes, and the pronouns alone of all 
 the roots have plural suffixes. Thus, "their necks" would be 
 'otot-longotd-da, ; "their hands," 'oiot-kduro-da. 
 
 Prefixes are not attached directly to the roots of group (2). 
 The name of a certain tree, for example, is &eZa-da; the word 
 for "bow," kdrama-da. But to a succeeding adjective or root 
 may be attached a prefix that bears upon the quality of the 
 previous root. Thus the word for "sponge," a root of group 
 (2), does not itself take a prefix, but an adjective following it, 
 say "soft," assumes the prefix 6t-, which is used with round 
 things, hence with "sponge." To roots of group (3) the ordi- 
 nary prefixes are added, and the original, or general, meanings 
 of the roots are modified thereby, as illustrated above. The roots 
 of group (4), i.e., the pronouns, may be prefixed to the prefixes 
 of other roots, and when this occurs the pronoun is abbreviated. 
 Thus, doZ-la, 10 "I," and dm-da, "my," become d' before a prefix 
 (d'ot, eTong, etc.; d'ot-longotd^da, "my neck"). The pronouns 
 take special forms for different tenses of the verb (see below, 
 song VIII, note 5). Roots in group (5) do not carry prefixes. 
 
 The primary function of the suffixes is grammatical. All 
 roots, for example, which carry the English functions of noun 
 or adjective take the suffix -da, when used alone, or at the end 
 of a compound word or the close of a sentence. The honorific 
 suffix is -la; the vocative, -la or -16. Other suffixes, signifying 
 time, are added to roots of group (3) when the latter are used 
 as verbs. Thus -re is used for the perfect tense, -ka for the 
 imperfect, -ke for the present or future, and -nga for the present 
 participle or verbal substantive. 
 
 The -da is the noun suffix. 
 
 1 -la, euphonic change for -da, the noun suffix. 
 
1922] Kurtz: Twelve Andamanese Songs 99 
 
 POKTMAN'S ALPHABET 
 
 a is short, as u in cut. 
 
 a is short, as a in fathom. 
 
 a is long, as a in father. 
 
 e is a very short e. 
 
 e is short, as e in bed. 
 
 e is long, as a in lame. 
 
 i is short, as i in lid. 
 
 i is long, as i in police. 
 
 o is short, as o in dog. 
 
 6 is a little longer, as o in indolent. 
 
 6 is long, as o in pole. 
 
 u is of medium length, as u in influence. 
 
 u is very long, as oo in pool. 
 
 ai is like i in bite. 
 
 ao is like ow in row. 
 
 au is like aw in awful. 
 
 61 is like oi in boil. 
 
 11 is like gn in gagner. 
 
 ng is like ng in ringer. 
 
 6 is like o in schon. 
 
 ch is like ch in child. 
 
 g is like g in gain. 
 
 Other consonants are sounded as in English. 
 
 Every letter is pronounced. Roots are printed in italics. A 
 line is placed under a syllable to show that the accent falls upon 
 it. In all words not so marked the stress should be placed upon 
 the first syllable. 
 
100 University of California Publi<xitions in Modern Philology [Vol. 11 
 
 TWELVE ANDAMANESE SONGS 
 
 AUKAU-/C7JFO/ 1 PIG-HUNT SONG NO. 1 
 
 When there is a scarcity of other food the Andamanese collect 
 cockles (Cyrena). The singer means to say that since there is 
 nothing else to eat today the villagers must pick up all the cockles 
 they can find. He also implies that he will go pig-hunting. Or 
 perhaps he speaks disdainfully: "Oh, go ahead, then, and pick 
 up your cockles. That fellow is mighty quick about getting them 
 home! But as for me, I shall go pig-hunting!" 
 
 It wiU ~be observed that the composer leaves much to the imagi- 
 nation of his audience and that in the poem no mention is made 
 of the real subject the pig-hunt. Such omissions are character- 
 istic of all these Andamanese songs, as has been explained above. 
 
 Solo: 
 
 Koi* 
 
 All right, 
 
 rad/c, 3 
 
 go, 
 
 taule-\& 
 
 cockles 
 
 not-6, 5 
 
 pick up, 
 
 not-6, 
 
 pick up, 
 
 
 Mdk, 
 
 tdule-le 
 
 not-6. 
 
 
 
 Go, 
 
 cockles 
 
 pick up. 
 
 
 A 
 
 e'-la 6 
 
 m'ra 7 
 
 karma 8 
 
 chowe-le a, 10 
 
 He 
 
 took 
 
 our 
 
 quickly 
 
 hut , he. 
 
 Kefrain 
 A 
 
 He 
 
 e'-la 
 
 took 
 
 m'ra 
 
 our 
 
 karma 
 
 quickly 
 
 chowe-le, 
 
 hut 
 
 a. 
 
 he. 
 
 Translation : 
 
 All right ! Go, cockles pick up, pick up, 
 
 Go, cockles pick up. 
 
 He took the cockles home quickly, he did. 
 He took the cockles home quickly, he did. 
 
1922] Kurtz: Twelve Andamanese Songs 101 
 
 1. A tribe dwelling in the southern half, mostly in the interior, of 
 Middle Andaman Island. Of the five related languages studied by Port- 
 man that of the Auktm-Juwoi stands apart. The meaning of the 
 name is obscure, but is said to be, "They cut patterns on their bows." 
 Aukau- is a prefix and may serve to signify that the action named in the 
 root is performed upon wood (of the bow); cf. aukau-cM, in which the 
 root chii means to burn and the prefix indicates the sort of article burnt, 
 viz., wood hence, ' ' ignite. ' ' Juwoi does not at all resemble the words 
 for "cut," "carve," "make," "bow," etc., and Portman does not give 
 an equivalent for ' ' pattern " or " design. ' ' The Andamanese have a 
 tradition that the various tribal names were assigned by a great chief, 
 Mala Tomol-la, when a deluge dispersed the ancestral race into the dif- 
 ferent territories now occupied by the tribes. 
 
 2. Koi, P, 11 come; more properly, go, go away; come is e4. Koi seems 
 here to be an imperative used with the force of the exclamatory koi 
 (="Very well; go! " spoken with a lift of the chin). I have ventured 
 to render it by our colloquial "All right!" 
 
 3. mdk, P, you; but male does not resemble the forms for pronouns of 
 the second person as given by P in his grammar and vocabulary. On 
 the other hand, mdk occurs as the root in expressions meaning abandon, 
 let go, "leave" go, release, unloose. Possibly, therefore, mdk may here 
 be an abbreviated form for "go," or "let him go" (the "him" of the 
 refrain?), and P, as he has certainly done elsewhere, may have here 
 preferred not to render an emphatic doubling of an idea ("Go!" in Koi 
 and mdk) because he finds the tautology objectionable. Instead, he has 
 inserted a "you" which does not appear in the original so far as I can see. 
 
 4. tdule-]e, Cyrena, or cockles. The -le is either a meaningless syllable 
 added for rhythm's sake, or, more probably, an abbreviation of the noun- 
 suffix -lekile, which is dropped within the sentence or "clause" except at 
 the end of a compound word (P, p. 84). Tattle may be a compound (cf. P, 
 p. 228). 
 
 5. -6 is, perhaps, a vocative suffix (cf. P, p. 36) ; but it should be noted 
 that the -6's at the end of the first and second lines are echoed by the 
 final a of the third line. 
 
 6. e-la, P, by. This, I believe, is a good sample of P's misleading 
 versions, e means "to take" (see P's vocabulary) and though P in his 
 interlinear translation places "by" under e-la, yet in his free translation 
 he inserts a verb "He took home the cockles quickly." The Andamanese 
 do not express agency by a preposition or an inflected form of the noun 
 or pronoun; hence P is careful to insert "by," but careless where he 
 inserts it. The suffix -la I cannot account for. It is not among the 
 perfect-tense, or imperfect-tense, suffixes. Is it an addition for the sake 
 of the rhythm? 
 
 P" designates Portman 's translation. 
 
102 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 11 
 
 7. m'ra, P, m Yd, we. Perhaps the better form is the possessive ' { our, ' ' 
 composed of m', an abbreviated form of the first person plural pronoun, 
 and the prefix ra-. The word is probably to be understood as meaning 
 "our place" or "hut," hence, "home,?' as P translates. 
 
 8. Tcarma, P, quickly, is probably a shortened form. In his vocabulary 
 P gives ra-jdra for "quickly." I can find no synonym for "quickly" 
 that resembles karma. 
 
 9. chowe-le, perhaps a shortened or otherwise changed form for chong- 
 lekile (cliong, hut; -lekile, noun suffix). 
 
 10. a, he, coming at the end of a sentence, would naturally have the 
 noun suffix -lekile; the latter has probably been dropped for the sake of 
 rhythm. The force of the "he" at the end of the sentence reminds us 
 of our colloquial ' ' He went home, he did. ' ' 
 
 II 
 
 AUKAU-/E/TF07 PIG-HUNT SONG, NO. 2. 
 
 This song explains why a hunter has returned without any 
 wild pig. The singer, in simple ~but vivid make-believe, assumes 
 that he is still out hunting, and he complains, ~by way of excusing 
 his failure and exciting the sympathy of his audience, that the 
 beetles and cicadas are making such a noise in the jungle that his 
 ears are buzzing and he cannot hear the sound of the pigs. 
 
 Solo: 
 
 Lelmo-le 1 t'ebe 2 -t'r&-t'rdpo, 3 
 
 Lelmo beetles my -much- rough, 
 
 Jirmdu-le* 'ebe-t'ra-Vapo-a, 5 
 
 Cicadas my -much- rough- O, 
 
 6 K-a. 7 
 
 My -much- rough- O, buzzing-O. 
 
 Refrain : 
 
 T 'ebe-t 'ra-f 'rdpo-i, K-a. 
 
 My -much- rough-O, buzzing-O. 
 
 Translation : 
 
 By beetles my ears are rasped, 
 By cicadas my ears are rasped 0. 
 My ears are rasped and buzzing 0. 
 My ears are rasped and buzzing 0. 
 
1922] Kurtz: Twelve Andamanese Songs 103 
 
 1. For -le see above, I, note 4. Lelmo (possibly a compound?) is the 
 name for a kind of beetle. 
 
 2. t'ebe, P, me. The form is a combination of the "simple" pronoun 
 of the first person singular, M-le, with the prefix ebe-, t' being the ab- 
 breviated form of the pronoun used before prefixes. This combination 
 has the force of the possessive pronoun of the first person, and therefore, 
 I would suggest, probably has the force of ' ' my ears, " as I have indicated 
 in the free translation. For the form see P, pp. 35, 37, 60, 61, 66, 389. 
 
 3. t 'ebe-t 'ra-* 'rdpo, P, me-deafen. A compound word or phrase: t'ebe-, 
 as just explained, my (ears); t'ra-, a conjunctional modifying infix (P, 
 p. 84); t'rapo, probably related to t'rdpe, rough, as of bark (P, p. 135). 
 I venture to suggest, therefore, that the literal sense of the compound is, 
 My (ears) rough, i.e., beetles (by) my (ears) rough (are) whence P's 
 "Me-deafen." It may be suggested that t'ra- is a case of emphatic 
 duplication of the first syllable of t'rapo, but if P had so understood it 
 he would have printed it in italics, as a root. On the other hand, the 
 infix t'ra- may give the force of "much," as it does, according to P, 
 in the form auko-t'ra-fcer (leer, root, "to glitter"; prefixes with force of 
 "much"; hence, to blaze; see P, p. 209). The infix consists of the prefix 
 ra- preceded by a t' that P believes to be euphonic rather than pronominal 
 (see P, pp. 35, 81, 83, 84). 
 
 4. For -le see above, I, note 4. 
 
 5. -a, printed by P as a sufiix; but of the suffixes listed by P (pp. 35, 
 36) the form nearest to -a is -nga, a verbal-substantive suffix which does 
 not appear, except by borrowing (?), in Aukan-Juwm (cf. below, IV, 
 note 4). It should be remarked that both here and in the U-a of the next 
 line a verbal substantive would be appropriate. On the other hand, the 
 -a may be an addition for rhythm's sake. Certainly the identical sound 
 at the end of both lines gives a musical effect, a special "lift" to the 
 lines. I have ventured to copy this vocal effect with a ballad " O. " 
 
 6. -i, which is printed as a suffix, I cannot find in P's list of suffixes. Is 
 it a meaningless vocable, inserted for some rhythmical purpose? 
 
 7. U-a. P says (p. 170) that this U is a poetic abbreviation (license) 
 of niU, a ringing in the head, or a singing in the ears. The full form 
 given in the vocabulary, aukau-nili-lekile (prefix referring to the head + 
 root + noun suffix), does not resemble the root meaning to sing. Is nili 
 onomatopoetic? Would "buzzing" be an adequate translation? 
 
104 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 11 
 
 III 
 
 AUKAU-JC7TTO/ PIG-HUNT SONG, NO. 3. 
 
 Again a hunter explains why he has not brought home any 
 pigs. As in the second song, the soloist speaks in a sort of make- 
 believe historical present. He wishes it to be understood that 
 several people have died in this place where he is hunting and 
 that therefore there are no pigs. Moreover, his head is aching so 
 badly that he is unable to go farther. 
 
 Andamanese hunters have an engaging joke which they play 
 over and over again to the ever undiminished joy of their fellows. 
 Upon returning from an excursion the hunter assumes a mourn- 
 ful, disappointed air to make the village believe he has had no 
 success. But after a little while he casually remarks to several 
 youngsters that in such and such a part of the jungle they may 
 find something of interest. The boys race to the spot, fi,nd th& 
 dead pigs, and bring them home, to the huge delight of the crowd. 
 It may be that both this and the previous song are intended to 
 recall this popular play; the next, No. IV, almost certainly is. 
 
 Solo: 
 
 Lad 1 tau 2 l'aukau-p 'rok* chit* aulo, 5 
 
 Dead-men bones the same as hunting after (?) , 
 
 Eche-tf 'autau- du Q 1 'aukau-^e jd, 7 6, 8 
 
 My head . throbbing, O, 
 
 lu rauksin-nejd, Q o-le, 10 '6- 11 
 
 My head throbbing. he, his- 
 
 ra'rcm-ka. 12 
 
 poundings-do. 
 
 Refrain : 
 
 -Nejd 13 6-le, '6-m'rdu-ka. 
 
 Throbbing he, his-poundings-do. 
 
1922] Kurtz: Twelve Andamanese Songs 105 
 
 x 
 
 Translation : 
 
 Dead-men r s bones where I am hunting ! 
 My head is throbbing 0, 
 My head is throbbing, it is, pounding away. 
 Throbbing it is, pounding away. 
 
 1. Lao, properly, means Indian, i.e., Hindu (see P, pp. 286, 369, and 
 Vocabulary). P notes (pp. 198, 286) that the corresponding Aka-2?ea-da 
 word, Chdoga, signifies a dead person or ghost, and that the Andamanese 
 long ago applied this term to the Hindus who visited their shores, for they 
 thought the pale-faced Hindus were the spirits of Andamanese dead 
 coming back for a visit. Evidently the meanings and beliefs attaching 
 to Chdoga pertain also to the Aukau-Juwm word, Lad. Hence the trans- 
 lation 1 1 dead-men, ' ' which is P J s. P reports the superstition that ' ' when 
 a death occurs in a place, and a corpse is given platform burial there, 
 no pigs will be found in the vicinity for some time afterwards" (p. 171). 
 
 2. tau, bone, bones, skull; cf. tdule, cockles (above, I, 1. 1), i.e., the 
 bones (shell) of the cockle. The possessive would be expressed by a 
 pronominal prefix ( their bones) that the composer has not seen fit to 
 include. Perhaps the next word, the-same-as, takes the place of a pos- 
 sessive. At any rate one is reminded that in pidgin English the phrase 
 would be rendered ' ' Bones alle same dead-men, ' ' instead of ' ' dead-men 's 
 bones." 
 
 3. 1 'aukau-p 'role, the same as, similar, together; 1 J is probably euphonic, 
 to prevent the aii of the previous word from struggling with the au of 
 this compound. Aukau is a prefix modifying the meaning of the root; it 
 refers most commonly to the teeth, the mouth, pointed things, trees, 
 wooden things (cf. above, I, note 1). Here the reference appears to be 
 to the bones. 
 
 4. chit. In his interlinear translation P prints "will" under chit and 
 "hunt" under aiilo. In another place (p. 196) he says that chit means 
 "hunting." It certainly does not mean "will." Presumably the word 
 is a verbal substantive with "I" understood: I hunting. The whole line 
 seems to be an example of the disjunctive and elliptical method of speech 
 characteristic of the simpler peoples; "dead men, bones, the same as, 
 hunting, ' ' for ' l dead-men 's bones are where I am hunting. ' ' For another 
 interpretation see below. 
 
 5. aiilo, cf. above, note 4. The future tense of chit suggested by P's 
 "will hunt" might be expressed by a root with a future suffix, but dulo 
 is a root, not a suffix. In his free translation P discards the "will hunt" 
 both as a phrase and an idea. The difficulty is made still greater by the 
 fact that dulo does not appear in P's vocabulary of the Aukau-Jwwot. It 
 may possibly be borrowed from the Aka-#ea-da, in which it signifies 
 "after" (P, p. 193). Might "hunting after" be the meaning? And 
 
106 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 11 
 
 does the singer mean to say that there are dead-men 's bones where he is 
 hunting after pig, or that hunting here is like hunting after dead-men's 
 bones? I have preferred the former interpretation, which is supported, 
 moreover, by P's free "version" of the line: "Several people have died 
 in this place and therefore there are no pigs. ' ' 
 
 6. che-t 'auta.u-tdu : eche-, possessive prefix singular, my; i'autau-, 
 combined form of the simple pronoun of the first person (tu, I) and the 
 prefix autau-, giving again the sense of "my," but also including, in 
 autau-, a special limitation of the root tdu (bone) to the head hence 
 ' ' my head-bone, ' ' or, simply, ' ' my head. ' ' 
 
 7. 1 'aukau-TKya, P, pain. 1' is probably euphonic; cf. above, note 3, 
 and observe here the sequence of five au sounds. Throughout the song, 
 indeed, this expressive au repeats itself like the throb of aching nerves 
 (the Aka-5eo-da root for "throb" is duna), or, perhaps, like cries of pain. 
 Reading the lines aloud almost gives one a headache. What would be the 
 effect if one were to hear the Andamanese chorus! Aiikau- is a prefix, 
 presumably modifying the root. Nejd may be a poetic license for ngeche, 
 to throb. P prints this compound and the following 6 as a separate line, 
 but the division here adopted seems preferable as better suiting the sense 
 and more clearly following the parallelism. 
 
 8. 6 is not translated by P; it may be a meaningless vocable, similar 
 to the ballad " O. ' ' 
 
 9. With this second nejd P begins a new line, thereby distorting the 
 obvious construction of the song. 
 
 10. o-le. P 's interlinear translation is so arranged that he seems to 
 translate o-le, "is"; but I am sure that he means only to insert an "is" 
 after nejd to make the Sense clear ' ' pain is. ' ' In the vocabulary P 
 gives <5-le as " he. " " Head palpitating he " is surely a clear and emphatic 
 way of saying that one 's head is throbbing. 
 
 11. '6-. Portman does not translate this troublesome monosyllable, 
 but the fact that he prints a smooth breathing before the vowel indicates 
 that he regards the form as a prefix with the force of a third-person 
 possessive pronoun (see P, pp. 42, 43). But as a prefix it should be joined 
 with some root. I have ventured, therefore, to join it with the following 
 root, though I think it more likely that it should have been printed 6 
 a duplication, merely, of the 6 in the previous line (cf. note 8). The 
 syllable seems necessary to the rhythm of the line. 
 
 12. mVaii-ka, P, throbs. I have substituted "poundings" because I 
 have used "throb" for nejd. -Ka is probably a present-tense verbal 
 suffix, as though we should make a verb out of the noun "throbs," or 
 "poundings," by adding "do." 
 
 13. Observe that the refrain commences at the juncture of a prefix 
 and a root an indication of the superiority of rhythm to meaning. 
 
1922] 
 
 Kurtz: Twelve Andamanese Songs 
 
 107 
 
 IV 
 
 AUKAU-JC/JFO/ PIG-HUNT SONG, NO. 4. 
 
 Of this song Portman writes: "I was told that the soloist 
 intended his audience to infer that he had gone back to the village 
 and that the people there thought he had not got a pig ; in reality 
 he had shot one, and had left it in the jungle a little distance off" 
 (cf. introduction to No. Ill, above}. Portman' s free translation, 
 in which he aims to explain the meaning of the song rather than 
 to present a faithful version, is as follows: "I saw a pig and it 
 did not see me; so I' drew back the lower part of my bow that it 
 should not see it. I crept close to the pig, silently, on tiptoe." 
 
 Solo: 
 
 Kok 
 
 Bow 
 
 Kok 
 
 Bow 
 
 its -tying part 
 
 fra-chatim-a,* 
 
 its -tying part. 
 
 ra-Zo^-e, 3 
 
 drew back, 
 
 Poi 5 tote 6 
 
 Stooping softly 
 
 Refrain : 
 
 Poi tote 
 
 Stooping softly 
 
 abe 7 -Zi-a. 8 
 
 creeping. 
 
 abe-Zi-a. 
 
 creeping. 
 
 Translation : 
 
 My bow, its lower part, I drew back, 
 My bow, its lower part ; 
 Stooping, softly creeping. 
 Stooping, softly creeping. 
 
 1. f'ra-, P, its. Is not Tra- a printer's mistake for t'ra-? The former 
 is composed of the prefix ra- and the abbreviated form t' of the pronoun 
 tu, "I," and has the force of "my." It is difficult to understand how 
 
108 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 11 
 
 the first person possessive pronoun fits the context. But t 'ra- is a form 
 assumed by the prefix ra- within the sentence or in a compound word, 
 the t' probably being euphonic and not pronominal. In addition to its 
 root-modifying function this form of the prefix carries a meaning for the 
 Andamanese mind that may be loosely represented for the English mind 
 by the impersonal possessive l ' its. ' ' This interpretation, at any rate, 
 explains P's translation given at the head of this note. 
 
 2. chaume, P, lower part. I cannot find this word, but in some of the 
 Andamanese dialects chau means "to tie" (cf. chaurog, to tie up; chdnbe- 
 lekile, a netted bag). Chaume, then, may very likely refer to that end 
 of the bow about which the string is tied; hence P's version, "lower 
 part. 7 ' On chaume as a verbal substantive see below, note 4. 
 
 3. ra-Wtf-e", P, pulled back. The prefix ra-, used also with chaume, 
 modifies the meaning of the root, probably by limiting it to some associ- 
 ation with a tree (see P, p. 388) ; cf. the wooden bow. Lot is the root, 
 meaning to extract, recover, uproot, etc., and so modified by the prefix, I 
 presume, as to mean, to pull back. Of the equivalent root in Aka-Bea-cla 
 P notes that "pulling" and "recovering" are associated in the Andama- 
 nese mind because the first idea of recovering a thing that has been taken 
 away by force is to pull it back again. The suffix -e is perhaps a poetic 
 abbreviation of the imperfect-tense suffix -chike, but I am not at all sure 
 of this. 
 
 4. -a. Is this suffix the equivalent of the Aka-Beo-da verbal-substantive 
 suffix -nga? It seems to be, if we may judge from the fact that P gives 
 the Aukau-JwwOT aun-s, as the equivalent of the Aka-Bea-da ow/o-nga, to 
 be able (p. 372). The verbal substantive "tying part" is appropriate 
 to the context. May not chaume in the previous line be a mistake for 
 cUdum-at P notes that in Aukau-Juwdi e and a appear to be interchange- 
 able (p. 30). If, on the other hand, -a were a meaningless vocable I 
 should not expect it to be printed as a suffix. 
 
 5. Poi, P, on tiptoe. In the vocabulary poi is rendered, to drink. 
 Perhaps the same word conveys the meaning of stooping (as to drink) ? 
 P's "tiptoe" is Tam-locJiolc in the vocabulary. 
 
 6. tote, quietly, slowly, softly, gently. 
 
 7. abe- is strange. Should the reading be ebe-, or ab-, both of which 
 are common prefixes, the second relating to the human body (cf. creeping) ? 
 Or is abe- a case of poetic license? 
 
 8. 7-t-a, P, I crept. In the vocabulary U is given as, to descend. Pre- 
 sumably the prefix abe- modifies the root so that it means, to creep. For 
 -a as a verbal-substantive suffix (hence, "creeping"), see above, note 4. 
 
1922] Kurtz: Twelve Andamanese Songs 109 
 
 AKAR-BALE 1 TURTLE-HUNT SONG, NO. 1. 
 As in the pig-hunt songs the pig was not mentioned, so in 
 this song about spearing turtles the word turtle does not occur. 
 According to Portman, the soloist means to say that he took his 
 canoe to a reef where the turtles come to feed and that the man 
 who poled the canoe for him pushed it along very slowly and 
 gently. 
 
 Solo: 
 
 Log, 2 I'&r-choarya* dlnye* d'idi-dut* 
 
 Right place, his-breakers, therefore I-stop, 
 
 Log, I'&Y-chodryo;* 
 
 Right place, his-breakers; 
 
 6ng 7 d'en 8 Siut-~bodng-d6oato-re. 9 
 
 He for me hole-pushed. 
 
 Refrain : 
 
 6ng d'en. aut-bodng-dooato-re. 
 
 He for me hole-pushed. 
 
 Translation: 
 
 This is the right place, these are his breakers ; therefore I 
 
 stop. 
 
 This is the right place, these are his breakers. 
 He poled for me slowly. 
 He poled for me slowly. 
 
 1. A tribe inhabiting the coasts of the Archipelago Islands, northeast 
 of South Andaman Island. The Akar-BdZe were subdivided into the 
 Northern and Southern Archipelago tribes, who spoke different dialects, 
 the division being between Havelock and Lawrence islands. But the 
 Southern sept is extinct. The dialect of the Northern sept is closely 
 allied to the Aka%Bea-da language. The meaning of the tribal name is 
 
110 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 11 
 
 said to be, "On the opposite side of the sea." The root Bale or Bdla 
 means "the land on that side," or "the land over there"; in other 
 words, from the point of view of the mainland of the Great Andaman, 
 on the other side of the sea (P, p. 205). Cf. the conjectural derivation of 
 Hebrew. 
 
 2. Log, P, the way. Ar-log-da (prefix modifying the root + root -f- 
 noun-suffix) means, the proper place for anything. The reef, evidently, 
 is the proper place for finding turtles. The composer has omitted the 
 prefix. 
 
 3. I'ar-chodrya, P, his-the sea. The prefix is composed of T, a reg- 
 ular pronominal abbreviation, and the modifying prefix ar-, and in 
 English has the force of "his" or "its," i.e., "his (the turtle's) chodrya." 
 Choar (char in Aka -Sea-da) is a root signifying "running water," and 
 its meaning is modified by prefixes. Thus, in Aka-Bea-da, ar-cMr-da means 
 the head of a salt-water creek; aka-cftdr-da, a waterfall or rapid (see P, 
 p. 378). Our form, ar-choar, is used for a waterfall and here probably 
 refers to the water falling over the reef (breakers?) where the turtle 
 feeds. The ya is perhaps an extra syllable (like the yo in the next line), 
 added for rhythm's sake. 
 
 4. alnye, P, on this account. I do not find the word in P 's vocabulary. 
 For "consequently" he gives an Mchune, of which this may be a poetic 
 contraction. A word of similar sound is the Aukau-Juwoi leTcolnye, ( ' also, ' ' 
 which in the Puchikwdr language becomes Wlnye. In the disjunctive 
 tongue of the Andamanese ' ' also ' ' easily carries the force of ' ' therefore ' ' : 
 "his place also (i.e., therefore) I stop." 
 
 5. d'idi-dut, P, I stop. The prefix is composed of d', a usual abbre- 
 viation of dol f "I," and the modifying prefix idi- (see P, pp. 60, 61, 67). 
 The root dut I find in P 's vocabulary as the equivalent not of ' ' stop, ' ' 
 but of "to peck," "to pierce (as with an arrow)," "to prick," "to 
 harpoon." It seems to have a plural connotation, as "to pierce with 
 many arrows" (P, p. 319). Presumably the meaning here has to do with 
 the spearing of the turtle, or, possibly, the stopping (cf. P's version) to 
 spear him. The prefix idi- probably determines the exact meaning. 
 
 6. yo, see above, note 3. 
 
 7. 6ng, he; the form of the pronoun used with a verb (P, p. 63). 
 
 8. d'en: d', the abbreviation for dol, "I," when it occurs before pre- 
 fixes; en-, prefix. The form has the force of "my," "for me." 
 
 9. aut-bodng-dooato-Te, P, went very slowly. This is a difficult case 
 of agglutination. The prefix aut- is used of round things, the head, a 
 hole (?), says P (pp. 35, 388). The first root, bodng, signifies a hole, as 
 a hole in the ground (cf. 'aka-bodng, mouth; 'ar-bodng, anus). Bodng 
 means, also, to make a hole in the earth, to dig up (see P, pp. 6, 38, 40, 
 42, and 76 of the vocabulary, and 280 of the text). Possibly the literal 
 
1922 J . Kurtz: Twelve Andamanese Songs 111 
 
 sense of the passage is that the helper pushed (dooato) holes in the bottom 
 of the lagoon, i.e., poled the canoe. P, indeed, uses the word poling in his 
 free translation. But where does he get his "very slowly"? Are we 
 to understand some reference to poling as a slow process, or to pushing 
 deep into the mud and so going slowly? The root dooato appears to be 
 related to id-uddoto, to push. "This meaning is not affected by the 
 addition of prefixes, which merely indicate the part of the human body, 
 or the articles, pushed " (P, p. 325): thus, 'ot-tidaoti, to push a person 
 from the back of his neck; aka-wdadti, to push a person backwards by 
 placing one's hand on his chest (P, p. 345). If dooato is for udaoti, as 
 seems probable, it must mean either ' ' push ' ' or some way of pushing 
 perhaps gently. Or, as suggested above, does the compound as a whole 
 equal our word poled? or, "he poled for me slowly"? I have adopted 
 the last suggestion because it combines P's version and some of the points 
 raised above. The suffix -re, in Aka-Sea-da at least, is the suffix for the 
 perfect tense. 
 
 VI 
 AKAR-BALE TURTLE-HUNT SONG, NO. 2. 
 
 Beginning at the age of eleven, twelve, or thirteen, Andam- 
 anese youths abstain from certain kinds of food for periods 
 varying from one to five years. This fasting seems to be a test 
 of endurance and self-control, and affords evidence of fitness to 
 rear a family. One of the fwbidden foods is turtle, a great deli- 
 cacy among the Andamanese. At a special turtle-eating cere- 
 mony, which seems to correspond to the ceremony of initiation 
 into manhood among other savage peoples, this fast is broken. 
 Young men who have lately gone through the ceremony wear 
 bunches of Baurowa leaves in their belts, and the Andamanese 
 believe that turtles, ashamed to come near these leaves, hide from 
 people who are wearing them. 
 
 The composer of the following song, says Portman, wishes to 
 blame his ill luck in hunting for turtle upon two young men, Keti 
 and I rap, who were with him and who were wearing the leaves 
 that are peculiarly offensive to turtle modesty. But he concludes 
 with a promise to fetch a turtle. 
 
112 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 11 
 
 Solo: 
 
 Keti, rar-bdurowd-le, 1 d'iji-jodbgo-16 2 tik* 
 
 Keti, his-baurowa leaves-from my - turtle shame 
 
 -Vomo? 
 
 -brought ; 
 
 trap, l'ar-bdurowd-le d'ij' 5 -6t Q -jodbjo-lo 
 
 Irap, his-baurowa leaves-from, my -that (?) -turtle 
 
 tik-l 'omo-a, 7 
 
 shame-brought, 
 
 L'omd; 8 ~bdurowd-le d'iji-jodbgo mare, 9 
 
 Brought; baurowa leaves-from, my - turtle hid, 
 
 Baurowd-U d'ij'-6 w -jodbgo;^ Ude 12 omo-i. 13 
 
 Baurowa leaves-from my-that(?) -turtle; saw bring. 
 
 Refrain : 
 
 Jodbgo bade 6m6-i. 
 
 turtle saw bring. 
 
 Translation : 
 
 Keti, at his Baurowa leaves my turtle felt shame ; 
 
 Irap, at his Baurowa leaves that turtle of mine felt 
 
 shame 
 
 Felt it ; from the Baurowa leaves my turtle hid 
 From the Baurowa leaves, that turtle of mine; I saw, I 
 
 bring, 
 A turtle I saw, I bring. 
 
 1. l'a,r-~baurowd-le, P, his-Baurowa leaves-by. For the prefix Par- see 
 above, V, note 3. The le at the end of the compound is a postposition 
 (the Andamanese have no prepositions) meaning, from, after; here it 
 indicates the source of the shame. 
 
 2. d 'iji- joabgo-lo. The prefix consists of d', the abbreviated form of 
 dol, "I," and iji-, a prefix that has possessive force when it is used with 
 roots in group (1); hence the translation, "my." The suffix -16 is difficult. 
 There is a vocative suffix of this form. It is used, however, only when 
 an animate object is called or addressed, and here the singer seems neither 
 to call nor address his turtle. 
 
 3. tik, for ot-teke, shame. The root tek means ' ' shame, ' ' and appears 
 to take only the prefix 6t-, which the poet has seen fit to omit. ' ' The 
 
1922] Kurtz: Twelve Andamanese Songs 113 
 
 Andamanese have very decided views on the subject of shame and 
 modesty, though they differ somewhat from Europeans in their meanings 
 of these words" (P, p. 342). 
 
 4. 1'omo. The T is probably euphonic. The root omo, to bring, is 
 used with inanimate objects. The form tik-l'omo is a poetic license for 
 some such compound as 6t-f efc-1 'omd-nga, the suffix -nga signifying past 
 time. The Andamanese say that the turtle brought shame from the leaves; 
 in English we should say that the turtle felt shame in the presence of the 
 leaves. The former seems more vivid. 
 
 5. d 'ij '. The final i of the prefix iji- is omitted, for euphony, before 
 an initial vowel. This is the rule in both speaking and singing (P, pp. 
 176-177). 
 
 6. 6t-, a prefix, possibly with the force of "that" (P, p. 388). Note 
 the emphatic effect of this variation (see the free translation). 
 
 7. a, probably an abbreviation of -nga, perfect-tense suffix. Cf. above, 
 note 4. 
 
 8. L 'omo. ' ' Certain phrases are repeated in the solo, sense being 
 again sacrificed to sound" (P, p. 176). But that the repetition is not 
 without force is evident, I think, in the free translation. 
 
 9. mare takes the prefix ig- in Aka-.Bea-da (Akar-BdJe, id-) ; mare is 
 poetic license for some such form as id-mdre-nga. 
 
 10. 6-, probably for the 6t- of the second line; see above, note 6. 
 
 11. jodbgo. With this root P begins a new verse, evidently to corre- 
 spond with the refrain. But this device breaks the sequence. 
 
 12. bade, to see. "A euphonic alteration from bddig" (P, p. 176); 
 but in his vocabulary P gives bddig as the Aka-I?ea-da form of the Akar- 
 Bdle bddi. Bddi takes the prefix id-; "I saw" would be d 'id-feddf-nga, 
 of which bade may be considered a poetic abbreviation. 
 
 13. 6mo-i. Is the suffix a substitute for the future suffix -ke? The 
 complete form for "I will bring" would be something of this sort: 
 d' + prefix -Pdmd-ke. 
 
 14. Note that, as in III above, the refrain begins in the middle of a 
 compound, at a junction of a prefix and a root. Thus meaning is sacri- 
 ficed to rhythm, says P; but some sense does creep into the refrain, for 
 there seems to be here a promise of a turtle, after all! 
 
114 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 11 
 
 VII 
 
 TUETLE-HUNT SONG, NO. 3 
 
 "This song refers to an occasion when the composer and a 
 friend of his, named Irap, went out together to catch turtle. In 
 the solo the composer states that Irap helped to pull his canoe in 
 order to catch turtle and thus get something to eat ; in the refrain 
 the composer tells the villagers that Irap helped to pull his canoe 
 in order to catch some turtle and thus give them something to 
 eat, the doing so being a meritorious action on Irap's part. No 
 sarcasm is intended. It is understood that the composer stood 
 in the bow of the canoe in order to spear the turtle, the- post of 
 honour, while Irap was pulling for him. I do not consider this 
 song to be pure Akar-Bdle, though the Andamanese insist that it 
 is; it appears to be mixed with Aka-Bea-da" (rearranged from 
 P, pp. 177-178). That the word turtle does not appear in the 
 song is, as we have seen, characteristic. 
 
 Solo: 
 
 eb*-rdukdu Q -li' 
 
 Irap-master his -stomach-for 
 
 for me 
 
 
 gomal 8 -l6, Q 
 
 paddled, 
 
 
 D'en 
 
 For me 
 
 eb-rdukdu-li 
 
 canoe 
 
 gomal-16 ; 
 
 paddled. 
 
 trap 
 
 Irap 
 
 ng'ad w -jodo-leb 
 
 your -stomachs-for 
 
 gomal-16. 
 
 paddled. 
 
 ng'ad-jodo-leb 
 
 your -stomachs-for 
 
 gomal-16. 
 
 paddled. 
 
 Kefrain 
 trap 
 
 Irap 
 
 Translation : 
 
 Master Irap for his stomach's sake paddled the canoe for 
 me 0, 
 
 Paddled the canoe for me ; 
 Irap for your stomachs' sake paddled 0. 
 Irap for your stomachs' sake paddled 0. 
 
1922] Kurtz: Twelve Andamanese Songs 115 
 
 1. -le, honorific suffix, which I have rendered by " master." The 
 honorific suffix is added only to the proper names of the Andamanese and 
 is used in all parts of the sentence (P, pp. 36, 84). In the refrain, how- 
 ever, the composer has omitted it, presumably to suit the rhythm. It is 
 an interesting, and possibly significant, fact that if the first line is scanned 
 as iambic the ictus falls on the important syllables, and that in the refrain 
 as it stands the same is true, but would not be true if the honoric suffix 
 were added. 
 
 2. 'ad-, possessive prefix with jodo, a root of group (1); also spoken 
 'ab- (P, pp. 39, 43). 
 
 3. leb, a postposition (cf. above, VI, note 1). 
 
 4. d'en. Cf. above, V, note 8. 
 
 5. eb-. The force of this prefix I do not understand. It does not 
 seem to be required in order to make the following root mean "canoe." 
 If P had printed it 'eb, according to his system of signs it would mean 
 "his," and then Irap would be pulling his own canoe instead of the 
 composer's. But P states clearly that the canoe belonged to the com- 
 poser. Either P has made a mistake or eb- has some entirely different 
 force, which P should have explained. 
 
 6. raiikau, canoe, for roko. In Aka.-Bea-da, and, I presume, in the 
 closely related Akar-#dfe, 5 and au are interchangeable. Boko-da, (-da is 
 the noun-suffix in Aka-B<?a-da and Akar-Bdle, but it is generally omitted 
 in the latter) is the generic term for "canoe." A particular canoe may 
 be called by the name of the tree from which it is made (P, p. 216). 
 
 7. -li. I do not know whether this is a meaningless syllable inserted 
 to satisfy the rhythm, which is probable, or a poetic license for a noun- 
 suffix at the end of a compound word. If the latter, the form has been 
 ' ' made up ' ' not from the Akar-Bdle suffix, -da, but from a form used by 
 some other tribe. 
 
 8. gomal, P, pulled. The form given in the vocabulary is gomalo, to 
 bend, hence to paddle; or, perhaps, "paddle" is the primary sense. "The 
 root gomal in Akar-Bdle also has the meaning of paddling all together, 
 referring to the action of the people in the canoe" (P, p. 207). 
 
 9. -16. This is not a perfect-tense suffix, for in words that, like this, 
 are common to Akar-Bdle and Aka-Bea-da, the perfect suffix is -nga. It 
 is possible that -16 is an extra, rhythmical syllable. At any rate, the 
 vocal effect of every line ending in -16 is so striking that in the free 
 translation I have copied it by inserting a ballad "O." 
 
 10. ng'ad-, your: ng', the abbreviated form of ngdulo (second person 
 plural pronoun, "you") before prefixes; 'ad, see above, note 2. The 
 plural pronoun makes jodo plural, ' ' stomachs. ' ' 
 
116 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 11 
 
 VIII 
 
 A.~KA-BEA-VAi SONG, NO. 1 
 
 The composer refers to an occasion when a dugong 2 which he 
 had harpooned, towed his canoe out into deep water, or the open 
 sea, with great violence. With many exclamations he describes 
 how the fish thrashed back and forth so that its belly could be 
 seen, and how the harpoon line twanged as the animal dragged 
 him back with a rush. The adult dugong is about nine feet long 
 and is very powerful. It can tow a canoe for miles into the open 
 sea. To catch one is considered a great feat by the Andamanese, 
 and evidently the manner and excitement of the chase are so 
 peculiar and striking that there is no need to mention the animal 
 by name when one tells or sings of such a feat. 
 
 Solo: 
 
 Kaka! 3 ili-lom* a 5 d'ik, Q ng'a,d-jodo~ 
 
 Whew.! very deep-in he me took, your-belly 
 
 gedli-kz* 
 
 kept turning, 
 
 Mobd! 9 ng'^-jodo gedli-ka,. 
 
 Wow! your-belly kept turning. 
 
 Bd! w Ran! 11 eld 12 d'ik grom-l6-i. lz 
 
 Ha! Twang! back me took with great force. 
 
 Refrain : 
 
 Bd! Ran! eld d'ik grom-16-i. 
 
 Ha! Twang! back me took with great force. 
 
 Translation : 
 
 Whew ! Out to sea he dragged me ! Your belly kept 
 turning ! 
 
 Wow ! Your belly kept turning ! 
 Ha ! Twang ! Back he dragged me with a rush ! 
 Ha! Twang! Back he dragged me with a rush 0! 
 
1922] Kurtz: Twelve Andamanese Songs 117 
 
 1. A tribe, subdivided into seven septs, inhabiting the coast of Rut- 
 land Island; the coast and part of the interior of the South Andaman, 
 and certain small adjacent islands; and part of the west coast of the 
 Middle Andaman. The dialects of the septs vary and the southern septs 
 know little of the northern. The meaning of the tribal name is obscure, 
 but it is said to be ' ' fresh water. ' ' The modern word for fresh water, 
 however, is Om-da. -Da is the noun-suffix. P observes that in composing 
 songs the Aka--5ea-da seem to alter usual forms more than any of the 
 other Andamanese tribes. 
 
 2. The dugong, sea-cow, or HaUcore dugong, is a large, aquatic, her- 
 bivorous mammal of the order Sirenia. It has a " tapering, fish -like body 
 ending in flukes like a whale's, with two fore flippers and no hind limbs." 
 This and the manatee are the best known Sirenians. It has been sug- 
 gested, because of their shape, that they gave rise to the myth of the 
 mermaid. 
 
 3. Kaka, for kaka-te, an exclamation "expressing surprise at the 
 occurrence of some unexpected event" (P, p. 94). As an equivalent I 
 suggest "Whew." 
 
 4. ili-lom, P, very deep water-in. The first root I cannot find in P 7 s 
 vocabulary, which for "deep," as well as for "very" and "much," 
 gives the general root doga, big. Hi may be a poetic license for some 
 complex form (cf. the Puchikwdr expression, He oei, how much), or it may 
 involve some metaphor for the open sea ("sea" is juru). The second 
 root, 16m, is a rare form of the postposition len, in. 
 
 5. A, he. The third person singular personal pronoun, masculine and 
 feminine, is oMa (-la for -da, the 1 being euphonic), but when a pronoun 
 is used with a verb its form changes with the tenses of the verb. With 
 present and future tenses da is used for "he," a is the form for the 
 perfect tense, and 6da for the imperfect (P, pp. 62-63). 
 
 6. d'ik, me took: d', euphonic abbreviation of da' ("I"; the same 
 form being used when we should turn to the accusative "me"), the form 
 the first person singular pronoun takes with a verb in the perfect tense 
 (the form for the present and future tenses is do, for the imperfect tense, 
 dona} ; ?A-, to take away. The suffix for the perfect tense, -re, has been 
 omitted by poetic license. 
 
 7. ng'&d-jodo, your belly. The sudden change to the second person is 
 vivid, ncf' is the abbreviated form that nge, your, takes before a prefix. 
 The prefix here is 'ad (= J ab), the correct prefix for jodo as a root of 
 group (1). 
 
 8. gedli-ka, P, turned; but the suffix -ka signifies an imperfect tense, 
 and ' ' kept turning ' ' is far more vivid. 
 
 9. 16bd. Presumably an explanation parallel to Mkd, but P inserts 
 an exclamation point after the latter only. Elood resembles the Aukau- 
 Juwm exclamation alo-bai, which is the equivalent, moreover, of kaka. 
 
118 University of California Publications in Modern PMlology [Vol. 11 
 
 P does not translate eloba, but he translates the Bd of the refrain, ' ' Why ! ' ' 
 Is bd a shortened form of eloba? At any rate, I have carried out the 
 parallelism by inserting a prolific Wow! But I ^hould not neglect to 
 observe that in his free translation of the second line P stresses a 
 "turning backwards and forwards." It would be quite in accord with 
 his usual method if he inserted this phrase for explanatory purposes; 
 on the other hand, eloba may have suggested it. But if so, why did he 
 not translate eloba in his interlinear version? 
 
 10. Bd, P, Why! See above, note 9. 
 
 11. Ban. P says that ran "has no meaning, but refers to the noise 
 made by the rope (one end of which is fastened to the harpoon stuck in 
 the dugong, while the other end is fastened to the canoe), by which the 
 dugong is towing the canoe about." "Twang" would seem to be an 
 English equivalent. 
 
 12. eld, P, back. In the vocabulary eld is given as "to pour," but I 
 have kept P's interlinear version. I suppose it is beside the point to 
 suggest that eld, like la, might be related to eloba. 
 
 13. grom-16-i, P, with great force. Grom I do not find, but cf. the root 
 gdura, strong, strength, muscle (P, p. 312). Grom may be a poetic license 
 for some such form as ab-gdura-doga-lom (ab, prefix + gdura, force -f- doga, 
 big + 16m, in) ! Perhaps one should not attempt to form compounds of 
 his own, but this little agglutinative adventure is intended only to give 
 some very general idea of the many jointed wonder of which grom may 
 be the poetically telescoped result. I believe that the invention of such 
 a vivid word as grom to take the place of the sesquipedalianism would 
 justify me in translating the excellent grom- by our modern invention, 
 jazz. ' ' He dragged me back with jazz O ! " is intimately faithful to the 
 original. The -16 and -i are either meaningless vocables inserted to fit the 
 rhythm, or abbreviations of suffixes. P says that the refrain is almost 
 unintelligible. 
 
1922] 
 
 Kurtz: Twelve Andamanese Songs 
 
 119 
 
 IX 
 
 AKA-BA-DA SONG, NO. 2 
 
 "This song is about Mala Bio-la, a former chief of Rutland 
 Island, who was greatly respected by the Andamanese and is here 
 given the two highest honorifics, Mam and Mam. It tells how the 
 composer had. come into the Settlement of Port Blair, leaving his 
 adze at Tdra-chang, where he was cutting a canoe. It describes 
 how Mala Bia-la used to work all day long when cutting a canoe 
 and how his biceps used to stand out till people were afraid of his 
 strength" (P, pp. 179-180). 
 
 Solo: 
 
 Dona 1 'aT-w6l6 2 'iji-d ; 
 
 I my-adze I 
 
 -Settleme 
 
 Mdia 4 Mdm* Bia-la 6 
 
 Honourable Sir Bia-la 
 
 'ar-H'0'Zo 
 
 his- adze 
 
 wielding 
 
 ig-ydura-tdg-re ; 8 
 
 -strong-mighty- was ; 
 
 Mala Mam Bia-la, 
 
 Honourable Sir Bia-la 
 
 ng '-ig-yduro-'bd; 
 
 you -strong-not; 
 
 wolo 9 
 
 adze 
 
 'ik 
 
 wielding 
 
 He 
 
 Ldt 
 
 Afraid 
 
 Refrain : 
 Ldt 
 
 Afraid 
 
 Bia 
 
 Bia 
 
 'ik ng'ig-ydiiro-6, 12 
 
 wielding you -strong 
 
 rose up. 
 
 his -strength 
 
 ~boi. 
 
 his -strength rose up. 
 
120 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 11 
 
 Translation : 
 
 My adze I, coming to the Settlement, left behind ! 
 
 The Honourable Sir Bia, wielding his adze, was mighty 
 
 strong. 
 You, the Honourable Sir Bia's adze wielding, were strong 
 
 not at all! 
 
 He, Bia, wielding it, you were strong eh ? 
 Afraid ! When his strength rose up ! 
 Afraid! When his strength rose up! 
 
 1. Dona, I: the form of the first person singular pronoun used with a 
 verb in the imperfect tense (cf. above, VIII, notes 5, 6). The imperfect 
 tense in this case is lost in the long compound with which the line closes. 
 
 2. 'ar-wolo, my-adze; 'ar- is a poetically shortened form for d'ar (d' 
 for dol, "I," before the prefix ar-). 
 
 3. 'iji-d'ak&n-j'rd-tegi-ngSi-]6, P, I Settlement left. This agglutination, 
 long enough in itself, may be regarded as a poetic abbreviation of the 
 greater part of the following prose sentence as given by P (p. 181) : 
 
 Dona d'dLT-wolo 1 'aka- egi-re, er I'aka-juru-len on-nga bedig, 
 
 I my-adze left, country sea - in coming also, 
 
 i.e., I left my adze behind when I came to the "Country by the Sea" 
 (the native name for the settlement). If the poetic and prose versions 
 are carefully compared several interesting questions arise. The prefix 
 'iji does not appear in the prose sentence; nor does P translate it or 
 comment upon it. As printed it is a prefix of the first group of roots and 
 has the force of "his," "her," or "its." But, with the exception of 
 the native name of the Settlement, there is no root in the prose sentence 
 that could possibly belong to group (1), and it does not seem applicable 
 to the Settlement. Either it is a poetic ' ' remnant ' ' of some idea not 
 understood by P or it has "wandered in" without meaning, by poetic 
 license. Of these alternatives the former is the preferable. Next, one 
 will note that the root tegi, to leave, in the poetic version has been re- 
 moved from its proper position before j'ro to a place directly after j'ro, 
 so that the meaning might well be that the adze had been left at the 
 Settlement. That this was not the intended meaning we can only take 
 P's word. The composer omitted the prefix aka- and its euphonic 1', as 
 well as the perfect-tense suffix -re, all of which are indicated in the prose 
 sentence. He also omitted the greater part of the native name for the 
 Settlement, reducing er 1 'aka-juru-len to sik.au- j'ro, and adding the abbre- 
 viated form d' of the first personal pronoun to the prefix akan. The 
 composer's -nga (present-participle suffix) might well have been taken 
 
1922] Kurtz: Twelve Andamanese Songs 121 
 
 with tegi ("leaving his adze in the Settlement") had we not P's testi- 
 mony that with the -nga we should supply the root on, to come ("coming 
 to the Settlement"). The omission of the prose bedig (also) need not 
 surprise us, but P's neglect to explain the final -16 of the verse inclines 
 us to believe that it is a meaningless syllable, as we have surmised in 
 other songs, and may be represented by an "O. " On the other hand, 
 it may be a way of bringing the compound to a close. These many 
 changes, and especially the syntactical dislocation, are good examples of 
 P 's statement, referred to above, that the Aka-#ea-da poet is particularly 
 given to poetic license. 
 
 4. Mala, an honorific. ' ' When grown to middle-age, or married, a man 
 is called mala" (P, p. 85). 
 
 5. Mam, an honorific. Ah elderly and much respected man is called 
 Mdm-ola. The term is used also for "father-in-law." 
 
 6. -la, honorific suffix, "used with proper names, titles, and respect- 
 fully." Cf. Japanese San. 
 
 7. 'Ik, to take, here in the sense of "gripping" or "wielding" (his 
 adze). The form is an abbreviation of 'ifc-nga, taking. 
 
 8. ig-ydura-tdg-re, P, worked incessantly. The prefix ig- presumably 
 modifies the root yaura, or it may have a pronominal force, "he." Ydura, 
 doubtless, is a euphonic variation of gdiiro, to be strong; used here in the 
 sense of working, i.e., Bia showed strength in wielding his adze. I have 
 preferred to keep the original sense of ' ' strong, ' ' as being more vivid 
 (cf. below, note 15). The root tag P seems to translate "incessantly." 
 Tag, then, must be a euphonic variation of tdm (complete form, on-tdm). It 
 seems to me that ' ' incessantly strong ' ' may well be changed to ' ' mighty 
 strong. ' ' 
 
 8. -re, suffix giving the effect of the perfect tense. 
 
 9. wold, adze. The prefix 'ar- of the previous line is omitted. Pre- 
 sumably the juxtaposition of Mo-la and wold, carrying a possessive sense 
 (Bia's adze), renders the 'ar- unnecessary. 
 
 10. ng'-ig-yduro-bd, P, you worked little. Ng' is the abbreviated form 
 of the second personal pronoun ngdl before a prefix. The yaura of the 
 line before becomes ydiiro, a slight change of no significance. The final 
 root, M, translated "little" by P (cf. P, p. 337), resembles, or is identical 
 with, the negative suffix -ba (probably from ydba, not) which is affixed 
 directly to those roots of group (3) the meanings of which permit its use. 
 Yduro is such a root, and therefore the force of bd in this line, so far as 
 the Andamanese are concerned, is probably a general negative much 
 like the slang "nit" ("You, wielding Bia's adze were strong not!"). 
 The perfect-tense suffix, -re, is omitted. 
 
 11. ~L'dda, he. L' is euphonic; oda is the form of the third person 
 singular pronoun that is used with verbs in the imperfect tense (cf. above, 
 VIII, note 5). The meaning of the line is obscure. Is it, "He, Bia, 
 
122 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 11 
 
 wielding (his adze), you were afraid," or, "His, Bia's (adze) wielding, 
 you were strong"? If the former, what is the function of the final 
 compound, "You were strong"? If the latter, with Ldt, "afraid," in 
 the next line, must be supplied, "He, Bia, wielding his adze." Or may 
 not the line be ironical, thus: "He, Bia, wielding (his adze) you were 
 strong! " (sarcasm, followed by the abrupt, "You were afraid when you 
 saw his biceps rise up"). I have adopted the last interpretation. 
 
 12. The final -6 is probably a meaningless vocable, though if the interpre- 
 tation of the line as ironic is correct the -6 may well be a sarcastic excla- 
 mation. In the free translation I have ventured to introduce an ironic 
 "eh?" 
 
 13. Ldt, afraid; a prefix and the tense suffix are omitted. 
 
 14. 6m-madab, P, his. "A mixture of prefixes and pronouns concocted 
 for the sake of euphony, and has the meaning only of 'his' " (P, p. 181). 
 
 15. gaura, ' ' which may mean ' strong, ' ' strength, ' or, in this case, 
 'biceps' " (P, p. 181). P's note is a justification of the version "strong" 
 in the previous lines, especially in view of the fact that we are thus 
 enabled to follow the Andamanese in using one root (strong, strength) 
 throughout. 
 
 16. -16, either a meaningless syllable to suit the rhythm or a way of 
 ending the compound. 
 
 17. fern, to rise up; a perfect-tense suffix (-re) is omitted. 
 
 AKA-BEA-DA SONG, NO. 3 
 
 This is a song about a man named Ira Cha, who was a seer, or 
 Auko-pdlat-da (lit., a sleeper, i.e., one who is subject to trances). 
 He used to say, and the Andamanese believed him, that in his 
 trances he went under the sea and mixed with the Jiiruwin, the 
 Spirits of the Sea. These did not know who he was, and they 
 searched for him everywhere. According to the composer, they 
 tried to find out his name from each of the tribes of the Andam- 
 anese, but at last they identified him in the country of the Aka- 
 Bea-da. They always remembered him, and his name, says the 
 refrain, is mighty in the land. 
 
 This composition "has often been sung at the dances for the 
 taking off of mourning, and was originally composed for one of 
 those ceremonies. On these occasions, though actually referring 
 to Ira Cha, it is also inferentially applied to the deceased for 
 whom the people have been in mourning" (P, p. 183). 
 
1922] 
 
 Kurtz: Twelve Andamanese Songs 
 
 123 
 
 Solo: 
 E 1 
 
 Country Akar-Bdle, 
 
 did, 5 I'dtd-i* 
 
 looked for, looked for-O, 
 
 Juruwin-laga 3 
 
 Sea-in-Spirits 
 
 'id'-tt-ting* 
 
 his- name 
 
 E raka-B6jig-ydb-nga, 7 
 
 Country Aka-Bdjiff-i/d6-nga, 
 
 dtd, rdtd-i, 
 
 looked for, looked for-O, 
 
 Juruwin-laga 'id '-6t-ting 
 
 Sea-in-Spirits his- name 
 
 E 1 'aka-Yeri, 8 Juruwin-laga 
 
 Country Aka-Yeri, Sea-in-Spirits 
 
 dtd, rdtd-i, 
 
 looked for, looked for-O, 
 
 E raka-Bea, 
 
 Country Aka-Bea, 
 
 ng'ig-lomya, 11 
 
 you -knowing, 
 
 'Id '-6t-ting jdrengo-a ; 13 
 
 His- name repeated-O; 
 
 yd tira. 
 
 Juruwin-laga 
 
 Sea-in-Spirits 
 
 raka-kdled, 12 
 
 for themselves, 
 
 ldg-6 14 
 
 place-O 
 
 'id'-6t-ting 
 
 his- name 
 
 his- 
 
 took, 
 
 ba 1 
 
 his- 
 
 strong. 
 
 Refrain : 
 
 
 
 L6g-6 
 
 Place-O 
 
 'id'-6t-ting ba 
 
 his- name 
 
 yaura. 
 
 strong. 
 
 Translation : 
 
 In the land of the Akar-B&e, the Spirits of the Sea his 
 
 name sought and sought 0! 
 In the land of the Aka-Bojig-ydb-nga, the Spirits of the 
 
 Sea his name sought and sought ! 
 In the land of the Yerewos, the Spirits of the Sea his name 
 
 sought and sought ! 
 In the land of the Aba-Bea, the Spirits of the Sea his name 
 
 learned (you knew it) for themselves; 
 His name they repeated ! In this place his name is 
 
 mighty. 
 In this place his name is mighty. 
 
124 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 11 
 
 1. j er (cf. above, IX, note 3) erema-da, country, place. 
 
 2. I'aka-Bdld, supply "of the" (country of the Akar-Bale). On this 
 tribe see above, V, note 1. The 1' is euphonic. 
 
 3. Juruwin-laga, P, Spirits of the Sea. Mru is "sea." Is win an 
 adaptation of the postposition len " in " ? Compare wan, a rare PuchiJcwdr 
 postposition, meaning "in." Juruwin looks like a compound. For laga 
 I find a meaning ' ' height, ' ' which apparently is a metaphoric extension 
 of laga, the name of a certain species of very tall tree (P, p. 278). 
 "Height" by a common association means "depth," and "sea-in-deep" 
 might refer to the spirits who live deep in the sea. Again, laga might 
 be from lad, spirits (see above, III, note 1), or it may be related to 
 ig-lagada-da, a newly risen or uneasy sleeper, hence, possibly, spirits (cf. P, 
 p. 278). 
 
 4. } id.'-6t-ting, his name: 'id- = 'ig-, a prefix with ting, "name," which 
 is a root of group (1), since the simpler peoples regard one's name as a 
 part of his very body; 'id-, therefore, has the force of "his" (P, p. 64). 
 The second prefix, 6t-, is also used with roots of the first class. Its office 
 here I do not understand, unless in some way it modifies the meaning of 
 the root. 
 
 5. aid, P, sought ; literally, to see ; hence my translation, ' ' looked for, ' ' 
 which keeps the meaning a little better than "sought." The perfect- 
 tense suffix, -re, has been omitted. 
 
 6. l'dtd-i. The 1' is euphonic; on did see the previous note; the i is, 
 probably, a meaningless vocable. 
 
 7. l'aka-B6jig-yab-nga, P, the PuchiJcwdr. This is the Aka-Uea-da name 
 for the Puchikwdr, signifying, "they speak Andamanese" (P, p. 27). On 
 this tribe see below, XI, note 1. The 1' is euphonic. 
 
 8. I'aka-Yeri, P, the Terewas. "The country of the Teri here mentioned 
 may mean that of the people of the North Andaman group of tribes, who 
 were formerly called Yen-da; or may possibly be intended for the Kol 
 and Aukau-Juwoi tribes, who were also called by this name by the southern 
 septs of the Aka-m-da tribe" (P, p. 183). 
 
 9. I'aka-Bea, the Aka-Bea-da (see above, VIII, note 1), the noun suffix, 
 -da, being omitted because the word occurs within a sentence. 
 
 10. 1'ik, P, took. The 1' is euphonic; the root f.k means "to take," 
 "to find," "to learn" (cf. above, IX, note 7); the perfect suffix, -re, is 
 omitted. 
 
 11. ng'ig-lomya, P, you knew. Ng' is the usual abbreviation of the 
 second person singular or plural pronoun before a prefix. Lomya is re- 
 lated to the Akar-Bdle id (= ig) -lomang, to know. Perhaps lomya is a 
 poetic contraction of lomang -nga, knowing. Either the phrase is paren- 
 thetical ("you knew it" the name) or it gives the source of information. 
 
 12. I'aka-MUd, P, of themselves. L', euphonic; aka-, prefix; Jcdled I 
 do not find in the vocabulary. 
 
1922] 
 
 Kurtz: Twelve Andamanese Songs 
 
 125 
 
 13. jdrengo-d, P, remembered that. The root is probably a poetic form 
 from some compound of yob (ydr, in Aukau-JwwoI) , to say. "We remember 
 by "saying over to ourselves," and therefore I have substituted "repeated." 
 If -a is for Ted, "that," as suggested by P's translation, it should have 
 been printed in italics, as a root. It may be a meaningless vocable. 
 
 14. log-6, P, place in. Ar-log-da, is "place." The prefix has been 
 omitted by the composer. -6 is probably a vocable; it does not mean 
 " in, " as suggested by P 's version. With log-6 P begins a new line, quite 
 unnecessarily. 
 
 15. ba, I do not find. P has not printed it as a root and he does not 
 give it as an affix. Presumably, therefore, it is a meaningless syllable to 
 eke out the rhythm. 
 
 16. ydura = gdura, strong, strength; P, always. The meaning of the 
 passage seems to be " His name is strong (mighty, always remembered) 
 in the land," though keeping "his name in place" may have some other 
 meaning for the Andamanese. P's free translation of the refrain is: 
 ' ' They always kept his name in honoured remembrance, and frequently spoke 
 about him." 
 
 XI 
 
 PUCHIKWARi SONG, NO. 1 
 
 It is to be inferred that the composer has been chipping a 
 canoe all day. In the solo he means to say that before going to 
 bed he cut a number of incisions to outline the work for the next 
 day. In the refrain he says that the chips (from the work he had 
 already done) lay in a heap around the canoe. 
 
 Solo: 
 
 T'6m-ema-'t 2 
 
 My- bed- ? 
 
 poche 3 
 
 poche 
 
 td 4 taur? 
 
 chips chipped-in-line, 
 
 lungi.* 
 
 indeed, 
 
 My- bed- ? 
 
 poche 
 
 poche 
 
 td tdur. 
 
 chips chipped-in-line. 
 
 
 Pech-chdl 1 
 
 Scattered-middle 
 
 tdule 8 
 
 chips 
 
 berdto-li. 9 
 
 in a heap-O. 
 
 
 Refrain : 
 
 Pech-chdl 
 
 Scattered-middle 
 
 taule 
 
 chips 
 
 berdto-li. 
 
 in a heap-O. 
 
126 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 11 
 
 Translation : 
 
 My bed ! My poche chips are chipped in line, indeed ! 
 My bed ! My poche chips are chipped in line. 
 Scattered in the middle, chips in a heap ! 
 Scattered in the middle, chips in a heap 0! 
 
 1. A tribe inhabiting Baratan Island, certain smaller adjacent islands, 
 a part of the south coast of the Middle Andaman, and the northeast coast 
 of the South Andaman. The PuchiJcwdr and Kol languages resemble each 
 other rather closely; they differ very considerably from the Aka-Uea-da 
 and Akar-Bdle. The Aukau-Jwwm is nearer the first than the second pair. 
 1 ' There is some reason for supposing that PuchiJcwdr was the original 
 language from which these other languages are derived. At any rate, 
 the roots, and the construction of the compound words, are very clearly 
 shown in PuchiJcwdr" (P, p. 27). The meaning of the tribal name is 
 given as "They speak Andamanese. " 
 
 2. T'om-eraa-'t, P, I before sleeping, literally, my bed. T', first per- 
 sonal pronoun singular (M-le) abbreviated before the prefix om-; ema = 
 emi, "bed," "house"; -'t, perhaps a present-participle suffix from the 
 Akar-Bale (note the participial form of P's first translation), the meaning 
 being, "I bedding," i.e., "I going to bed," "I preparing for bed." 
 Or the 't, perhaps, should go with the following poche, -t 'poche, my canoe 
 (a prefix omitted?). Most likely, however, the worker exclaims "My 
 bed!" by way of anticipation: "My bed! My poche chips are cut, 
 indeed." 
 
 3. poche, P, canoe. But rd-da is the generic term for canoe, and more 
 specific terms, as explained above (VII, note 6), are drawn from the name 
 of the tree from which the canoe is made. Thus, poche is the name for 
 a species of Sterculia (P, p. 46). It seems better to speak of the com- 
 poser's canoe as his poche. A pronominal prefix is missing. 
 
 4. td, chips. The more usual form is tdu, and the primary meaning is 
 "bone." The "bones" of a log would be the chips cut from it (cf. 
 above, III, note 2). Tail means also: shin-bone, nut, claw, to cut with 
 an adze. The plural number is obvious from the context. 
 
 5. tdur, P, in line. Probably for the complete form 6m-tdur, beside, 
 i.e., in line; the root means also, to spread out, to set in line (P, p. 353), 
 and echoes the previous ta (tdu) : "chips chipped in line," or "cuts cut 
 in line," would give the effect in English. Tdur is an abbreviated form, 
 a suffix, and perhaps a prefix, having been omitted by the composer. 
 
 6. lungi, indeed. Presumably an exclamation or intensive. It is fre- 
 quently found in combination with other forms to signify, that much, 
 then, really, at the same time, also superlative degrees, etc. 
 
 7. Pech-chdl, P, in that place. The first root, which appears to be 
 related to pe and pete, has as its basic meaning, to be scattered or dotted 
 
1922] Kurtz: Twelve Andamanese Songs 127 
 
 about irregularly; hence, to scatter, separate, halve, splash, twinkle, etc. 
 (P, p. 353; Yocab., pp. 71, 139, 141, etc.). Perhaps we should see a ref- 
 erence to the chips scattered on the ground. P's "in that place" is 
 probably a very free rendering of the sense. Pech may be an abbreviated 
 form, but if the word is participial in force it should be noted that the 
 Puchikicdr generally omit the participial suffix. Chdl seems to mean 
 "middle" (P, p. SOS), referring to the chips scattered in the middle 
 of the place (hence P 's rendering) where he was cutting the canoe. The 
 complete form would have, I suppose, a postposition (-an, "in") and a 
 prefix. 
 
 8. taiile, P, chips. Why taiile instead of tail, as above? In the vocab- 
 ulary tdule is given as the Cyrena shell (P, p. 228; cf. above, I, note 4), 
 which was the primitive knife of the Andamanese. But are, or were, 
 canoes hollowed out with Cyrena shells, the broken and blunted "blades" 
 being scattered about during the operation? Shells are not strong enough 
 for such work. Probably taiile is a poetic variation of tail, and perhaps in 
 our free translation we should copy the effect of the extra syllable by a 
 ballad "O." 
 
 9. berdto-li, P, remained in a heap. I do not find the root. The form 
 lacks prefix and suffix. The -li is probably a meaningless vocable. 
 
 XII 
 
 PUCHIKWAR SONG, NO. 2 
 
 We are to infer that the composer killed a pig ~by stabbing it 
 w-ith a skewer. When he shouldered the carcass to take it home, 
 the blood, he says, kept dripping down on his legs. 
 
 Solo: 
 
 Chdm-lo 1 t ewe-long 2 t'ab-tdu 3 
 
 Skewer-O (?) blood- 
 
 my -shins 
 
 T'ab-fom 1'ar-c/i-i 
 
 are-ate ; 5 
 
 My -shins kept dripping; 
 
 Re-le 6 t'ab-taii 
 
 Tar-c/m re-ate ; 
 
 Pig- my -shins 
 
 kept dripping; 
 
 Re-le t'sb-tdu 
 
 Tar- 
 
 Pig- my -shins 
 
 
 dripped, 
 
 -Chdre-aie; re-le tf'ab-tau 1'ar- 
 
 -Kept dripping: pig- my -shins 
 
 Refrain : 
 
 -Chare-Site', re-le t'ab-tdu 1'ar- 
 
 -Kept dripping; pig- my -shins. 
 
128 University of California Publications in Modern Philology [Vol. 11 
 
 Translation : 
 
 From the skewer the blood on my shins dripped down, 
 
 On my shins kept dripping down ; 
 
 From the pig on my shins kept dripping down : 
 
 From the pig on my shins kept 
 
 Dripping down ; from the pig on my shins kept. 
 
 Dripping down; from the pig on my shins kept. 
 
 1. CMra-16, P, skewer-from. Cham, for chdm-chul, a skewer. So far 
 as I can see there is no postposition here to correspond to P's "-from." 
 The -16 is probably an extra syllable to eke out the rhythm. 
 
 2. tewe-long, blood. Tewe, or tewa, is "blood"; -long is given else- 
 where (P, p. 139) as an honorific, but P tells us that honorifics are attached 
 only to proper names. Possibly one's own blood deserves the title of 
 respect ! I have omitted the honorific, if it be such, from the interlinear 
 and free translations, but have inserted an "O" in place of -it in the 
 free version. 
 
 3. t 'sib-tan, P, my legs. T', as above, XI, note 2; ab-cMZMw-da, or 
 ab-tdu, the shin. Ab-tdu, literally, is "the bone," but it is used of the 
 lower part of the leg from the knee to the ankle. Ab- is a prefix with a 
 root of group (1), referring the generic root tail, bone, to a certain division 
 of the human frame. 
 
 4. 1'ar-chdre, dripped. The P is euphonic; ar-, prefix; chare for char, 
 "to flow," referring primarily to the flowing of a brook or any stream 
 of water. The prefix ar- relates this general idea of flowing to certain 
 parts of the human body, specified in the previous word, shins. The tense 
 suffix is omitted, unless the form chare is a combination of char and the 
 Aka-Bea-da perfect-tense suffix, re. The disjunctive character of Andam- 
 anese syntax is well illustrated in this line. 
 
 5. -ate. This suffix is, perhaps, a variant of the imperfect-tense suffix, 
 -kate, in AkaT-Bdle. -Ya or -ye would be the PuchiJcwdr form. P in his 
 interlinear translation makes no distinction between I'ar-chdre and 1'ar- 
 chdre-ate. My change in the second line to "kept dripping" will at least 
 serve to mark the fact that the original does change, but in part only. 
 
 6. JBe-le, pig. The -le may be an honorific. Perhaps the succulent 
 delicacy is an exception to the rule that honorifics are added only to 
 perfect names. If -le were the PuchiTcwdr postposition, "from, " P would 
 have printed it -le. In the free translation I have let an " O " take its 
 place. 
 
 7. "Observe how the Solo ends at the junction of a prefix and a root, 
 the root being the first word of the refrain, which, also, ends with a 
 prefix the whole thus working in a circle" (P, p. 186). I have endeav- 
 ored to represent this circular, or run-on, refrain in translation by dividing' 
 the lines between l ' kept ' ' and ' i dripping. ' ' 
 
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY, 
 
 THIS BOOK IS DUE ON THE LAST DATE 
 STAMPED BELOW 
 
 AN INITIAL FINE OF 25 CENTS 
 
 WILL BE ASSESSED FOR FAILURE TO RETURN 
 THIS BOOK ON THE DATE DUE. THE PENALTY 
 WILL INCREASE TO SO CENTS ON THE FOURTH 
 DAY AND TO $1.OO ON THE SEVENTH DAY 
 
 OVERDUE. 
 
 M-^VW C~l .T *i tfllTI 
 
 
 NOV 26 1937 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 5 
 
 
 i 
 
 
 
 
 Wlf*' 
 
 
 
 FEB 8 194 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 MAY 22 1947 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 LD 21-95m-7,'37 
 
00082 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY