Myths and Legends of the Andamans

THE Andamanese have a number of stories which are told to the younger people by their elders and relate to the doings of their ancestors in a time long ago. Some of these stories are recorded in the present chapter. A difficulty in the way of giving any clear and readable account of them is the fact that there are many slightly different versions of one and the same legend. To some extent the variations are local, each tribe, and even each portion of a tribe having its own set of legendary stories. Besides these local variations there are also individual variations. Two men of the same tribe may relate what is substantially the same story, yet each chooses his own words and gestures, and to some extent they may even arrange the incidents differently. In the last chapter it was mentioned that there are certain individuals, known as oko-umuin the North Andaman and oko-paiadin the South, who are believed to have special knowledge as to the spirits and as to the magical efficacy of remedies for sickness. It is these oko-umualso who are the authorities on the legendary lore of the Andamanese. In the case of magical remedies there is a certain common stock of beliefs as to the efficacy to be attributed to different substances, such as leaves of different plants, and on the basis of these beliefs the oko-umuelaborates the remedies that he uses in particular cases. Each oko-umu, however, prides himself on being, to some extent, original. An example of this has been already mentioned. When a great storm arose an oko-umuof one of the Northern tribes succeeded in stopping it (in the belief of the natives) by placing a piece of the crushed stem of the Anadendroncreeper under a particular stone in the sea. On a later occasion another storm arose, and the successor of the first-mentioned oko-umuwas appealed to that he might exert his powers. He did not simply imitate his predecessor, but he placed a piece of crushed bark and twigs of the Ficuslacciferain the sea under a different stone. In very much the same way there is a common stock of beliefs as to the events that took place in the time of the ancestors, but each oko-umubuilds up on this basis his own particular set of legends, so that it is rarely that two of them tell the same story in the same way. An oko-umumay obtain for himself a reputation by relating legends of the ancestors in a vivid and amusing way.

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