Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 20, 1909.djvu/556

 CORRESPONDENCE.

The Religion of the Andaman Islanders. {Ante, p. 257.)

" The bearing of the Andamanese beliefs on the theory of a primitive All-Father I do not care to discuss," says Mr. Brown, in his welcome paper on "The Religion of the Andaman Islanders " in September Folk-Lore, " as the whole theory seems to me nothing but a system of elaborate misinterpretation."

As I am to some extent responsible for the theory, — (though for "a primitive" I would read "an early All- Father "), — I may be permitted to say how Mr. Brown's paper impresses me.

It impresses me very favourably, for it seems much more methodical and searching than that of Mr. Man. At the same time, I am not informed to what extent either, or both, or neither, of these observers can converse with the Andamanese in their own languages or dialects. Mr. Man made a dictionary containing 6000 Andamanese words, and wrote learnedly on the grammar. It is to be hoped that Mr. Brown will speedily publish all his materials, when my ignorance on this and other points will be enlightened.

As to "misinterpretation," — a student at home has only the reports of students in the field, such as Mr. Howitt, and the charge of misinterpretation must rest on them rather than on the pale denizen of the study. They misinterpret with singular unanimity, in all uncivilised regions of our globe. They describe a non-animistic great being, of no known parentage and not an Alcheringa man, who created, or made, the world, but not all the things in it necessarily, who now lives in the sky, and, if