Hobson-Jobson: A Glossary of Colloquial Anglo-Indian Words and Phrases, and of Kindred Terms, Etymological, Historical, Geographical and Discursive c10.405

c10.405

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