Note 8 — Chapter III · RELIGIOUS AND MAGICAL BELIEFS

In all parts of the islands the rainbow is believed to have some connection with the spirits of the jungle or of the sea. One very common statement is that it is a bridge of cane that stretches between this world and the world of departed spirits. It is along the rainbow that the spirits travel when they visit the earth. It is necessary to correct a statement by Mr Portman on this matter. In connection with the Aka-Bea word for the rainbow, pidga-l’ar-čauga, he says “The root pidga (a rainbow) must not be confounded with the root pidga ‘a cane’ or ‘rattan.’ The Andamanese have certain legends regarding the uses of the rainbow, and these have been hitherto understood as referring to ‘canes.’ Pidga-l’ar-čauga means ‘the rainbow (bridge) by which the spirits (cross)’8.” Mr Portman is in error. The word pidga means “cane” and the whole word means “the cane of the spirits.” It is the whole word that is the name of the rainbow, and not the word pidga. An exactly similar compound name for the rainbow exists in each of the languages of the Great Andaman. The name of the particular species of large cane varies, being pidga in Aka-Bea, peta in A-Pučikwar, pir in Aka-J̌eru, and so on. Apart from the fact that the natives themselves say that the rainbow is a “cane,” Mr Portman would have us believe that in each of the different languages there are two exactly similar words, different in the different languages, one of which means “cane” and the other “rainbow,” while there is no connection between the words. Thus Aka-Bea would have pidga meaning “a kind of cane” and pidga meaning “a rainbow.” Aka-J̌eru would have pir meaning “cane” and pir meaning “rainbow.”