ANIMAL AND PLANT LIFE. 2: 
of the bark of the Ritti (Antiaris toxicaria) for males, and a 
sort of leaf-skirt for the females. 
No jewellery was worn by the males or females. Sometimes 
a necklace made of shells (“* Bellan’’) was worn by the younger 
females, but such things as rings were unknown to the earlier 
Veddas. 
They had no idea of time beyond the subdivision of the 24 
hours into two divisions, viz., that of light and darkness. 
Other than this there was no computation except a man’s 
knowledge of a certain striking event that happened in his 
* small time,” but how long ago that was could not be stated. 
The taking of a woman to wife required mainly the sanction 
of the girl’s father, after which a few exchanges might be 
made in signification of the consent of parties. After this 
the man and woman lived together, while before they would 
not so much as dare speak to one another in public, unless 
related. 
The age of the woman was invariably extremely youthful 
at the time of her “‘ marriage,’ and even at the present day, 
notwithstanding the comparative civilization of the modern 
Vedda descendants, youthful marriages still prevail. 
I found in response to my inquiries in all parts of the Vedda 
country that I visited, that 12 years was a common age for a 
girl to be taken to wife at. In one village I was present at 
an inquiry by a headman into a case where the girl was only 8. 
In this case the headman expressed the opinion that the 
marriage was “‘ very bad.” 
My informant told me that with the Veddas there was no 
custom for the woman, when about to give birth to a child, 
to go to a separate house or hut for the purpose, but that this 
custom had only come in later. 
Among the Veddas there was no such thing as prostitution, 
nor could I learn that there was polyandry. 
The bearing age of women would be at about 14, that of 
puberty being a year earlier. 
Women would have children up to about 28, and as might 
be expected from the condition cf youthful cohabitation for 
one or two years prior to puberty, the proportion of males 
and females in a family would be pretty nearly equal. On 
