ANIMAL AND PLANT LIFE. 133 
than in densely populated areas, where the individuality of the 
creature is Jost in environmentalimmensity. In the one case he 
and his are known, in the other he and they are but a fraction. 
Considerations of space preclude my enlarging on this 
subject, or describing in detail the individual conditions of 
the different villages that I explored, but I venture to think 
that a careful examination of local factors would throw much 
light on the evolution of the race from its early stages of 
primitive existence to its present state of partial civilization. 
Domestic Animals —These consist of cattle, buffaloes, 
goats, dogs, cats, and fowls. 
Black cattle are abundant in all the inhabited parts of the 
country I explored, and naturally more so where the oppor- 
tunities for trade in them exists than in very isolated places. 
Milk is nearly always procurable, but I heard of no instance of 
children being exclusively reared upon cow milk. Buffaloes 
are, where possible, reared for agricultural purposes, and also 
for the supply of milk, which is often turned into a form of 
junket that is in much demand. 
In one village in the Panawa Pattu I found a Tamil man 
owning a large herd of buffaloes, and to my surprise I found 
that he called them by individual names, the animals respond- 
ing to his call. 
I was informed that quite a large proportion of the domesti- 
cated buffaloes were half-breeds between the wild and the 
tame. This may explain why the Vedda-country animal is 
so much larger than the buffalo of, say, the Western Province. 
Goats are rare, and only occur where there are Tamil or 
Moorish people. I met with them occasionally, but nowhere 
away from the influences above mentioned. Pigs, except 
wild, I never met with. Dogs are plentiful, and of a much 
superior build and type to the village pariah of the civilized 
country. This is doubtless due to the care the real Vedda has 
bestowed upon this animal from the earliest time. In point of 
size the dogs of the Vedda country are large, powerfully built, 
and bold. Black and white, or brown and white, are the 
usual colours of these animals. Cats are, generally speaking, 
scarce, though I remarked at Kumuna that while I only saw 
one dog, I found six cats in that little village. 
