88 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 
(o indicate that the artefacts with which it is associated “ are 
not of a very remote date, or otherwise the charcoal would 
have been absorbed and have left no trace behind.’ Again, I 
do not think this argument is valid, firstly, because charcoal is 
durable enough, and has been found on Roman and on stone- 
age sites of proved antiquity before ; and secondly, because 
not everything in the “ chip-layer ” is of prehistoric date, as 
a recent find of brass cartridge sheets (by Mr. Hartley) 
conclusively proves. 
If the Veddas made the stone tools of Ceylon, how is it that 
these people who lived, as we know they did, under conditions 
of extreme want and savagery, made no use of their art in 
the quest after a livelihood ? Why should a people skilled 
in the manufacture of tools and weapons sufficient for their 
needs depend on barter with an alien race for precisely these 
implements ?* 
A wild hunting race, so long as it remains such, is not likely. 
to forget the very rudiments of a craft wpon which its life 
depends ; but the weaker members of a civilized community, 
forced by the growing strength of class antipathy back into 
the wilderness, and divorced from the common arts of primitive 
folk by a thousand generations of specialized endeavour, may 
well be at a loss to cope with the conditions of a nomad’s life. 
Such in effect, I believe, is the story of the Veddas. Like the 
Ascidians, who have forgotton how to swim, they have turned 
aside from the paths of progress and belied their heritage. 
ce 


* The use of stone implements persists among a people long after 
their first acquaintance with metals. For example, flint implements, 
probably used for dressing monoliths, have been found at Stonehenge, 
and this structure is generally supposed to be a temple of the Bronze 
Age. In Egypt flint blades were used for eviscerating a body before 
embalmment long after the discovery of metals. Obsidian knives were 
used by the priests of medieval Mexico to hack out the vitals of their 
victims ; and sharpened flint was used at Jewish circumcisions. The 
custom of placing flint blades in graves persisted as an ancient rite 
among the Frankish people of Gaul (whose sway over what is now north- 
west France came to an end in 752 a.p.); but the habit survived in 
Celtic folklore toa much later period. It is significant that Shakespeare 
makes the priest say at the burial of the unfortunate sister of Laertes— 
. «Her death was doubtful ; 
And, but that the great command o’ersways the order, 
She should in ground unsanctified have lodg’d 
Till the last trumpet ; for charitable prayers, 
Shards, flints, and pebbles should be thrown on her.” 
