AN ITINERARY OF THE VEDDA COUNTRY. 161 



were getting on, and it was soon obvious that these also must be fed 

 if any regular work was to be done. The extreme courtesy and con- 

 sideration of these somewhat sophisticated Veddas, although not so 

 great as that of the wilder groups we were to meet later, made all 

 our dealings, including the serving out of supphes, easy, slight 

 awkwardnesses or mistakes being often hailed with roars of almost 

 childish merriment. We record these facts deliberately, as they 

 are contrary to the statements that have so often been made con- 

 cerning the Veddas, and we may point out that all the Veddas we 

 met, although s^omewhat shy, were merry, courteous, kindly, gener- 

 ous, and truthful folk, tlie only exceptions being found among the 

 members of communities such as Danigala and Dambani, who are 

 accustomed to pose to visitors as primitive Veddas. 



It is not the purpose of this slight sketch to describe our work or 

 the results we obtained, but in view of the recent discussion on 

 quartz implements discovered by Messrs. Green and Pole, and lately 

 desciibed in the Ceylon Observer and in this journal by the Drs. 

 Sarasin, we give here a short account of the results of our explora- 

 tion of the Bendiagalge caves. These consist of two rock shelters 

 formed by a single mass of rock, broadly speaking rectangular in 

 shape, with its long axis running roughly in a N.-S. direction. The 

 rock mass is somewhat tilted, sO that its southern edge is high above 

 the to/ai^-a, towards which its northern extremity slopes, and the 

 whole rock somewhat resembles an immense wedge. Its eastern 

 face has weathered so as to form two rock shelters ; each of these has 

 a well-cut drip ledge in no respect differing from those admittedly 

 cut by the Sinhalese about the time that Buddhism was introduced 

 to the Island, and the lower cave has in addition two square sockets 

 cut in its roof resembling those discovered by Mr. F. Lewis at Nu- 

 waragala and figured by him, and such as we afterwards saw at 

 MuUegamagalge. Further, there are three steps cut in the solid 

 rock between the two rock shelters and other smaller steps, and signs 

 of ancient working are to be found about the rock mass. Figure 1 

 is a photograph of the upper of the two caves showing the drip 

 ledge ; the figiire also shows two sets of steps hewn from the rock. 

 There is no inscription on the rocks of either of these caves, but 

 below the drip ledge of a rock shelter used by the same community 

 of Veddas, and not more than an hour's walk from Bendiagalge, 

 there is an inscription, of wliich Mr. H. C. P. Bell says : — " The 

 Brahmi (characters) -are of the oldest type, therefore B.C." This 

 inscription has been read by the same authority, to whom my 



best thanks are due, as " (cave of) the chief son of the chief 



Vela." There is thus reason to suppose that the Bendiagalge caves 

 were used by the Sinhalse some 2,000 years ago, and this together 

 with the present occupancy by the Veddas makes it worth while 

 to record the results of our excavation, although we had not time 

 to make it complete. 



