AN ITINERARY OF THE VEDDA COUNTRY. 167 



From Bandaraduwa a long day's walk brought us to Uniche, 

 where we arrived tired and in advance of our carriers, to be most 

 hospitably entertained by the Engineer in charge of the construction 

 of the bund of the big new tank. After sleeping that night in un- 

 wonted luxury in the Irrigation bungalow, we went on to Tumpa- 

 lamcholai, and from there to Maha-oya, whence, with the resthouse 

 as our base, we made a number of trips to the Vedda communities 

 in the neighbourhood. The most mteresting of these was a visit to 

 four families that lived in the wild country to the south of Nuwara- 

 gala. These folk make no chena and have no huts, but live a wan- 

 dering existence, spending their time in caves and rock shelters and 

 living entirely on game, yams, and honey. We had heard vaguely 

 of this group of Veddas for some time past, and had tried to reach 

 them from the neighbourhood of Bandaraduwa, as, if this had been 

 possible, it would have saved us the long and wearisome tramp to 

 Tumpalamcholai, but there had been illicit chena making in the 

 neighbourhood, and every effort had been made to lead us off by the 

 local drachchi, and it was only after the matter had been taken up 

 by Mr. G. D. Templer of the Forest Department that we were able 

 to reach them. Among the most interesting things we saw among 

 these people were the rough drawings of men, dogs, elephants, and 

 leopards with which the walls of their caves were decorated. These 

 drawings are made bj'- moistening wood- ash with saliva, and drawing 

 on the walls of the cave with the finger dipped in the paste thus pro- 

 duced ; the spots of the leopards being indicated by dots of black 

 made by working up charcoal with a little saliva. These drawings 

 were extremely crude and rougher than the Australian cave dra^^-ings, 

 which have been described by many observers, though they did not 

 compare unfavourably in artistic skill with some of the rock drawings 

 of the North Queensland aborigines, of which, indeed, one of us was 

 strongly reminded. 



There are a number of other small Vedda communities within a 

 few miles of Maha-oya, who, though more sophisticated than the 

 Nuwaragala community, well repaid visiting. Those of Mudugala, 

 now settled at the hot water springs (Unuwatura-bubule) within a 

 couple of miles of Maha-oya, although socially much influenced by 

 the surrounding Sinhalese, must be regarded as tolerably pure 

 blooded, for they are aU extremely short men — the shortest member 

 of. this community being only 53| inches — while two other men who 

 seemed about the average height of the people were 56 and 56| 

 inches respectively. 



From Maha-oya we went on to KaUodi, where we were detained 

 foi a couple of days by the temporary loss of three of our bulls, that 

 were finally caught some ten miles from where they had got away 

 from our tavalam leader. Part of this time was spent in the partial 

 excavation o£ a cave on the slopes of Kokagala hill. The roof of 

 this cave was horizontal, the shelter liaving been formed by the 

 wearing away of a soft horizontal stratum. A trench, some 12 feet 



