170 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 



As the folk of Girandura, the nearest Vedda settlement, were 

 hopelessly sophisticated and entirely resembled the local Sinhalese, 

 we walked on next day to ElakotaHya, where it had been alleged that 

 there were true wild Veddas, but as we did not think this likely we 

 were not disappointed when the Elakotaliya folk turned out to be a 

 small group of pleasant, well-nourished people, hving on a good 

 chena, who remembered only a few of their Vedda customs. Passing 

 the night at Elakotaliya we started in the dusk of the dawn next 

 morning for Yakure, leaving ourselves time and opportunity to spend 

 whatever time was desirable at Kalukalaeba, where there is a Vedda 

 chena. These folk still remember the warge to which they belonged, 

 but have adopted a Sinhalese mode of life ; so, after a few hours 

 we went on to Yakure, a large and populous village doing a big 

 cattle breeding trade and inhabited by folk resembling Tamils and 

 worshipping Hindu gods, but who still call themselves Veddas and 

 are of the Vedda clans and observe clan exogamy. 



These folk told us that there were Veddas less sophisticated than 

 themselves at Ulpota and Kohombane, some ten or twelve miles 

 distant, so we sent for some of these. The headman of these people 

 knew a few words of the " Vedda " or " jungle " dialect which has 

 been already referred to, but when asked on what occasions he used 

 these, replied : " When sent for by visitors and Government ofiicers." 

 He, however, confirmed the information concerning the clans that we 

 had already obtained from the folk at Yakure. The next morning 

 we walked to Polonnaruwa, where we heard of a group of descendants 

 of Veddas living at a place called Rotawewa, who make rice fields 

 in the same way as do their admittedly Sinhalese neighbours, and 

 a small community who at one time lived near Sigiri. It appeared 

 that these were the people who have been spoken of as Polonnaruwa 

 Veddas, but we did not visit their village. After a couple of days at 

 Polonnaruwa we went on to Sigiri, where we were for the first time 

 able to approach near enough to a colony of bambara to obtain good 

 photographs* There ended our journey ia the Vedda country, a 

 journey leaving, amidst many pleasant recollections, two dominant 

 remembrances — the extraordinary beauty of the park country and 

 the charming courtesy of the still unsophisticated remnants of its 

 inhabitants. 



