REVIEW, 201 
REVIEW. 
THe VeppaAs: by C. G. Seligmann, M.D., and Brenda Z. Seligmann. 
Cambridge University Press. 1911. 
if Sars handsome volume of over four hundred pages, with seventy- 
one plates, thirty-four musical records, numerous songs, and a 
vocabulary, may be taken as summing up all that we know or are 
likely to discover of the history, the traditions, and the usages of 
the fast vanishing race whose purest representatives are estimated 
by Mr. Parker at less than one hundred persons. An average of 
over four pages to each individual of a semi-savage tribe may seem 
excessive to those who do not reflect that the lower the type, 
the greater the interest ; and that, if a race could be discovered 
living under palzolithic conditions, an allowance of pages’ twice 
as generous as we have here would be eagerly demanded. 
Dr. and Mrs. Seligmann have gone to the root of the matter. 
They forsook civilization for a time to live intimately with the 
Veddas. They have shared their meals and their primitive accom- 
modation ; they have been near them in sickness and in health, in 
festivity and in mourning ; and we may well believe the handsome 
acknowledgment made in the preface to Mrs. Seligmann ; “I feel 
convinced that the measure of success attained in gaining the 
confidence of these shy and extremely jealous people was entirely 
due to her presence and assistance.”’ 
A full but discriminating use has been made of previous writers 
on this subject. The works of Knox, Tennent, and Parker are 
widely known; but those of Virchow, Rutimeyer, and the Sarasins 
are mostly in German ; while much important information is con- 
tained in stray articles by Bailey, Nevill, Hartshorne, and others, 
which is here conveniently summarized. The question of pre- 
historic stone implements is dismissed with one plate and five pages. 
We cannot but think that more use might have been made of the 
researches of the Sarasins and of the collections of Messrs. Pole and 
Green. For the matter as a whole we have nothing but praise. 
The authors expressly state that “this volume will scarcely touch 
on physical anthropology”; but a careful examination has been 
made of the Veddas’ social and family life, religion, magic, cere- 
monies, music, language, and senses. There is very little in the 
book which will not be understood by any intelligent reader ; but 
we think that the mode of testing for sight might have been 
explained at greater length for the benefit of the uninitiated. 
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