440 



THE XORTHERN FORESTS. 



[Pakt IX. 



latter are abundant in their liunting groimds. Tlie 

 flesh of deer and other animals they diy on stages in 

 the sun and store away in hollow trees for future use, 

 closing the apertures Avith clay. They uivariably cook 

 their meat with fire, and avow a preference for the 

 iguana hzard and roasted monkeys above all other 

 dainties. 



The EocJc Veddahs are di\dded mto small clans or 

 famihes associated by relationship, who agree in par- 

 titioning the forest among themselves for hunting 

 grounds, the hmits of each family's possessions being- 

 marked by streams, hills, rocks, or some well-known 

 trees, and these conventional allotments are always 

 honourably recognised and mutually preserved fi'om 

 violation. Each party has a headman, the most ener- 

 getic senior of the tribe, but who exercises no sort of 

 authority beyond distributing at a particular season the 

 honey captured by the various members of the clan. 

 The produce of the chase they dry and collect for barter, 

 carrying it to the borders of the inhabited country, 

 whither the ubiquitous Moors resort, bringing cloths, 

 axes, arrow-heads, and other articles to be exchanged 

 for deer flesh, elephants' tusks, and bees' wax. In these 

 transactions the wild Yeddahs are seldom seen by those 

 with whom they come to deal.^ They deposit in the 

 night the articles wliich they are disposed to part with, 

 indicating by some mutually understood signals the 

 description of those they expect in return ; and these 

 being brought on the following day to the appointed 

 place, disappear dming the ensuing night. Money to 

 them is worthless, but coco-nuts, salt, hatchets, iron, 

 arrow-heads, and dyed cloths, or cooking chattis, are 

 valuables much in request. 



Their language, wliich is Hmited to a very few words. 



^ The concurrent testimonies on 

 this curious custom of the Veddahs, 

 from the fii-st centuiy to the present 



time, have been adverted to before. 

 See mite, Vol. I. Pt. v. ch. ii. p. 568. 



