CUAP. III.] 



THE VEDDAUS. 



443 



The Village Veddahs are but a shade superior to the 

 wild tribes of the jungle. They manifest no sym- 

 pathy, and maintain no association with them. They 

 occupy a position intermediate between that of the semi- 

 civihsed Kandyans of the Wanny and the coast, and 

 the Veddahs of the rock, but evince, to the present day, 

 their ancestral reluctance to adopt the habits of civihsed 

 life. They are probably to some extent the descendants 

 of Kandyans who may have intermingled with the wild 

 race, and whose offspring, from theu" intercourse with 

 the natives of the adjoining districts, have acquired a 

 smattering of Tamil, in addition to their natm^al dialect 

 of Singhalese.-^ They wear a bit of cloth a httle larger 

 than that worn by the tribes of the forest, and the 

 women ornament themselves with necldaces of brass 

 beads, and bangles cut from the chank shell. The ears 

 of the children when seven or eight years old are bored 

 with a thorn by the father, and decorated with rings. 

 The Veddahs have no idea of time or distance, no 

 nafhes for hours, days, or years. They have no doctors, 

 and no knowledge of medicine, beyond the practice of 

 applying bark and leaves to a wound. They have no 

 games, no amusements, no music, and as to education 

 it is so utterly unknown, that the Wild Veddahs are 

 unable to count beyond live on their own fingers. 

 Even the Village Veddahs are somewhat migratory in 

 theu- habits, removing their huts as facihties vary for 

 cultivating a httle Indian corn and yams, and occasionally 

 they accept wages in kind from the Moors for watching 

 the paddi-fields at night, in order to drive away wild 

 elephants. The women plait mats from the palm leaf, 

 and the men make bows, the strings of which are 

 prepared from the tough bark of the Eittagaha or Upas 



^ Boyd, in his account of his Em- 

 bassy to Kandy, speaks highly of the 

 character and abilities of a Veddah 

 who had been assigned to liini 



as intei-preter at Trincomalie, and 

 who, in his intei'views -n-ith the King 

 of Kandy, translated Singlialese into 

 Tamil. — Jliwcll. Wo)-kfi,\o\. ii. p. 2-34. 



