CiiAp. III.] THE YEDDAIIS. 449 



stantly visited by traders in search of deer's-horiis and 

 ivory ; and the inhabitants of Velassy obtain from their 

 wild neighbours supphes of diied deer's-fiesh and honey. 

 The Veddahs themselves have in a great degree cast 

 aside their timidity, and not only come out into the 

 open country with confidence, but even venture into the 

 towns for such commodities as they have the means 

 of purchasing. The experiment has cost the Govern- 

 ment but a few hundred pounds, and I am justified 

 in sapng that the expenditure has been well repaid 

 by even the partial reclamation of this harmless race 

 from a, state of debasement, scarcely, if at all, ele- 

 vated above that of the animals which they follow in 

 the chase. 



The morning after our arrival at Bmtenne, a party 

 of Veddahs about sixty in number, were brought in 

 by the headman to be exhibited before us. It Avas 

 a melancholy spectacle. We were assured that they 

 were Eock Veddahs, but this I doubted ; they were 

 more probably unsettled stragglers from the Veddah 

 villages, with perhaps a few genuine denizens of the 

 forest. But they were miserable objects, active but 

 timid, and athletic though deformed, with large heads 

 and misshapen hmbs. Their long black hair and beards 

 fell down to their middle in uncombed lumps, they 

 stood with their faces bent towards the ground, and 

 their restless eyes twinkled upwards with an expres- 

 sion of uneasiness and apprehension. They wore the 

 smallest conceivable patches of dirty cloth about their 

 loins ; and were each armed with an iron-headed axe 

 stuck in their girdle, a rude bow about six feet long, 

 strung with twisted bark; and a handful of clumsy 

 arrows feathered with peacock's pinions, and with iron 

 heads about seven inches long, unbarbed, and tapering 

 to a point. At our request they sliot at a target, 

 but they exhibited no skill, only one arrow out of tliree 

 striking the cential mark. Tlie truth is, tliat the 



vol.. II G a 



