260 The Rifle and Hound in Ceylon. 



The village of Monampitya consists of about six small 

 huts ; and we now found out that there was no other 

 village within forty miles in the direction that we wished 

 to steer. No't a soul could we obtain as a guide no offer 

 of reward would induce a man to start, as they declared 

 that no one knew the country, and that the distance was 

 so great that the peeple would be starved, as they could 

 get nothing to eat. We looked hopelessly at the country 

 before us. We had a compass, certainly, which might 

 be useful enough on a desert or a prairie, but in a jun- 

 gle country it was of little value. 



Just as we were in the greatest despair, and we were 

 gazing wistfully in the direction which the needle 

 pointed out as the position of the " Park," now sepa- 

 rated from us by an untraveled district of an unknown 

 distance, we saw two figures with bows and arrows 

 coming from the jungle. One of these creatures bolted 

 back again into the bushes the moment he perceived 

 us ; the other one had a fish in his hand, of about four 

 pounds weight, which he had shot with his bow and 

 arrow, and, while he was hesitating whether he should 

 run or stand still, we caught him. 



Of all the ugly little devils I ever saw, he was super- 

 lative. He squinted terribly ; his hair was grayish and 

 matted with filth ; he was certainly not more than four 

 feet and a half high, and he carried a bow two feet 

 longer than himself. He could speak no language but 

 his own, which throughout the Veddah country is much 

 the same,' intermixed with so many words resembling 

 Cingalese that a native can generally understand their 

 meaning. By proper management, and some little pres- 

 ents of rice and tobacco, we got the animal into a good 

 humor, and we gathered the following information : 



