chap. xii. A JUNGLE TRIP. 299 



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 greyish 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 

 presents of rice and tobacco, we got the animal into 

 a good humour, and we gathered the following in- 

 formation. 



He knew nothing of any place except the northern 

 portion of the Veddah country. This was his world ; 

 but his knowledge of it was extremely limited, as he 

 could not undertake to guide us farther than Oomanoo, 

 a Veddah village, which he described as three days' 

 journey from where we then stood. We made him 

 point out the direction in which it lay. This he 

 did, after looking for some moments at the sun ; and, 

 upon comparing the position with the compass, we 

 were glad to see it at south-south-east, being pretty 

 close to the course that we wished to steer. From 

 Oomanoo, he said, we could procure another Veddah 

 to guide us still farther ; but he himself knew nothing 

 more. 



