592 xMEDLEVAL HISTORY. [Part Y. 



tlie name of the locality, and were formerly known as 

 " GaUas." ^ 



Galle therefore, in the earher ages, appears to have 

 occupied a position in relation to trade of equal if not 

 of greater importance than that which attaches to it at 

 tlie present day. It was the central emporium of a com- 

 merce which in turn enriched every comitry of Western 

 Asia, elevated the merchants of Tyre to the rank of 

 princes, fostered the renown of the Ptolemies, rendered 

 the wealth and the precious products of Arabia a gor- 

 geous mystery ^, fi'eighted the Tigris with " barbaric 

 pearl and gold," and identified the merchants of Bagdad 

 and the mariners of Bassora with associations of ad- 

 venture and romance. Yet, strange to say, the native 

 Singhalese appear to have taken no part whatever in 

 this exciting and emiching commerce ; their name is 

 never mentioned in connection with the immigrant 

 races attracted by it to their shores, and the only allu- 

 sions of travellers to the indigenous inhabitants of the 

 island are in connection with a custom so remarkable 

 and so pecuhar as at once to identify the tribes to 

 whom it is ascribed with the remnant of the aboriginal 

 race of Veddalis, Avhose descendants still haunt the 

 forests in the east of Ceylon. 



Such is the aversion of this untamed race to any 

 intercourse with civilised hfe, that when in want of the 

 rude implements essential to their savage economy, 

 they repair by night to the nearest village on the 

 confines of their hunting-fields, and indicating by well- 

 understood signs and models the number and form of 

 the articles required, whether arrow-heads, hatchets, 

 or cloths, they deposit an equivalent portion of dried 

 deer's flesh or honey near the door of the dealer, and 

 retire unseen to the jungles, returning by stealth within 



1 A notice of tliis tribe will be 

 found in another place. See Vol. II. 

 Pt. VII. ell. ii. 



" . . . . intactis opiilentior 



Tbesanris Arabum, et clivitis 



Indite." Horace. 



