102 The Rijle and Hound in Ceylon. 



an unmistakable landmark upon the northern boundary. 

 From this point a person may ride for forty miles with- 

 out seeing a sign of a habitation ; the whole country is 

 perfectly uncivilized, and its scanty occupants, the 

 ' Veddahs," wander about like animals, without either 

 home, laws or religion. 



I have frequently read absurd descriptions of their 

 manners and customs, which must evidently have been 

 gathered from hearsay, and not from a knowledge of 

 the people. It is a commonly believed report that the 

 Veddahs u live in the trees" and a stranger imme- 

 diately confuses them with rooks and monkeys. Who- 

 ever first saw Veddah huts in the trees would have 

 discovered, upon inquiry, that they were temporary 

 watch-houses, from which they guard a little plot of 

 korrakan from the attacks of elephants and other wild 

 beasts. Far from living in the trees, they live no- 

 where ; they wander over the face of their beautiful 

 country, and migrate to different parts at different sea- 

 sons, with the game which they are always pursuing. 

 The seasons in Ceylon vary in an extraordinary man- 

 ner, considering the small size of the island. The wet 

 season, in one district, is the dry season in another, and 

 vice versd. Wherever the dry weather prevails, the 

 pasturage is dried up ; the brooks and pools are mere 

 sandy gullies and pits. The Veddahs watch at some 

 solitary hole which still contains a little water, and to 

 this the deer and every species of Ceylon game resort. 

 Here his broad-headed arrow finds a supply. He dries 

 the meat in long strips in the sun, and cleaning out some 

 hollow tree, he packs away his savory mass of sun-cooked 

 flesh, and fills up the reservoir with wild honey ; he then 

 stops up the aperture with clay. 



