192 ISLAND OF CEYLON. 



of woods, and the faftneffes of the mountains, and are, in all 

 refpe(5ts, as favage as the domefticated animals are in the ftate of 

 OrBarbari. nature. I fiifpedl them to be what Solhms* calls Barbari, -to 

 diftinguifli them from other Indians in a llate of civilization ; 

 for I think I have met with elfewhere, the diftinsftion between 

 a wild people, and others in a poliflied ftate of manners. 



These Wedas wear their hair long, colle»5l it together, and 

 tie it on the crown of the head in a bunch. Their complexions 

 are, comparative to the other Cingalefe, light : they inhabit the 

 depth of woods, and their Ikins, that way, efcape the effedl of 

 the burning fun. They live entirely on flefli, or on roots ; the 

 firft they either eat raw, or dried, or preferved in honey. They 

 live either in caves, or under a tree, with the boughs cut and 

 laid round about them to give notice when any wild beafts come 

 near, which they may hear by their ruftling and trampling 

 upon them t. They are like them, without law, and, as 

 JVolf, page 259, fays, without religion. Knox, p. p. 61, 62, alTerts 

 the contrary. The wilder fort never fhew themfelves ; the 

 tamer will enter into fome kind of commerce with their civili- 

 zed countrymen. Their drefs is only a cloth wrapped round 

 their waifts, and brought between their legs. A fmail ax is 

 iifually ftuck in the wrapper. They are fkilful archers, and 

 very nice in their arrows. The heads are of iron, made by the 

 fmiths of the civilized people. They have no ether means of 

 befpeaking them, than leaving near the fliop a pattern, cut out of 

 a leaf, with a piece of flefli by way of reward : If he does the 



* Polyhiftor, c. 65. Thefe may be the fame with the JFedas, which Solinus fjyf, made a 

 trade of felling parrots to the Romans. -j- Knox, p. 62. 



work, 



