ON SECLUDED TRIBES OF UNCIVILIZED MEN. 335 



the island, to go to the further side of a river where the strangers 

 had laid their goods, leaving other commodities in their place. The 

 same practice is alluded to by Pa Hian, a Chinese Buddhist, who 

 wrote in the third century. This peculiarity is also recorded by 

 several other writers in succession, until we come to the time of 

 Eobert Knox, who published in 1681 an " Historical Eolation " of 

 the island, in which he was a captive from 1659 to 1679. Prom this 

 author we have a good deal of valuable information concerning these 

 tribes, though I believe he wrote from the testimony of others. Dr. 

 John Davy has also contributed some information concerning the 

 Veddahs ; and, subsequently, Sir Emerson Tennent has with praise- 

 worthy zeal investigated their history and condition. His testimouy 

 is, however, founded chiefly on report. His opportunities of per- 

 sonal observation were not favourable or numerous, and in the only 

 interview with any of them which he records, he appears to hav& 

 been misinformed as to the real character of the natives who were 

 brought before him for exhibition. These he himself suspected to 

 be not the genuine troglodyte, or Eock Veddahs, but a partially 

 tamed and partially settled portion of the aborigines, who are distin- 

 guished by the appellation of Village Veddahs. This suspicion is 

 confirmed by the testimony of Mr.- Bailey, who has written the 

 fullest, most interesting and most reliable account of the Veddahs 

 which I have yet seen, and who distinctly states that those whom 

 Tennent describes were not by any means the wildest description of 

 Veddahs. Mr. Bailey being employed in the civil service in Ceylon, 

 and his duties bringing him into those districts where he could, by 

 personal observation, learn the condition and usages of these wild 

 people, is an excellent authority on the subject which he undertakes 

 to elucidate. His statements do not in all cases correspond with 

 those of Tennent, and in several instances he points out where Ten- 

 nent must have been misinformed. In fact in reading Tennent's 

 description of the Veddahs, it is almost impossible to avoid being 

 struck with the conviction that there must have been a very high 

 colouring on their part, of the statements made to him by his infor- 

 mants. Probably with these the rule may have been omne ignotum 

 pro magnifico, or at least pro mirifico. 



The Veddahs are divided by Mr. Bailey into the wild and settled 

 ones. It is chiefly on the north-eastern aide of the island that these 

 creatures are to be found. They dwell in greatest number in the 



