ON SECLUDED TRIBES OF tlNCiVILI^Eb MEN. 341 



for in relating the particulars of his visit to Ceylon, lie makes use of 

 the expression tcftOaa-a iyyv? Twv KaXov[j.evwv B«raSwv, which really^ 

 liieans that he stole a march upon them, as upon deer, or other wild 

 creatures. Kuweni's children being informed of their lofty antece- 

 dents, would look down upon those who were not of princely stock, 

 and their posterity would naturally retain the same feelings. This- 

 theory will also account for the acknowledgement on the part of the 

 Singhalese of the high rank of the Veddahs — for the custom, whicli 

 has so long prevailed ainongst the latter, of males marrying the 

 yOunger sister, and for the prevalence amongst them of the names of 

 deities now worshipped in India, proving them to have preserved a 

 feinnant of "Wijaya's faith. Their crude ideas and practices in the 

 matter of religion seem to correspond to a certain extent with the 

 precepts of Menu, and there are strongly marked traces in these of 

 the Nat worship of India. Their particularity in the selection of 

 food also argues that at some remote period they have been more 

 fully under the influence of religious prejudices. 



"We have strong cause therefore, even making all due allowance 

 for the fable mixed up with their history, to believe that the secluded 

 condition of the Veddahs, their shyness and their timidity, were the 

 result of hostility manifested by more powerful neighbours at an 

 early period of their existence. It is very possible that the same 

 cause may have produced similar phenomena and characteristics in 

 the Andaman Islanders. Such is decidedly the opinion of Peter- 

 mann with regard to the Bushmen. Their superior activity arid 

 difference of dialect, as well as the distribution of their numbers, 

 lead him to suppose that they are not merely degraded members of 

 the Hottentot race, but a distinct nation of that race, probably the 

 first that penetrated from the north into that portion of Africa, and 

 had subsequently been overpowered by invasions of the Hottentots 

 proper. To strengthen this supposition it may be stated that there 

 exists to the present time a violent animosity between the two 

 peoples. The Yamparicos, a tribe of Diggers, residing west of the 

 Bocky Mountains, habitually shun the Shoshonees and Utahs, 

 •dwelling not far from them. It is conjectured that the original 

 stock of this miserable and secluded people were outcasts from these 

 tribes . The Fuegiaus, another degraded and isolated tribe, do not 

 seem to associate with their neighbours the Patagonians, and differ 

 frotfl them greatly in physical marks, save in color. Whether they 



