344 VEDDAHS. 



the latter they are not very skilful, as they pursue 

 only the larger game, and the art of hunting consists in 

 creeping close up to their prey and taking it unawares. 

 They are very good deer- stalkers, and besides excellent dogs, 

 have also hunting buffaloes. These are so trained that they 

 are easily guided by a string tied round the horn, and are 

 used at night. The buffalo feeds, the man crouches behind 

 him, and thus, unseen and unsuspected, steals upon his 

 prey. 



They have no pottery, and their cooking is very primitive. 

 They wear scarcely any clothes, nothing in fact but a scrap 

 of dirty rag, supported in front by a string tied round the 

 waist. Perhaps the women's cloth is a trifle larger than the 

 men's, but that appears to be the only difference. They are 

 very dirty, and very small ; the ordinary height of the men 

 being from four feet six to five feet one, and of the women 

 from four feet four to four feet eight. Mr. Bailey thinks 

 that it would be impossible to conceive more barbarous 

 specimens of the human race. 



They have, however, one remarkable peculiarity which it 

 would be unfair to omit. They are kind, affectionate, and con- 

 stant to their wives ; abhor polygamy, and have a proverb that 

 " Death alone can separate husband and wife." In this they 

 are very unlike their more civilised neighbours.* An in- 

 telligent Kandyan chief with whom Mr. Bailey visited these 

 Veddahs was " perfectly scandalised at the utter barbarism of 

 living with only one wife, and never parting until separated by 

 death/' It was, he said, "just like the wanderoos" (monkeys). 

 Even in their marriage relations, however, the Veddahs can- 

 not altogether be commended, as it is or was until quite 

 lately very usual with them for a man to marry his younger 

 sister. This is the more remarkable, as marriage with an 



* It is only fair to add that the Kandyans are said to have much improved in 

 this respect of late years. 



