150 JOURNAL B. A. S. (CEYLON.) [Vol. IIJ. 



with Vellalas, and will in all probability soon be incorporated 

 with that caste. 



Considerable numbers of domesticated Veddas are to be met 

 with, but none of those who still retain their primitive wildness 

 reside in the district. 



Six or seven villages of the Eastern division are inhabited 

 by a set of people who have much the look of Moormen. If 

 asked to what caste they belong, they reply : " We are from 

 Kurunegala habage." Their neighbours call them u Wageyei" 

 a name which they do not at all like. They do not intermarry 

 with the people of the district, aitd seek for wives either in their 

 own villages here, or in those of their comrades in Seven Kor ale's. 

 They preserve a tradition, that many centurirs ago their fore- 

 fathers came from Mai war, but do not know where that place is. 

 They seem to be a sort of Duriyas. 



The Moormen or Mahomedans occupy numerous villages ; 

 they are locomotive, enterprising, fond of trade, and very decep- 

 tive. Their love of money is a perfect disease ; they are more 

 robust, intelligent, and bold than the Sinhalese, and are very 

 much disliked and feared by them. 



Many individual Tamils have settled in the district, but I 

 am not aware that any one village is exclusively occupied by 

 them. 



A few Kaffres and Malays occur here ; the former chiefly 

 discharged soldiers and their offspring ; the latter, people, who, 

 as I believe, have some very good reason for living in secluded 

 spots. 



Two circumstances exercise a most beneficial effect on the 

 people ; the first, that for the last three years there has not 

 been a single tavern in the district ; the latter, that there are no 

 resident proctors. Of course 1 do not mean to deny that many 

 proctors may be good and honest men, nor that such are very 

 useful ; but it is evident that proctors who would settle in such 

 a district as this, must be the very refuse of their profession, and 

 such men would be a curse to the district. 



