112 JOURNAL R. A. S. CEYLON, [Vol. VII., Pt. II. 



with the Veddas ( Veddd). It is well known that there is a tribe of 

 demons called Kadavara Yakku, " Kadavara demons," to whom 

 offerings are made in some parts of the Kandyan country. If the 

 songs and prayers (yddini or kannalav), used by the Kadavara devil- 

 dancers, are examined (which I have no means of doing at present), 

 I have no doubt they will throw light on the early history of the 

 Yakkhos, or Veddas, and probably lead to very important ethnological 

 results. Again, "nine millions, nine millions" (a vast number) of 

 these Kadavara or Vedi demons are said to reside in a " far distant 

 land beyond the seas," in a country called Mallava desa, possibly a 

 corruption of Malaya desa, the ' hilly country.' 



Does not this show that the Veddas of Ceylon have a faint tradi- 

 tion that their fatherland is the " hill country" of India ? 



I may here mention a curious legend related in the Rdjdvali and 

 Kuve'ni Asna (a little work on the history of Kuveni, in Sinhalese 

 blank verse), which seems to have some connection with the history 

 of the. Veddas. Panduvasa (B. C. 504), nephew of Vijayo, and 

 third in succession to him, became ill with a combination of diseases, 

 "cough, asthma, fever, burning, rheumatism, &c," the result 

 of perjury committed by his uncle, Vijayo, who swore that he 

 would not renounce Kuveni, the aboriginal Princess whom he first 

 married, but afterwards violated his oath, by repudiating her and 

 marrying a princess from Southern India. When the King was 

 afflicted with this disease, Sakra, King of the gods, (Tndra of the 

 Hindu mythology) ordered the Rahu, the Asura (the ascending node) 

 to assume the form of a wild boar, in size like a huge mountain, and 

 devastate the pleasure garden of the King of Malaya (the hill-country 

 in India), who was versed in all the arts of necromancy. When 

 King Malaya saw the destruction of his pleasure garden, he pursued 

 the boar with bow and arrow, accompanied by his three brothers and 

 a retinue of archers or Veddas, through the continent of India. The 

 boar crossed over the sea near Tuticorin and made the circuit of the 

 Island, followed by the King, and when it reached the vicinity of 

 Anuradhapura, the boar was turned into a mountain ! The King of 

 gods then appeared to Malaya Raja, and Conducting him to King 



