5 



Nevertheless, we must renounce the idea of using these myths 

 as the basis for ethnological contemplation and for building up 

 a highly developed Vedda-state in prehistoric times. 



Veddas nomadic hunters. — Up to a very recent date the 

 Veddas have been a nomadic, half cave-inhabiting race of hun- 

 ters, each small family group having its special vaguely-defh ed 

 bunting ground, comprising a proportionately vast tract of 

 woodland. Of any kind of culture, garden or farm, there was 

 no trace. They had no domestic animal save the dog, of a 

 species identical with that common in Ceylon, and apparently 

 trained not for hunting but for watching. Their hunting im- 

 plements are the simplest possible, consisting of a strong bow 

 6 feet long, and two or three arrows of feet, having points of 

 wrought iron, not made by themselves but obtained by barter 

 for honey and wax. Besides these they have only an iron axe, 

 o ; r sometimes two (a larger and a smaller) obtained in the same 

 way. Mr. Hartshorne rightly finds in their word for axe a 

 reminiscence of an earlier period when stone weapons were in 

 use among them, and for which it might be a not unprofitable 

 task to explore the caverns in which, according to Mr. Bailey, 

 bone's of the dead are still to be found. They subsist 

 almost wholly on animal food, excluding the ffesh of cattle, 

 the elephant, bear, leopard, jackal, and fowls. Their food is 

 cooked, but very roughly, as they have no clay or earthen 

 vessels. They have no special stimulants, and neither 

 betel nor tobacco, but chew a kind of bark. Their only drink 

 is water, Mr. Hartshorne says that even salt was unknown 

 to them, but that when it was given to them they were much 

 delighted with it. Only in occasional places where European 

 influence is perceptible do we find a rude kind of agricul- 

 ture in the form of little strips of chena cultivation. With this 

 exception, which really cannot be taken into account, their whole 

 existence depends on the product of the chase ; and there is 

 nothing to speak of which indicates that anywhere or at any 

 time they have risen above the condition of a savage tribe of 

 hunters. Indeed, they have never arrived at even the very 

 crudest form" of permanent dwelling places ; and, although 

 they sheltered themselves from the inclemency of the weather 

 in natural caverns, or in simple huts made of branches of trees 



