7 



Intelleetual capacity. — In point of intellect they seem 

 indeed to stand very low. If they have any notion of numbers, 

 or can count at all, it is to the most limited extent, probably not 

 beyond five. It is said that they have no word for color, nor 

 any perception of differences of color ; that their memory is 

 defective ; and that they are incapable of forming any general 

 ideas. Sir Emerson Tennent says they have no notion [perhaps 

 it would be more correct to say only a very limited and vague 

 notion] of time or space ; no words for hours, days or years ;* 

 no games, no amusements,! no musicj These statements, how- 

 ever, apply in their full breadth only to the " wild sort," for 

 Davy says of the village Veddas that they have a rough kind of 

 song performed as an accompaniment to a clumsily executed 

 dance. Granting some of the observations furnished to be too 

 exclusive, still we are compelled to acknowledge the inferiority 

 of the race. 



Caste. — As they have no distinction of caste it is a very 

 striking fact that they not only look upon themselves as 

 superior to their neighbours but are looked upon by them as 

 members of a high and even of a royal caste. The Sinhalese 

 term for the agricultural caste is Goyi-wanse, the Malabar term 

 Wellala ; to this caste they are said by writers to belong ; and 

 those of Bintenne are said to call themselves Vedda-Vellalas. 



least. However low the sensibilities, pain and pleasure must equally 

 be experienced, and be visibly manifested in the absence of some physical 

 defect, and their deliberate suppression or control would seem tp argue 

 a degree of intellectual and moral strength which no one has given 

 the Veddas the credit of possessicg. Possibly, a low emotional excitabi- 

 lity has been confounded with incapacity. — T. B.~] 



c ~ [But the ordinary Sinhalese cultivator is singularly poor and 

 vague in the observation and notation of time and space, though he does 

 measure the day by the length of the shadow in feet, and the height of 

 the sun by comparison with the height of a cocoanut tree. Is it 

 quite certain the Veddas do not the same ? Mr. Hartshorne's assertion 

 has, however, been disproved, as appears in Russels' Account of the Prince 

 of Wales' visit to India. — T. B.~] 



f [If their children do not gambol, if their men and women have 

 no enjoyments,- their life must be stagnant indeed and far below the 

 level of the beasts in their forests. But who can believe this ?] 



% [Also incredible ; and it has been already stated that they invoke 

 the dead with dance and song. — T. B.~] 



