15 



are also somewhat shorter than Europeans. Among all th# 

 characteristics cited there is in reality only one which seems to 

 have made a great and decided impression on every observer, to 

 wit the form of the nose. Whilst with the Sinhalese it is very 

 prominent, resembling an eagle's beak, and therefore thin and 

 round, with the Veddds it is always described as flat and with 

 widely distended nostrils. Add to this, the thick and pro- 

 jecting lips and the large mouth, and perhaps also the com- 

 parative smallness of the Vedda face, and there remain few 

 facial characteristics for diagnosis.* We may say that the 

 Sinhalese also belong to a dark, perhaps best described as a 

 brown, smooth-haired, and a not (or only very moderately) 

 .prognathous race, that is to say the jaws do not project, or only 

 slightly. 



The Tamils or Malabaks : their distribution in the island 

 'and physical appearance.— We understand by this term the 

 Dravidian immigrants who, in historic times, came from many 

 different parts on the peninsula of Hindustan, and, in the course 

 of two thousand years, multiplied so greatly that they almost 

 exclusively peopled the north and a large portion of the east 

 of the island, more especially along the shore, and whom 

 Pridham speaks of as inhabitants of the land from Batticaloa on 

 the east, to Jaffna on the north, and from there as far south 

 as Puttalam on the west coast. When the Portugese, the first 

 pioneers of civilization, obtained a firm foot-hold upon the island 

 the Malabar rule was firmly established in the old Rajarata 

 or Pihiti. It is not to be supposed that they live even now 

 wholly separated from the Sinhalese. On the contrary, they 

 are found in no small numbers mixed with other races. It 

 is of special interest to us that they are immediate neighbours 

 of the Veddas. Wolff describes the Malabar s as black, long- 

 haired, and without calves to their legs. Beyond this the 

 author has found very few statements regarding their physical 

 peculiarities ; most of the writers limiting themselves to ascrib- 

 ing to them a stouter physique than the Sinhalese and greater 

 activity. 



* [Another point (whether common to the Veddas also I do not 

 know) which seems to me of perhaps ethnological importance is the yellow 

 tint or tone that seems to suffuse the brown Sinhalese complexion, and 

 which is noticed by Percival, Philolethes and Davy. — T, B.] 



