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JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [Vol. IX. 



This was done in sight of another man, a Malabar, who was 

 in the same field at some distance, and from whom the Vedda 

 had ascertained the identity of the man he was in search 

 of. The assassin, after withdrawing the fatal shaft from the 

 body of his victim, made his escape into the woods. 



They are not only ready thus to redress their own grie- 

 vances, but also those of their friends ; and this disposition 

 was sometimes taken advantage of by the Moormen and 

 Malabars, who were in the habit of intervening between those 

 who are in a sort of semi-civilised state, and the absolutely 

 unsocial and uncivilised Veddas. An instance of this also 

 took place in the Batticaloa district, about the same time. A 

 headman of the Province of Pattipal having rendered himself 

 obnoxious to the chena cultivators near the Yedda country, 

 a party of Veddas came down quietly in the night to the village 

 where the headman was residing at the time, surrounded his 

 house, plundered it, and put him to death. In short, the 

 disposition of the hill Veddas was so well known that the 

 Sinhalese, Malabar, and Moor families, from whom the petty 

 chiefs placed over the partly civilised tribe were generally 

 taken, both in the interior and the Batticaloa district, were 

 objects of dread amongst their neighbours from the influence 

 they possessed over such ready instruments of revenge. 



In regard to their origin, it is remarkable that the tradi- 

 tional accounts of them given by the best informed Kandyan 

 chiefs, and the most intelligent Tamil inhabitants of the 

 Batticaloa district, perfectly accord with each other.* 



* The historical origin of the Veddas is as follows : — When Wijayo 

 landed in Ceylon, he married Kuwena, the daughter of a Yakko chief. She 

 betrayed her people into his hands, but when she had served his purpose 

 he deserted her. She returned to her people, but they were so incensed 

 with her that they put her to death ; and her two children by Wijayo only 

 escaped the same fate by the intervention of their uncle, who fled with 

 them into the forest near Adam's Peak. Some time after the brother and 

 sister married, and founded a wild race, who kept aloof from all their 

 neighbours, retreated into the forests of Wellassa and Batticaloa on the 

 approach of the Indian invaders, and became " the wild men " of Knox — the 

 Veddas (or hunters) of Ceylon. 



