350 



JOURNAL, B.A.S. (CEYLON). 



[Vol. IX. 



The Veddas have dwelt — at least for some centuries — in 

 one district in the eastern, or more correctly, south-eastern 

 part of the Island. Robert Knox, who gave the first exact 

 information regarding them in the year 1681, transferred 

 them to the woods of " Bintan " (Bintenne).* John Davyf in 

 the early part of this century speaks of them as inhabiting the 

 vast forests on the south-east side of the Island, between the 

 mountains and the sea, especially the wild, unhealthy tracts 

 of land called Vedirata of Bintenna and Mahavedirata of 

 U'va. These they consider as their own territories. On 

 the whole their boundaries remain the same to-day. Sir E. 

 TennentJ and Mr. Bertram F. Hartshorne§ assert that the 

 Vedda-land is about ninety English miles in length and forty 

 in breadth, from the hills of U'va and Medamahanuwara 

 toward the east and extending to the sea coast, while Mr. 

 Pridham,|| who estimates the area at very nearly 1,500 square 

 miles (English), bounds it more precisely in the following 

 way : Batticaloa on the east, the districts of Magampattu 

 and U'va on the south, the mountains of Kandy on the west 

 and south-west, and the river Mahaveli-ganga on the north. 

 Mr. John Bailey 1[ states that the majority of the real 

 Veddas dwelt in the districts of Batticaloa and Badulla 

 (chiefly in the former) ; but here it should be said that according 

 to a later division of the country a part of Bintenna has been 

 added to the district of Badulla, and the larger portion of it 



* Robert Knox. An Historical Relation of the Island of Ceylon in the 

 East Indies. London, 1681, p. 61. New edition, printed in Philalethes. 

 The History of Ceylon from the earliest period to the year MDCCCXV. 

 London, 1817. 



f John Davy. An Account of the Interior of Ceylon and of its Inhabi- 

 tants, with Travels in that Island. London, 1821, pp. 115, 116. 



\ Sir James Emerson Tennent. Ceylon : an Account of the Island, 

 Physical, Historical, and Topographical. London, 1859, vol. II., p. 437. 



§ Hartshorne, in the Fortnightly Review. London, 1876. New series, 

 vol. XIX. 



|| Charles Pridham. An Historical, Political, and Statistical Account of 

 Ceylon and its Dependencies. London, 1849, vol. I., p. 452. 



% John Bailey, in Transactions of the Ethnological Society. London, 

 1863. New series, vol. II., p. 278. 



