No. 33. — 1886.] the veddAs of ceylon. 



357 



Whether this assertion applies to a particular district or is 

 universal, and whether the extinction has been hurried on by a 

 general dying out or through intermarriages with other tribes, 

 I have not been able to discover from the information given 

 me. We can do little more at this distance than to hold to- 

 gether what has been furnished us by observers, who had 

 opportunities of intercourse with living Veddas in their 

 own home. Among these we must name above all, Dr. 

 Davy, Sir Emerson Tennent, the Rev. Mr. Gillings, 

 Mr. Bailey, and Mr. Hartshorne. But we encounter at the 

 outset a peculiar obstacle, viz. : that each fresh writer 

 designates the statements of his predecessor as "incorrect." 

 Mr. Bailey* criticises Sir Emerson Tennent in the severest 

 manner, and Mr. Hartshorne,! who on this point agrees with 

 him also, calls in question the accuracy of Mr. Bailey's 

 statements. 



Yet Mr. Bailey was many long years in Ceylon. First, as a 

 member of the Government in the district of Badulla, and 

 later as Principal Assistant Colonial Secretary of Ceylon, 

 affording him sufficient opportunity to study the Veddas. 

 He puts great emphasis on the fact, and reiterates it fre- 

 quently, that his statements are sustained by well-tested 

 and often repeated personal observations. It appears to me 

 that the contradiction between Messrs. Bailey and Hartshorne 

 is not in reality so great as the latter pictures it. I find 



* Bailey, I. c, p. 279, note. " His [Tennent's] account of them is in some 

 important instances defective, and even inaccurate. He glances casually at 

 those tribes which are in the wildest state, touching- with precision none of 

 their peculiarities, and dwells in detail upon those only who from long 

 association with the Singalese and Tamil races have lost much of their 

 originality. Of the ancient aborigines he has compiled much that is curious. 

 Of the existing Veddahs he has given us little besides an epitome of former 

 notices." 



f Hartshorne, I. c. '-'They have been described by Sir Emerson 

 Tennent and by Mr. Bailey ; but interesting as their accounts are, 

 the latter has suffered grievously from misprints, and the value of the 

 former is impaired by the circumstance that its materials were not the 

 fruit of original research," 



