362 journal, r.a.s. (ceylon). [Vol. IX. 



north-west coast, not far from Puttalam,* he found an 

 already organised Yakkho state :| indeed, it is related of 

 Gotama Buddha himself that he came to Lanka,J a settlement 

 of the Yakkhos. It would hardly be allowable to conclude 

 from this, with Sir Emerson Tennent§ and others, that the 

 people of the north-west coast, to whom the name of Yakkhos 

 was given, were identical with the present Veddas, and that 

 up to the time of Wijayo an aboriginal homogeneous race 

 inhabited the Island ; but it may not be a mistake to assume 

 that in the earliest period almost the entire population were 

 devoted to this yakkho worship, as it now exists among 

 the Veddas, and is to be found only among them ; for the 

 Sinhalese are Buddhists, the Moors and the greater number 

 of the Tamils being Muhammadans. 



One fact also speaks against the whole Island having 

 been inhabited by Veddas : that the legends tell of kings, 

 princesses, and cities (for instance, Lankapura) of the 

 Yakkhos, whilst no trace of all these is to be found among 

 the Veddas of modern times. As they have no God, no 

 priests, no temple, so they make shift to get on without a 

 king, without chiefs, and without cities, even without 

 houses. At least this is true of the wilder portion of them. 

 We should have to assume such deep degeneration of the 

 present Veddas, from the old Yakkho times, as would be 

 without a parallel in history as well as in ethnology. Even 

 for those who, like myself, acknowledge the possibility of a 

 deep mental and physical degradation of whole tribes, it 

 would yet be going very far to admit that a tribe which 



* Mr. Brodie (Journal Royal Asiatic Society, Ceylon Branch, 1853, p. 48) 

 states that the place where the first settlement was made (Tambapanni), now 

 called Tammena Adaviya, lies about six or eight English miles east of 

 Puttalam. The word Tambapanni is derived from the Greek name for 

 the Island, Taprobane. Tennent, I. c, vol. I., p. 525, note I. 



f Mahawapso, pp. 48, 49. 



X Id., p. 2. Lanka filled by Yakkhos, and therefore the settlement of 

 the Yakkhos. Lanka is an old name of Ceylon, 

 § Tennent, I. c, II., p. 438. 



