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



where afterward the kings Devanampiyatissa (307 B.C.) and 

 Dutugemunu (164 B.C.) had erected a dagaba.* According 

 to the Yakkhos, in whose midst the Buddha here appeared, 

 he visited on a second occasion " Nagadipo," the abode of the 

 Nagas, or snake-worshippers,t which is generally assumed to 

 be the name for the north and west of the Island ; at any 

 rate, mention is made of Nagas living by the ocean, as well 

 as mountain Nagas : there is a Naga king of Kelaniya spoken 

 of in the neighbourhood of Colombo. Sir E. TennentJ com- 

 pares this idol worship to that of the Rakshas among the 

 Dravidian tribes of Hindustan, and probably with much 

 correctness, but he overlooks the fact that if any importance 

 is to be attached to these mythological traditions, a multitude 

 of tribes, or at least a division of the original population, 

 must be inferred. And it is not without value that the de- 

 scription of the Naga states in these most ancient myths 

 discloses to us the picture of a much more perfect organisation 

 than we find any account of in the tales of the Yakkhos. 

 Nevertheless, we must renounce the idea of using these 

 myths as the basis for ethnological contemplation and for 

 building up a highly developed Yedda state in pre-historic 

 times. If the Yeddas of Bintenna were Buddhists before 

 the time of Wijayo, the later absence of all religion among 

 them, their preference for animal food, and many other 

 things, are scarcely explicable. 



Up to a very recent date the Yeddas have been a nomadic, 

 half cave-inhabiting race of hunters. As already said a 

 small number of them lived upon a proportionally vast 

 tract of woodland, which without exact boundaries, but 

 under the recognition of a kind of traditional family claim, 

 was distributed among little groups of relations, who clung 

 together. Each family had its special hunting-ground, to 

 which its prerogative was acknowledged. Within this they 



* Tennent, I. c, II., p. 420. f Mahawanso, p, 4. ; Glossary, p. 18. 



X Tennent, I. <?., I., p. 328. 



