No. 33. — 1880.] THE VEDDAS OF CEYLON. 



365 



sought honey and bees'-wax, dug edible roots, chased the 

 game, and laid their snares for birds or fishes. Of any kind 

 of culture, be it of garden or farm, there was no trace. 

 They had no tame domestic animals, except the dog ; 

 and it may be questioned whether even this was not a 

 later adoption, for according to Bailey* the species differs 

 in no wise from the race common in Ceylon. Moreover, the 

 dogs seem to have been trained to be watchdogs, and not for 

 the chase. f 



Sir John LubbockJ lays much weight upon their possess- 

 ing hunting buffaloes, which were so well trained that the 

 hunter guided them by a rope slung round one horn, whilst 

 he himself, concealed behind them, crept up to the game. But 

 Mr. Bailey§ says expressly that this practice, which he 

 certainly had observed in Bintenna, extended all over the 

 Island : we therefore can hardly concede to the Veddas a 

 claim to this invention. 



Their hunting utensils are the simplest possible. They 

 consist of a strong bow, six feet long, and from two to three 

 arrows, three feet and a half long, whose points are of wrought 

 iron. All the writers describe the bending of this bow as 

 very difficult. Sir E. TennentJ describes the Vedclas in a 

 half-lying position, using the left foot to draw the bow, and 

 gives a picture of one, according to a model carved in ebony, 

 by one of the native wood-carvers. More recent reporters 

 find no trace of the continuance of such a practice ; they 

 describe the bow as being drawn with the left arm, and 

 attribute the extraordinary power and development of this 

 arm to this practice. 



Besides'iron arrow-heads the Veddas had one iron axe — 

 sometimes, though rarely, two, a larger and a smaller one 



* Bailey.. I. c, p. 286. 



| Davy (I. <?., p. 117) says plainly, they do not use dogs for the chase, 

 unless perhaps at talagoyd (iguana). 



% John Lubbock. Pre-historic Times. London, 1878, 4th edition, p. 448. 

 § Bailey. I. c, p. 288. 



|| Tennent, I. c, vol. I., p. 409 ; Note 7, vol. II,. p. 439. 



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