366 



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



[Vol. IX, 



— principally for the purpose of cutting wax and honey 

 out of hollow trees. These tools they obtained by barter 

 with their neighbours. Their only achievement is shaping 

 the arrow-heads for special uses by pounding them. But 

 even these poor specimens of work are rare, and preserved 

 in the family as precious heirlooms ; sometimes, indeed, 

 they make arrow-points simply of sharpened wood, orna- 

 mented with feathers of birds. Mr. Hartshorne* makes the 

 interesting statement in connection with these facts, that 

 the word galrehhi, by which they denote the axe, is connected 

 with the Sinhalese gala, "stone" or "rock," and rightly finds 

 in this a reminiscence of an earlier period, when stone 

 weapons were in use among the Veddas. I am not, indeed, 

 aware that utensils of stone have been found in Ceylon, but 

 on the other hand I do not know that they have ever been 

 sought for there. It would perhaps be a not unprofitable 

 task to explore those caverns thoroughly in the hope of 

 finding other contents, where, according to Mr. Bailey, bones 

 of the dead are still to be found. 



They subsist almost wholly on animal food. Like the 

 Buddhists, excluding the flesh of cattle, and also (according 

 to Sir Emerson Tennent and Mr. Bailey) that of the elephant, 

 bear, leopard, jackal, and fowls. They eat, however, the 

 flesh of all other birds, of the Ceylon elk (samba, JRusa Aris- 

 totelis ), deer {Axis maculata ), monkeys, pigs, iguana, and 

 pengolin (Manis pentadactylos ) — the last being considered 

 the best : among fishes they prefer the eel.f All their food 

 is cooked ; as, however, they have no clay or earthen 

 vessels, the preparation of the meat is very rough. WolfJ 

 even asserted they ate the meat uncooked. At present this 

 does not seem to be the rule ; they now boil and roast their 



* Hartshorne, I. c, p. 408. 



f In the choice of their food both classes (rock Veddas and village Ved- 

 das) are almost omnivorous, no carrion or vermin being too repulsive for 

 their appetite. Tennent, II., p. 439. " Their food being only flesh." Knox, 

 p. 61. 



% Wolf, p. 117. 



