No. 33,-1886.] THE VEDDAS OF CEYLON. 



375 



They are more robust and athletic than the Sinhalese, 

 and the women frequently pretty. Both sexes allow the 

 hair to grow its full length, and wind it into a coil. They 

 live by the chase, and use bows and arrows like the Veddas ; 

 like them also they wrap their dead in mats and bury them. 

 Although Buddhists they offer sacrifices to the Gard Yakd 

 and to the Vedi Yalcku. They speak Sinhalese, but have 

 some peculiar words, which Mr. Chetty thinks remnants of 

 past ages. The description by Sir E. Tennent agrees with 

 this. He visited a Rodiya village, which lies on the pass 

 between Kandy and the Mahaweli-ganga, and gives a picture 

 of a group of these people. He proves that the Rodiyas were 

 mentioned in the Rdjdivaliya as early as 204 B.C., and in the 

 Mahdwanso 589 A.D. 



According to his opinion they differ physically very much 

 from the Veddas, and he is inclined to believe they had their 

 origin on the coast of India, and belong to the Chandalas. 

 For the rest they are only found in the Districts of Kandy. 

 Although they may be compared to the Oagots and Caqueux of 

 the Pyrenees, there are yet two races of outcasts in Ceylon, 

 who were detested even by the Rodiyas, namely, the Embet- 

 tdyo (barbers) and the Hanomoreyo (betelbox-makers) in 

 Uva. 



The existence of these outcasts is of no little importance to 

 us in explaining the position of the Veddas among these com- 

 plicated tribal relations. Had the Veddas, as many have 

 surmised, been originally outcasts, they would surely have 

 remained so to this day, just as the Rodiyas have been for at 

 least two thousand years. If they had, like the Arabs, the so- 

 called " Moormen," subsequently emigrated, they would not 

 be placed in the relatively high caste of Vellala, for the 

 Moormen are in no caste, although attached to the Karawe 

 (fishermen), a subdivision of the Sudras. Unquestionably, 

 then, the Sinhalese must have retained a feeling of the 

 original connection, which in spite of the religious and 

 physical dissimilarities made them acknowledge the Veddas 



