No. 33. — 1886.] THE VEDDAS OF CEYLON. 



383 



Vedda language to be simply a dialect of the Sinhalese, 

 which he, like the other writers, looks upon as an Aryan 

 language. 



With these disagreements in the views of linguists, we 

 gain, unfortunately, very little from them towards a just 

 comprehension of the phylogenetic position of the Veddas. 

 On the contrary, the mystery that envelops this people, so 

 remarkable in themselves, is vastly increased, and the purely 

 anthropological interest comes even more into the fore- 

 ground. 



So far as we at present know, this people, like so many 

 others, bears a name ascribed to them by outsiders. Mr. 

 Hartshorne only, in a communication made by him to 

 Childers, * asserts that they gave themselves this name 

 (pronounced Vaedda). The reports generally say just the 

 contrary. The designation Vedda or something like it (Yedda, 

 Veda, Vedan, Vaidan, Beda, Bedan, &c), is widely used in 

 India, as Mr. F. Jagorf has lately shown by a comprehensive 

 grouping of facts. A whole series of little tribes dwelling far 

 apart, and probably not having the least connection with 

 another, bear this very same name, or one quite like it. The 

 translator of Percival's work, Bergk,t reminds us that there are 

 Veddas even in Sumatra and Borneo. At any rate, whether 

 that word is derived from the Sanskrit ( Vyddha, " hunter ") 

 or the Tamil (Vedan, "hunter," "wood-dweller"), so much 

 seems to be certain, that except where it is used in combination, 

 as, for instance, in the earlier mentioned Dada-Vedda, it always 

 relates to aborigines or savage races. In so far it stands, as 

 Mr. Bailey § remarks in a paragraph, with the purely lite- 

 rary words " Habara " (barbarian) and " Vannacharakiya " 

 (hunter), and the like. Dr. Max Miiller, who declares the 



* Childers, I. c, vol. 8, p. 131. 



f Verhandlungen der Berliner anthropologeschen G-esellschaft, 17th 

 Mai, 1879, s. 172. Zeitschr. fiiw Ethnologie. Bd. XI. 

 J Percival, a. a. 0. S., 335. 

 § Bailey, I c, p. 297. 



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