No. 33. — 1886.] the veddas of ceylon. 



415 



very prominent, resembling an eagle's beak, and therefore 

 rather thin and narrow, with the Veddas it is always described 

 as flat, and with widely-distended nostrils. Add to this the 

 thick and projecting lips and the large month, and perhaps 

 also the comparative shortness of the Vedda face, there then 

 remains, as Mr. Hartshorne* has already pointed out, only a 

 few facial characteristics for diagnosis. Whether this is correct 

 the future may teach us, provided exact descriptions (and 

 above all large photographs) of the Veddas are furnished in 

 time. Meanwhile we may state that the Sinhalese also belong 

 to a dark — -perhaps best described as a bro wn — smooth-haired, 

 and not ( or only a very moderately ) prognathous race. 



How is it now with the osteological indications ? Litera- 

 ture in this regard offers somewhat more explicit statements, 

 although exclusively for skulls. Here also it is the merit 

 of Davy to have furnished us with exact information. He 

 asserts the Sinhalese skull to be longer than the European. 

 As proof of this he gives on Plate 3 the drawing, side and 

 front view, of the skull of a Sinhalese chief from a secluded 

 region inland. This skull is long, moderately high, with 

 abruptly rising forehead, and broad, square back head, 

 flattened at the sides up to the temples ; the zygomatic arches 

 prominent, the eye-cavities rather broad and low, and tend- 

 ing to square, but widening towards the bottom and the out- 

 side ; the nose narrow and prominent, with bridge slightly bent 

 in ; the face short, with a low, slightly projecting upper jaw. 



A more recent description of a cranium Cingalensis is 

 given by Gerard Sandifort.j The skull was furnished by Van 

 Hassem an Brugmans, and is at present in the Anatomical 



* Hartshorne, I. <?., p. 409, says : "The general appearance of the Weddas 

 may be described as distinctly non-Aryan. The comparative shortness 

 of their thumbs and their sharply-pointed elbows are worthy of remark, 

 as well as their flat noses, and in some cases thick lips, features which at 

 once distinguish them in a marked degree from the Oriental races living 

 in their vicinity." 



f GTerard Sandifort. Tabulte Craniorum Diversarum G-entium. Lugduni 

 Batav. 1838 (e. f. Mus. Anat. Acad. Lugd. Bat., 1827, vol. III., p. 39, 

 No. DLXXXIV.). 



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