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



433 



figures show the Sinhalese to exceed the Veddds, as a rule, in 

 height. These differences would in the average be of still 

 more importance if the two skulls I have measured had not 

 suffered from a great variety of impediments to their perfect 

 development. I therefore call attention to the description, 

 and will here only say that there is certainly premature 

 synosteoses and much irregularity in the temporal region, 

 especially in the one case, where there is stenokrotaphy, and 

 where the squamous portion of the temporal bone overlaps 

 the frontal bone ; and in the other case owing to a great 

 epiptericum. 



In the latter condition was also found the Vedda skull from 

 the Colombo Museum ; and a Vedda skull from the London 

 Museum shows (as before mentioned) stenokrotaphy. 



In examining the form of the face, I follow the same 

 method as before with the Veddas, and begin with the orbits. 



Unfortunately, a great difference appears in the orbital 

 index of the two skulls I measured, which it is difficult to 

 reconcile, the first being 76*9 the other 82'9 — consequently, 

 one chamaekonch the other mesokonch. The last will there- 

 fore correspond nearer to the Vedda skulls. Here I must 

 suspend judgment, for no other observer has recorded orbital 

 measurements of the Sinhalese, or made any statements about 

 the shape of the orbits. Whether the shape which I have 

 spoken of as inclining to quadrangular is of any significance, 

 must be decided by further observations. 



It is the same with the nose index. In the first of my 

 Sinhalese 57*7, therefore platyrrhine ; with the second 46, 

 therefore leptorrhine. Like differences are found, to be sure, 

 in the Vedda skulls, whose average shows a mesorrhine 

 measure (52-2), while we might have expected, according to 

 the descriptions of the observers before quoted, a greater 

 uniformity in the shape of the nose. The bony structure 

 of the nose in the Sinhalese skulls is narrow, prominent, and 

 with a slightly aquiline bridge ; and I have the impression 

 that the form, as it exists in skull No. 2, is really the typical 



