NO. 33. — 1886.] THE VEDDA.S OF CEYLON. 



453 



heard this story from some Portuguese, but says very 

 decidedly : " But to me nothing is more improbable than 

 this story. Because this people and the Chineses have no 

 agreement nor similitude in their features, nor language, nor 

 diet," and adds : " It is more probable they came from the 

 Malabars, their countrey lying next, tho they do resemble 

 them little or nothing. I know no nation in the world do so 

 exactly resemble the Chingulays as the people of Europe." 

 Here we must remember that he looks upon the Veddas and 

 Sinhalese as belonging together : " Of these natives there be 

 two sorts, wild and tame." 



This certainly ingenuous statement is of great value. The 

 reference to the Malabars is, as we see, purely speculative. 

 In reality Knox denies any resemblance of the Sinhalese to 

 the Malabars, and finds them much more like the Euro- 

 peans. This is the first unequivocal testimony to the Aryan 

 origin of the Sinhalese, which since then has been assumed 

 by so many visitors. Davy* says : " The pure Singalese of 

 the interior are completely Indians in person, language, 

 manners, customs, religion, and government." He leaves it 

 indefinite which division of Indians he has in mind, and his 

 mentioning the religion seems to exclude the Aryan or 

 Brahminic division. Certainly he did not refer to the 

 inhabitants of the peninsula of northern India — the so-called 

 Indo-Chinese. 



Philalethesf and PridhamJ alone among the more recent 

 reporters express their conviction of the Chinese origin of the * 

 Sinhalese ; both, however, not from anthropological reasons, 

 but on historical grounds, and the latter with reference to 

 the system of drainage and terrace building of the Sinhalese, 

 which he traces back to China. The historical grounds are 

 of little importance. With regard to drainage, though the 

 invention of this system may unquestionably be ascribed to 



* Davy, I. &., p. 109. f Philalethes, h a., p. 15, note f. 



X Pridham, I. c, I., p. 21. 



