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



461 



his researches upon New Guinea. When these Sinhalese had 

 become acquainted with the natives of Yule Island (in 

 the Gulf of Papua, at the south of New Guinea) they told him 

 these people resembled their own country people, only that 

 their complexions were not so dark. When he called their 

 attention to the fact that the hair of these natives was " fuzzy " 

 they replied that the Sinhalese also would have "fuzzy" 

 hair if it were not daily combed and carefully oiled. M. 

 d'Albertis mentions in connection, that the hair of one of the 

 Sinhalese, who wore it short, was crisp, and that of the other, 

 who wore it long, was smooth ; he also does not deny that 

 many of the natives resembled the type of his Sinhalese. 

 Even setting aside this analogy, as drawn from only two 

 persons, still this statement, so wholly impartial, pretty 

 conclusively proves that the Sinhalese hair, when uncared 

 for, strongly resembles that of the Veddas. A marked 

 contrast is, at any rate, implied to the smoothness of hair of 

 the Malays and Mongols ; and the axXdrpixa of Palladius must 

 not be understood in the sense that the hair of the Veddas is 

 called smooth without any reservation. 



Reports with regard to the colour of the iris are less complete, 

 but we gather from the descriptions that, as a rule, it is dark. 

 As to the Sinhalese, Davy makes more explicit statements, 

 and from these we learn that the eyes are generally 

 black, seldom hazel, rarer still grey, but only among the 

 Albinos light blue or red. To be sure, in the poetic description 

 of an ideal Kandy beauty given, "eyes, the blue sapphire 

 and the petals of the blue manilla flower" are considered 

 desirable, but this can hardly be said to refer to a typical 

 peculiarity. Nowhere is anything of the kind mentioned of 

 the Veddas, and we may therefore assume their iris to be 

 really black or dark brown. 



As regards size, plainly both races are of moderate stature, 

 rather short than tall. If the height of the Veddas on the 

 average is 1,537 for the men, and for the women 1,448 

 mm., with the Sinhalese, on the other hand about 1,625 



31-87 i 



