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



491 



If my view be correct that the Veddds are a pure blooded, 

 the Sinhalese a mixed race, we may then leave the question 

 out of consideration as to how far Ceylonese intervention, 

 especially soil, food, and climate, has operated to determine 

 the formation of the body. I wish only to touch briefly 

 upon a few facts, the knowledge of which is not without 

 significance in regard to this question. Even in the old 

 document ascribed to Palladius, the sheep upon Taprobane 

 are spoken of : " Oves illis crinitse omnesque absque lana, lac 

 suppeditant ubertim, latis caudis conspiciendae (irXareiae 



exovTa ovpag). 



Sir E. Tennent,* nearly two thousand years later, made the 

 same observation in Jaffna ; the sheep of the place had long 

 hair, like goats, instead of wool. A similar influence of 

 climate upon the hairy covering of the sheep is also testi- 

 fied of other places. It is assertedf that the native cats of 

 Ceylon have an inferior appearance ; they are said to be small, 

 with thick close-clinging hair, little heads, retreating fore- 

 heads, but great pointed ears.J Any one disposed to assume a 

 like influence of climate upon men might conclude that human 

 beings also, especially the aborigines, who have dwelt longest 

 upon the Island, have undergone a like change : for example, 

 that the hair was originally woolly, the head and entire 

 body larger. Then might approaches be sought to woolly- 

 haired blacks, to Andamanese and Negritos, to Melanesians 

 and even Africans. Before admitting such great alterations, 



* Tennent, I. c , II., p. 531. " The finest sheep in Ceylon are reared upon 

 the dry plains which overlie the limestone and coral rock, on the northern 

 and western coasts. These sheep, instead of being* coated with wool, are 

 covered with long hair, resembling that of goats, and the horny callosities 

 that defend their knees, and which arise from their habit of kneeling down 

 to crop the short herbage, serve to distinguish the Jaffna flocks from those of 

 the other portions of the Island." I do not find it said that these sheep 

 have fat tails. 



t Charles Darwin. The Variation of Animals and Plants in the State 

 of Domestication. Translated from the English by V. Carus. Stuttgart, 

 1868, vol- I., p. 122 ; vol. II., p. 369. 



I Id., vol, I., p. 57. 



