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JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). [VOL. XXI. 



directly to our understanding. Our inherent craving for 

 causality compels us to find the cause of these sensations. 

 Thus, the objects of the outer world are really our sensations 

 projected into the three-dimensional space. The more sensitive 

 we are to impressions from outside, the more our sense of 

 causality is developed, the richer and more varied the outer 

 world will be to us. The lowest type of man will only respond 

 to the strongest impressions. He will only notice what touches 

 him directly, what compels him to feel. This is particularly 

 conspicuous in the language of the Veddas. They have words 

 for the sun and the moon, but none for the stars. The}' are 

 aware that during the night " things like eyes " appear on the 

 sky, but they are only dimly conscious of the existence of stars. 



They are also without general ideas. They have words for 

 the elephant, several birds, bears, &c, but none for " animal," 

 and they are not aware that elephants, bears, panthers, 

 birds, have anything in common. 



Their predilection for white is striking, and has also been 

 noticed by former observers. When I presented a Vedda 

 with a pretty red cloth he threw it contemptuously over his 

 shoulder, but when I gave him a much smaller white handker- 

 chief he shouted and danced for joy round me. Perhaps all 

 colour is considered by them as not white , viz. , dirty ? Perhaps 

 their sense for differentiating in colour is not developed ? 



It was most interesting to see the impression a looking- 

 glass made upon them. Surely they must have seen their 

 own image in water, but they never realized it probably. I 

 gave them a looking-glass that was somewhat mouldy, in which 

 their likeness appeared indistinctly ; they looked at it and put 

 it away without saying anything. I then cleaned the glass 

 and made them look again. One of them, a young man, 

 seized his axe and began to shout furiously in a rough hoarse 

 voice about an ugly black animal which ought to go or he 

 would kill it. The words were often interrupted by inter- 

 jections like " ah " and " oh." When the first had done, 

 the second began to shout and to threaten in the same way. 

 I had some trouble in calming them and in explaining to them 

 the nature of the looking-glass by stepping behind them and 

 making them see me in the glass. An aversion for anything 



