NO. 61. — 1908.] AMONGST THE LAST VEDDAS. 



they move on, pull their houses down, and settle on another 

 piece of cleared forest land. The old village is soon overgrown 

 with jungle. In the meantime they often live in caves or leaf- 

 huts in the forest . They are still unable to make knives , arrows , 

 adzes, or cloths, and have to buy them from the Sinhalese. 



Their relation to the Sinhalese is curious. The Veddas do not 

 like the Sinhalese, who have driven them out and disinherited 

 them. They are particularly furious when the Sinhalese laugh 

 at them. They hide their women and daughters carefully 

 before the covetous eyes of the Sinhalese. 



At Bibile already they had aimed repeatedly at Sinhalese 

 men who they thought had been ridiculing them, and when 

 my Sinhalese coolies tried to enter the village Henabedda 

 with me, all arrows were on the strings at once, so that the 

 coolies instantly ran away. On the other hand, Sinhalese 

 who take refuge with them and move them to pity are well 

 received and are allowed to remain. Amongst the Sinhalese , 

 however, the Veddas enjoy a certain consideration akin to 

 awe. They are considered high caste, as equal in rank to 

 Sinhalese nobility, and are a little feared, as being, according 

 to tradition, the descendants of the " Yakko," the demons. 



I estimate the number of real Veddas to-day at about 50, 

 so that practically this people must be considered extinguished. 



What is the reason of this rapid dying out ? Twenty years 

 ago there were, it is said, still thousands of them. Great 

 mortality of children, the want of medicines and doctors, 

 insufficient food, &c, are probably only the secondary causes — 

 the means by which nature obtains its object. The real reason 

 is the absolute impossibility to implant culture into these abori- 

 gines, to make them do reproductive work. Representatives 

 of very old and forgotten periods, they are an anachronism in 

 our time. They are a jungle race, and only in the jungle do 

 they find their true existence, material and psychical, especially 

 the latter. Our modern materialism is only too prone to ignore 

 such " imponderabilia." 



All the great animals of the virgin forest — elephant, rhino- 

 ceros, &c. — perish before advancing culture, all exertions to 

 preserve them are in vain. So also the Veddas have ceased 

 to exist, being unable to accommodate themselves to altered 



