^ 61. — 1908.] RECENT WORK AMONG THE VEDDAS. 73 



NOTES ON RECENT WORK AMONG THE VEDDAS. 



By C. G. Seligmann, M.D. 



I must, in the first place, solicit your indulgence for the 

 rough notes I venture to bring before you to-night, for my 

 Paper — if it may be called by this name — has been put together 

 in camp and during halts in resthouses, with scant reference 

 to my own notes and none to the works of other authors. 

 Hence, although I believe I have avoided sins of commission, 

 nothing I may say must be taken to be a deliberate expression 

 of opinion, the result of worked out material, but rather as 

 unchecked impressions — the result of field work only, and 

 liable to future revision. 



I propose to-night to treat of the Veddas under three head- 

 ings : Veddas, Village Veddas, and Coast Veddas ; for although 

 it may not be easy in every case to say into which group a 

 given individual falls, and although the classification proposed 

 rests on no natural or known physical basis, it seems that, at 

 the present day, the Veddas fall into three groups characterized 

 by different sociological features. The term " Rock " or 

 " Jungle " Vedda will be avoided ; it has simply been applied 

 by some authors to the wilder specimens of that class which 

 I propose to call Veddas without a qualifying adjective. 



The map shows the distribution of the Veddas at the 

 present day, and also attempts to show the distribution 

 of the three classes. It will be seen that, besides the 

 Veddas of Uva and the Eastern Province, there are rem- 

 nants of Veddas in the North-Central Province. But, before 

 entering on a description of the distinguishing features of the 

 different classes of Veddas, something must be said of the basis 

 on which the social system of the Veddas rests. Even at the 

 present day, every Vedda belongs to a warge, or clan (as I 



