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JOURNAL, R.A.S. (CEYLON). 



[Vol. XXI. 



population. Physically these folk, though somewhat darker 

 and often of a stouter build than, e.g., the Bani-gala Veddas, 

 could not be mistaken for Sinhalese. 



[>;•• Having briefly discussed these two aberrant groups, it is pos- 

 sible to consider the first group composed of the minority of the 

 still surviving members of the Vedda race. These form a num- 

 ber of small communities varying in purity of blood and the 

 extent to which the habits and customs of their members have 

 been modified by outside influence, but agreeing in this that 

 all hold to a number of customs which have a common origin 

 and which cannot be derived from Sinhalese or Tamil sources. 



Although the large majority of Veddas make chenas, we 

 were fortunate in finding near Nuwara-gala, in the Eastern 

 Province, a community consisting of four families who had 

 never done so, their members living by hunting and on honey, 

 yams, and other jungle produce. These folk, in fact, still 

 live in the condition in which the majority of Veddas must 

 have lived till some sixty years ago, when Bailey first per- 

 suaded the Veddas of Nil-gala to make chenas. The Dani-gala 

 Veddas, the last of the Nil-gala communities, now illustrate 

 the opposite condition, for the present generation of these 

 people — perhaps until one generation ago the purest blooded 

 Veddas in the Island — now breed cattle and have extensive 

 chenas, while they have forgotten most of their old beliefs, and 

 wear Sinhalese garments whenever they are not on " show." 

 Through constant interviews with white people they have 

 become accustomed to pose for their photographs and to 

 perform snatches of dance, and exhibit a really comic disgust 

 when asked to exert themselves in an (to them) unusual way. 

 Thus, one man of about forty became quite angry when asked 

 the names of a number of colours, and protested indignantly 

 that no white man had ever asked him to do this thing before. 

 But, of course, the greater number of Veddas are neither as 

 un contaminated as the Nuwara-gala families, nor as sophis- 

 ticated as those of Dani-gala ; but while frequenting their 

 chenas for part of the year or even living on them altogether, 

 still visit caves or wander about the jungle during the honey- 

 gathering season. Just as each family — using the word in the 

 ordinary limited English sense — keeps rigidly to its own house 



