S2 



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



[Vol. XXI. 



an acute, keenly interested observer in all that concerned the 

 antiquities of Ceylon. Mr. Parker, writing on April 30, says : — - 



" I think I may remark that, notwithstanding the confident 

 opinions expressed by continental investigators, the last word on 

 the subject has not yet been said. 



" I feel doubts as to whether Professor Moszkowski has met with 

 any genuine Forest Veddas,* who, according to my information, 

 are purely hunters, and neither build houses with mud walls, as 

 did the people he saw, nor live in any other manner than by 

 hunting and collecting honey. The houses and chenas which he 

 describes are such as the Village Veddas make. 



" I also visited Nilgala, and in reply to careful inquiries made with- 

 out an interpreter, I learnt that only one family of Forest Veddas, 

 about five in number, pay occasional visits to the hills mentioned 

 by the Professor. For this reason, as no hamlet of theirs was 

 known in that part of the district, I failed to meet with any there. 



" So far as I am aware, the only part of the country where there 

 is any probability of meeting the true Forest Vedda is the wild 

 tract of forest on the western side of the Maduru-oya, although 

 doubtless there are some in other districts. 



" I believe it is quite certain that some Village Veddas are pre- 

 pared to pose as Forest Veddas, and have done so on the occasions 

 when Veddas have been exhibited in Kandy and elsewhere. It is 

 also certain that nearly every skull sent to Europe has been that 

 of a Village Vedda or a ' Wanniya.' 



"For myself, I am far from saying that all such persons are not 

 true Veddas. I consider, with the late Mr. Hugh Nevill, that it is 

 not improbable that many of the wilder Village Veddas are of 

 unmixed descent, or descent as pure as that of the Forest Veddas. 

 The inhabitants of one isolated hamlet informed me that they 

 visited and inter-married with no others but the residents in a 

 similarly isolated hamlet nearly 10 miles away. Excepting one 

 camp of similar people, with whom they held no communication, 

 I believe that there was not another village within some 15 

 miles of their quarters. 



" The high rank of the Vedda chiefs in former times is a subject 

 regarding which the Continental inquirers can, of course, gain no 

 information ; and regarding which, as they all appear to have 

 formed decided opinions of the racial inferiority of the people, 

 they would probably not look for any. 



" But I venture to think that it is beyond doubt. In addition to 

 the perfectly trustworthy accounts of the Mahdwansa, there is 

 other manuscript evidence which cannot be set aside ; while at 

 Dambulla, among a series of short inscriptions of about the third 

 or fourth century a.d., recording the cutting of a flight of rock- 

 steps, the following occurs : — 



" Sidha. Raja Pulida Abaya Nakare Sidahata kapa gala. 



(< ' Hail ! The stone cut by Siddhatta, King Abaya, the Pulinda, 

 having caused it to be done.' 



* See footnote, p. 83. — B., Hon. Sec. 



