The Veddahs of Bintenne. 89 



guage, to labour among thexn. Without these, desultory efforts 

 will be of little service. The Veddahs are mostly low in 

 stature, but some of them are strong, active men, and most of 

 them appear to be healthy and little subject to disease. They 

 differ considerably from the coast Yeddahs in their habits and 

 dispositions. The latter appear to me far more tractable and 

 hopeful. They have improved much by the instructions they 

 have received, and are tolerably well acquainted with the 

 leading truths of Christianity. 



The country of Bintenne is extremely rocky. The roads 

 through it are in a very bad state ; in many places full of 

 stumps of trees and very irregular and uneven. The country 

 suffers much from drought; in the summer months only a 

 few springs are found here and there, and the people have in 

 some places to go several miles for water. Ebony, Sattin, and 

 Halmaniel wood abounds in the forests ; and Bamboo and 

 Tamarind trees are plentiful. In many places the land is 

 exceedingly fertile, and the surrounding prospect is full of 

 grandeur and beauty. 



Note by the Secretary. — Some rather exaggerated notions have 

 been recently entertained concerning this race of people, and it has 

 been stated before the Ethnological Society of London, that they 

 subsist upon decayed wood, for which there is in reality no foundation. 

 It has also been stated, that they do not bury their dead ; this is 

 also an error, as I am assured by a Gentleman who has studied their 

 habits closely, that they inter them wrapped in mats. The Veddahs 

 do not appear to use Tobacco, though Knox, in his account of Ceylon, 

 has a portrait of one of them smoking his pipe. The Veddahs, both of 

 Bintenne and of the Sea-coast, consider themselves a very high caste, 

 calling themselves Veddah Vellales. Some Vellale families in Batticaloa 

 are said to have sent out to invite the young Veddah women to come 

 and cook for them, as the Vellales may not eat food cooked by persons 

 of inferior caste, 



VOL. II. 



N 



