BEDAHS. 
83 
by the more voracious beasts of prey, and leave the 
fleshless frame as white and clean as if it had been 
polished by the efforts of human ingenuity. 
As we advanced into the kingdom of Candy,, the 
aspect of the country became more mountainous, but 
it was still covered with thick and impenetrable jungle, 
which is frequently infested by a set of savages in 
the human form, almost as brutalized as the beasts of 
the forest. They scarcely seem to rise higher in the 
scale of intellect than to the instincts of the baboon. 
These are the Bedahs, or Vedahs, a race of people, 
not numerous indeed, as they are said to be not many 
thousands in number, eagerly shunning the sight of 
civilized man, but brutally ferocious when encoun- 
tered ; they inhabit the distant recesses of the woods. 
They are probably the true aborigines, though they 
are so completely barbarized, that they can give no 
probable account of their own origin, which has never 
yet been traced, and is even a matter of speculation 
among the more enlightened Cingalese. These Bedahs 
shun all intercourse except with the members of 
their own savage tribe ; it is therefore a circumstance 
of rare occurrence to come in contact with one 
of them, and when any have been taken by the 
British soldiers, which has sometimes happened, they 
have turned out to be either so invincibly stubborn 
or so stupid that nothing could be elicited from them. 
They speak a dialect of the Cingalese language, and 
have a form of religion, but it is idolatrous, silly, and 
superstitious, in the highest degree. These barba- 
rians are to be found more or less in all parts of the 
island which are remote from human habitations ; 
