PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
31 
selves, just as wild animals would do. I recollect expressing a wish, to a rather 
intelligent and well educated native, to see one of them in their native haunts, hut 
he said it would be very difficult, if not impossible, and recommended me to bring a 
gun and shoot one, as my only chance, as if a Veddah were nothing more than a 
monkey. I was rather surprised at this remark; for, independent of its criminality, 
it was contrary to what one expects from a native, who always considers the Veddahs 
as very high caste people, and respects them accordingly. Occasionally, how¬ 
ever, they do overcome this repugnance to approach civilized people, and when 
labouring under any grievance make their complaints in person before the govern¬ 
ment agents in the neighbouring districts. We have seen by the paper I have just 
read that their habits are quarrelsome; but this, I have been told, is owing to the 
encroachments of distant families on their hunting grounds, nor is it unlikely that 
murder should be of frequent occurrence among people living in such a condition. 
You will presently have an illustration of the moral, as well as the physical, condition 
of these people, as the individual to whom we are indebted for their portraits, and 
much information as to the habits and customs of his race, has been an inmate of 
Wallieodde gaol for the last few years, having been convicted of murder at the 
Kandy assizes of 1850. 
He was about thirty years of age, five feet three inches in height, of a dark brown 
complexion, and having black hair of a glossy, soft texture, which he wore tied up 
in a knot on the back of his head after the manner of the Singalese, though in the 
forest he usually wore it loose, as seen in the drawing of one of them taken from 
a photograph; the upper part of his body was rather stoutly built, but his abdomen 
was protuberant from the abundance of curry and rice of the gaol diet and the 
want of the usual active exercise of his forest life; his lower extremities were out of 
all proportion to the rest of his body, there was a peculiar bowed appearance of the 
tibia, which, I believe, is common to many of the uncivilized races of men; his 
feet resembled those of the Singalese, but there appeared to be a wider space be¬ 
tween the big and first toe, and he seemed to possess the power of using his foot as a 
prehensile organ to a considerable degree; for, on letting fall my pencil he took it 
up with his toes with as much facility as if it was his hand he was using. You 
observe in this drawing, also, how useful his foot is to him in stringing his bow. 
His hands were small, his fingers short and taper; his arms, though small, were 
pretty well developed; his face was small, and wore a placid, stupid look, but be¬ 
came animated when speaking ; his forehead was narrow, but not retreating ; his 
eyes were of the usual size, and not deep set; the iris was dark brown, and the 
conj unctiva had that dusky yellow hue observable in the other dark-skinned races ; 
the nose was aquiline, and widened at the alse; his chin was moderately rounded ; 
he had but a very scanty moustache, and a few hairs on his chin, and no whiskers. 
But in the smaller photographic portrait* you see rather a good beard and 
moustache; the lobe of each ear was pierced with a triangular-shaped hole, which, 
he said, was done by Ms mother, when he was young, with a sharp-pointed stick, 
and that such was the custom of his people. He had no name, nor was it custom¬ 
ary to give each other any other names than big or little man or woman, big or 
little boy or girl. He said he had a wife and children ; that their usual mode of 
marrying was merely making a good present of deer’s flesh or honey to the parents 
of the girl, and if they were willing, she went to hie place of abode without any 
ceremony ; if he did not like his wife, he could send her back at any time, and she 
would be received by her parents. They do not cultivate the ground, being con¬ 
tent for vegetable food with whatever stray yams or fruits they find in the jungle. 
Their chief source of sustenance is deer’s flesh, which they usually roast over a 
fire on sticks, or boil it, if they are fortunate enough to possess a chattie, or earthen 
pot. It very often happens that they are in a state of great distress, from a 
scarcity of deer, honey, or yams, in their neighbourhood, and, consequently, they 
are constantly changing their place of abode, seldom remaining longer than three 
or four days in any one place. This uncertainty in the supply of food obliges them 
to be provident for future wants, so that when they kill more deer than they can 
immediately consume, the surplus is cut into pieces, placed on a wooden frame, and 
See plate iii., fig. 1. 
