32 
PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
dried over afire; it is then soaked in honey, and carefully packed in bark, and hungup in 
a tree, or placed in the decayed stem of a tree, and plastered up with mud, where it re¬ 
mains secure from ants and flies. This man said he never knew of these stores to be 
stolen by other Veddahs, nor are they addicted to stealing from each other; if 
such an instance occurred, it is likely the offender would be summarily dealt 
with by the injured family. They have the habit of continually masticating the 
bark of trees ; this may be a modification of the beetle nut chewing, so much prac¬ 
tised in the East; and Davy alludes to their eating the bark when reduced to want, 
which some recent writers have modified into living on decayed wood. A number 
of Veddahs who came to the government agent to make complaints were observed to be 
constantly chewing bits of bark, which they cut off a neighbouring tree with their axe. 
The description he gave me of his dwelling corresponds with that given by 
Knox and other writers ; they are constructed of branches of trees, interwoven in 
the rudest manner, and open to the weather on all sides ; these are placed against 
the stems of the largest trees, for support and shade ; if in a district where elephants 
abound, they resort to the trees, and in very wet weather, or during their hunting 
excursions, they make use of any caves that may be near. Their dress consists of 
a cotton cloth wrapped round their loins, but up to the age of puberty they go about 
naked ; this piece of covering is procured from the Singalese or Moormen traders, 
who frequent certain localities at certain times of the year for the purpose of barter. 
They exchange cotton cloth, arrow and axe heads, bows and arrows, and bead 
ornaments, for elephants’ tusks, honey, deer’s flesh, and elk horns. Yerv frequently 
they prepare this covering for their loins from the bark of the sack tree, Artocarpus 
saccifera , a species of bread-fruit tree, which is very abundant in the jungle. It 
is simply prepared by steeping the bark in water for a few days, and beating it with 
stones till it becomes soft and pliable, reminding one of the paper mulberry cloth 
of the Sandwich islanders. It is usually made four feet long and three feet wide, 
but composed of many pieces, which are sown .together with the fibres of some 
jungle plant. 
I have here a bow and arrow made for me by this man, the former is a little 
more than six feet long, and made of the areka nut tree ; it resembles this one made 
at Velasse, and used by the Yeddahs in their hunting excursions; it has got the 
usual string made from the fibres of the wild plantain tree, the arrow is a little 
better than 2 feet long, and pointed with iron made after a particular shape, which is 
about 3 inches long, half an inch wide, and lancet shaped ; they are procured mostly 
rom the Singalese and Moormen traders, who require to be very particular as to 
the pattern. I was anxious to see what success he would have at shooting at a 
mark, but on his trying several times within a distance of 60 yards, I found his 
shooting very inferior ; he was evidently much disappointed himself, and said it was 
owing to his being out of practice. According to his own statements, he must have 
been a very good shot, as he said he has killed from three to six deer in a day ; he 
has also shot two elephants. I inquired particularly how he did this, as I heard it 
stated that they shoot elephants in the same manner that the tribes in South 
Africa are reported to shoot the South African elephant—that is, by creeping quite 
close to the animal, and shooting a poisoned arrow into the sole of the hind foot as 
it is raised from the ground; but he said that such was not their practice : he shot 
his elephants as Gordon Cuming would do, by shooting them through the body. We 
can well understand to what a depth an arrow of this description, driven by such a 
powerful bow as the Veddah’s, would penetrate into the body of any elephant, par¬ 
ticularly when the animal would be only a few yards off. In these three diagrams 
you may observe their method of shooting with the bow ; it is held in the right hand, 
whilst the string is pulled with the left, contrary to our method; their mode of carry¬ 
ing their bows and arrows on proceeding on shooting excursions; and their mode 
of stringing the bow, showing also the use of the foot in stringing the bow. 
Another weapon used by the Yeddahs is a small axe, the head of which is made 
of iron, about four inches long, and its cutting edge about two and a-half inches 
wide, its weight about one pound, and it has a hole for fastening the handle, which is 
about three feet long. The accompanying engraving* represents a Yeddah holding one 
Vide plate iii., fig. 1. 
