THE VEDDAS

CHAPTER I

HISTORICAL AND GEOGRAPHICAL

The Vedda country at the present day is limited to a roughly triangular tract lying between the eastern slopes of the central mountain massif and the sea. This area of about 2400 square miles is bounded on the west by the Mahaweli Ganga, from the point where, abandoning its eastern course through the mountains of the Central Province, the river sweeps northwards to the sea. A line from this great bend passing eastwards through Bibile village (on the Badulla-Batticaloa road) to the coast will define the southern limits of the Vedda country with sufficient accuracy, while its eastern limit is the coast. So defined it includes the greater part of the Eastern Province, about a fifth of Uva and a small portion of that part of the North Central Province known as Tamankaduwa, and is traversed by a single high road capable of taking wheeled traffic. This runs from Badulla, the capital of Uva, lying at the foot of the central mountain mass of the island, to the coast a few miles to the north of Batticaloa, the capital of the Eastern Province.

Excepting only the mountain scenery of Upper Uva and the Central Province, the Vedda country even in its present diminished form presents every variety of scenery met with in Ceylon, including alike the magnificent Uva park lands and the sandy mangrove-fringed flats of the Eastern coast. Within its borders is situated Mahayangana (Alutnuwara) the ancient assembling place of the Yakkas where, according to the Mahawansa, Buddha appeared and struck terror into their hearts before propounding his doctrines to the hosts of deva who attended him there. Here was erected the Mahayangana dagaba, the oldest in Ceylon, built over the relics of the very Buddha and from its inception to the present day the goal of countless generations of pious pilgrims reaching it by descending the Gallepadahulla, the pass of two thousand steps, that leads in less than an hour from the breezy uplands of the Central Province to the steamy river valley two thousand feet below. It is from this, the old pilgrim path, wending its way above the pass through the pleasant hills of Uva from the forgotten city of Medamahanuwara, that the best idea of the Vedda country is obtained. A sudden rise in the ground gives the first view of the Vedda country through a V-shaped frame of hills, and from such a spot as this Knox must have looked upon Bintenne. "It (the country of Bintan) seems to be a smooth land and not much hilly, the great river running through the midst of it. It is all over covered with mighty woods and abundance of deer, but much subject to dry weather and sickness. In these woods is a sort of wild people inhabiting, whom we shall speak of in their place^[1]."

Continuing along the path a little further, a wider view is obtained where the track seems to end abruptly in a great rock, the Ballangala or look-out rock, upon which the pilgrim halts to gaze reverently upon the ancient dagaba and the flat land spread out before him.

Here flows the Mahaweli ganga, soon to be hidden in the great sea of forest-clad lowland stretching away to the north, from which rise Kokagalla and other hills, the traditional homes of the Veddas, like rocky islands in the distance. To the east tower the Uva Mountains, stretching onwards in a diminishing series towards the uplands of Nilgala. In Bintenne, including in this term parts of both Uva and the Eastern Province, the jungle consists of a forest of great trees without much undergrowth, occasionally interrupted by open spaces, covered with coarse grass, which, however, does not grow much higher than the knee. These open patches are more numerous in the Eastern Province than they are in Uva Bintenne (which is traversed by many small streams) and it is generally supposed that they are the sites of ancient cultivation; there are comparatively few streams in this country though swamps and small water holes containing stagnant water are common^[2].

Northward in Tamankaduwa (a division of the North Central Province) the great trees give place to poorer growth and a scrubby jungle is found. On the east of the Badulla-Batticaloa road lie the Nilgala hills, the best of the Vedda domain and the most pleasing country in Ceylon. Here, broad valleys lie between jungle-clad ranges of much weathered gneiss, among whose rocky crags and rounded domes, bambara, the rock bee (Apis indica), builds its combs. Here is no gloomy jungle, but in the valleys are many thickets and small trees growing scattered as in a young orchard, their trunks protected by coarse lalang grass which often attains 5 or 6 feet in height. Clear rock-strewn streams abound, their banks brightened by the deep green leaves and the bright red flowers of the ratmal (Ixora coccinea). Scattered masses of rock often of great size form convenient shelters for the Veddas, and assist the rapid drainage of the country, which does not become waterlogged even during torrential rains. This beautiful country is rich in game. To the east, where many Veddas have drifted, the jungle is thicker, the land lies lower, and is generally less healthy. The Nuwaragala Hills to the north of the Nilgala ranges are perhaps the wildest part of the island and are more densely clothed in jungle, but there are plenty of streams, while the slope of the country permits of ready drainage.

The coastal zone north of Batticaloa inhabited by the coast Veddas is flat and sandy, and the vegetation though dense is often less tall and less abundant than in other parts of the country. Salt water marshes are common, and the country is cut into by numerous lagoons and creeks, often bounded by a fringe of mangroves which stretches some distance up the mouths of the rivers. Although this area may now, and for yet a few years, be rightly called the Vedda country it must not be thought that any considerable number of its inhabitants are Veddas, or that they exercise any territorial or political influence; on the contrary, they constitute an insignificant fraction of the Tamil and Sinhalese inhabitants before whom they are rapidly disappearing, partly by intermarriage and absorption, partly owing to misery and a high death rate brought about by sheer inability to cope with the new state of affairs that the increased settlement of this, the wildest part of the island, has brought about.

Formerly the Vedda country is known to have embraced the whole of the Uva, and much of the Central and North Central Provinces, while there is no reason to suppose that their territory did not extend beyond these limits. Indeed there is no reasonable doubt that the Veddas are identical with the "Yakkas" of the Mahavansa and other native chronicles.

The seventh chapter of the Mahawansa relates the arrival in Ceylon, B.C. 543, of Vijaya who married Kuweni an aboriginal princess (Yakkini) and by her assistance destroyed a great number of her people, and established the earliest Sinhalese kingdom. Later, after she had borne him a son and a daughter, Vijaya being urged by his followers to take a royal bride sent an embassy to Madura, asking for the hand of the daughter of King Pandava. The latter agreed to the alliance. Vijaya "receiving the announcement of the arrival of this royal maiden, and considering it impossible that the princess could live with him at the same time with the yakkini, he thus explained himself to Kuweni: 'A daughter of royalty is a timid being; on that account, leaving the children with me, depart from my house.' She replied: 'On thy account, having murdered yakkhas, I dread these yakkhas: now I am discarded by both parties; whither can I take myself?' 'Within my dominions (said he) to any place thou pleasest which is unconnected with yakkhas; and I will maintain thee with a thousand bali offerings.' She who had been thus interdicted (from uniting herself with the yakkhas) with clamorous lamentation, taking her children with her, in the character of an inhuman being, wandered to that very city (Lankapura) of inhuman inhabitants. She left her children outside the yakkha city. The yakkhas, on seeing her enter the city, quickly surrounded her, crying out: 'It is for the purpose of spying us that she has come back!' And when the yakkhas were greatly excited, one of them, whose anger was greatly kindled, put an end to the life of the yakkini by a blow of his hand. Her uncle, a yakkha (named Kumara), happening to proceed out of the yakkha city, seeing these children outside the town, 'Whose children are ye?' said he. Being informed 'Kuveni's' he said, 'Your mother is murdered: if ye should be seen here, they would murder you also: fly quickly.' Instantly departing thence, they repaired to the (neighbourhood of the) Sumanakuta (Adam's Peak). The elder having grown up, married his sister, and settled there. Becoming numerous by their sons and daughters, under the protection of the king, they resided in the Malaya district. This is the origin of the Pulindas (hill-men)."

Such chronicles though interesting tell us little or nothing concerning the habits and customs of those Veddas who did not adopt a Sinhalese mode of life; the same may be said of the earliest foreign records such as that found in the tract De Moribus Brachmanorum written about 400 A.D., the author of which professes to have obtained his information from a Theban traveller.

To Robert Knox, who wrote in 1681 after a captivity in Ceylon lasting 20 years, belongs the credit of having first accurately described the Veddas. "Of these Natives there be two sorts Wild and Tame. I will begin with the former. For as in these Woods there are Wild Beasts so Wild Men also. The Land of Bintan is all covered with mighty Woods, filled with abundance of Deer. In this Land are many of these wild men; they call them Vaddahs, dwelling near no other Inhabitants. They speak the Chingulayes Language. They kill Deer, and dry the Flesh over the fire, and the people of the Countrey come and buy it of them. They never Till any ground for Corn, their Food being only Flesh. They are very expert with their Bows. They have a little ax, which they stick by their sides, to cut hony out of hollow Trees. Some few, which are near Inhabitants, have commerce with other people. They have no Towns nor Houses, only live by the waters under a Tree, with some boughs cut and laid about them, to give notice when any wild Beasts come near, which they may hear by their rustling and trampling upon them. Many of these Habitations we saw when we fled through the Woods, but God be praised the Vaddahs were gone.

"Some of the tamer sort of these men are in a kind of Subjection to the King. For if they be found, tho it must be with a great search in the woods, they will acknowledge his Officers, and will bring to them Elephant-teeth, and Honey, and Wax, and Deers Flesh; but the others in lieu thereof do give them near as much, in Arrows, Cloth, etc. fearing lest they should otherwise appear no more.

"It had been reported to me by many people, that the wilder sort of them, when they want Arrows, will carry their load of Flesh in the night, and hang it up in a Smith's Shop, also a Leaf cut in the form they will have their Arrows made, and hang by it. Which if the Smith do make according to their Pattern they will requite, and bring him more Flesh: but if he make them not, they will do him a mischief one time or another by shooting in the night. If the Smith make the Arrows, he leaves them in the same place, where the Vaddahs hung the Flesh

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"About Hourly the remotest of the King's Dominions there are many of them, that are pretty tame, and come and buy and sell among the people. The King once having occasion of an hasty Expedition against the Dutch, the Governour summoned them all in to go with him, which they did. And with their Bows and Arrows did as good service as any of the rest but afterwards when they returned home again, they removed farther in the Woods, and would be seen no more, for fear of being afterwards prest again to serve the King.

"They never cut their hair but tye it up on their Crowns in a bunch. The cloth they use, is not broad nor large, scarcely enough to cover their Buttocks. The wilder and tamer sort of them do both observe a Religion. They have a God peculiar to themselves. The tamer do build Temples, the wild only bring their sacrifice under Trees, and while it is offering, dance round it, both men and women.

"They have their bounds in the Woods among themselves, and one company of them is not to shoot nor gather hony or fruit beyond those bounds. Neer the borders stood a Jack-Tree; one Vaddah being gathering some fruit from this Tree, another Vaddah of the next division saw him, and told him he had nothing to do to gather Jacks from that Tree, for that belonged to them. They fell to words and from words to blows, and one of them shot the other. At which more of them met and fell to skirmishing so briskly with their Bows and Arrows, that twenty or thirty of them were left dead upon the spot.

"They are so curious of their Arrows that no smith can please them: The King once to gratifie them for a great Present they brought him, gave all of them of his best made Arrow-blades: which nevertheless would not please their humour. For they went all of them to a Rock by a River and ground them into another form. The Arrows they use are of a different fashion from all other, and the Chingulays will not use them.

"They have a peculiar way by themselves of preserving Flesh. They cut a hollow Tree and put honey in it, and then fill it up with flesh, and stop it up with clay. Which lyes for a reserve to eat in time of want.

"It has usually been told me that their way of catching Elephants is, that when the Elephant lyes asleep they strike their ax into the sole of his foot, and so laming him he is in their power to take him. But I take this for a fable, because I know the sole of the Elephants foot is so hard, that no axe can pierce it at a blow; and he is so wakeful that they can have no opportunity to do it.

"For portions with their Daughters in marriage they give hunting Dogs. They are reported to be courteous. Some of the Chingulays in discontent will leave their houses and friends, and go and live among them, where they are civilly entertained. The tamer sort of them, as hath been said, will sometimes appear, and hold some kind of trade with the tame Inhabitants, but the wilder called Ramba-Vaddahs never show themselves."

From Knox's account it is evident that in his time or a little before this, some of the Veddas were in touch with the court and were even sufficiently amenable to discipline to be of use as an auxiliary fighting force, indeed, there is abundant evidence that long before this a part of the inhabitants of Ceylon, with enough Vedda blood in them for their contemporaries to call them Veddas, were politically organized and constituted a force whom the rulers of the island found it necessary to consider. Upon this subject we cannot do better than quote part of a letter from Mr H. Parker in which this authority states his views on this subject. "At the time when Sinhalese history begins, a part of them [Veddas] had reached a far more advanced state than the others. They were politically organised, and according to the Mahavansa had a supreme king and subordinate chiefs 80 years after Wijaya became king^[3].

"The invaders, or rather settlers, from the valley of the Ganges intermarried with these more advanced natives, and became the Sinhalese of the present day (with a later mixture of Tamil or Indian blood).

"The wilder natives continued to lead the life of their primitive ancestors, and only to a very limited extent intermarried with the Sinhalese.

"Three or four centuries ago the Vaeddas were spread over the Matale district and the North-western Province, and I believe Sabaragamuwa^[4]."

"A 1 6th century MS. — the Wanni Kaḍa-in Pota — records the appointment of a Vaedda chief as Bandara Mudiyanse (a title applied only to high caste chiefs); at the king's orders (Bhuvanaika Bahu of Kotta) he fixed the boundaries of four districts or "Pattus" of the North-western Province. His name was Panikki Vaedda^[5], he caught elephants and took some to the king, with another Vaedda chief, a Registrar or Secretary, called Liyana Vaedda. I have an early 17th century MS. which gives an account of part of a civil war in the Matale District, carried on by his nephew against the king who imprisoned Knox. Among the insurgent leaders were first, three Sinhalese chiefs of Matale, and after them are enumerated a number of Vaedda chiefs (including one woman) who are all expressly said to be Vaeddas; of the 'Vaedda wasagama'; one of them was the chief of Bibile^[6]."

Veddas are also mentioned in an old family record translated by Nevill which he terms the Nadu Kadu Chronicle and which he considers cannot be later than the sixteenth century^[7].

The following references to Veddas are taken from the chronicle, for, though they obviously refer to settled and civilised Veddas who may have had little Vedda blood in their veins, they are interesting as showing the social and political influence exerted by these.

The first passage concerns two Pattani soldiers engaged by the Sinhalese chief as guards.

"Then he took them with him, thinking they will be good to guard against the troubles caused by the Vedas. He kept them as a guard against the Vedas of Pala Vekama."

The next reference runs: "The chief of all the Vedas was Karadiyan. What was their service? It was to erect temporary buildings and screens; and they were allowed if they erected a dam for Sevuka field at Sunga Ford, and took charge of the land, stacking the crop, to thresh and take each the grain of one sheath. Over every one the Vedas were the chief men."

Again it says: "The Veda Puliyan was the chief of the Seven Wanams of Akkara Pattu. On the way to Akkara Pattu is Puliyan Tivu, he remaining there, used to send to the Muthaliyar and his family, wax, honey and other things…."

"Because he supplied pingos (i.e. presents) for the Seven Wanam, Rajapaksa Muthaliyar gave Kandi in marriage to the Veda Puliyan and he lived at Puliyan Tivu."

The next reference is by no means clear, but it shows how intermarriage between Veddas and Sinhalese might come about. The last few lines of this passage are especially difficult to understand; they seem to show that the Vedda grandfather of the girl given to the washer had recognised rights in his grandchildren, and that he was of enough importance to be propitiated with gifts of cloth.

"Besides this, Nilame Rala and his wife and people, going to Sitawakka, returned by the Bintenne road to Nadu Kadu. Whilst so coming, a Veda woman brought forth a child on the path at Sellapattu, and without cleansing it or securing the umbilical cord, left it on the path. They seeing that child, brought it up. The Veda woman returning for the child could not see it, but found the tracks of many people on the path, and went away thinking they had taken it. They brought up the child with the name of Para Natchi (Mistress Road). She was given in marriage to one Muttuvan and had 16 daughters. Of these fifteen were given in marriage, and the youngest was unmarried. Then the washer who came with them, having lost his wife, was single…they gave him in marriage the youngest daughter of the Veda woman. Children were born to these. The Sellapattu Veda hearing of this, year by year began to sell the children. That custom exists among the Paravar also, and among the Sandar. As he did so, saying they must make gifts to that Veda, buying ten cubits of broad-cloth, tearing it into pieces of four cubits, they gave it to the Veda^[8]."

It is clear that in the condition of affairs here recorded there must for many centuries have been a zone of contact between Veddas and Sinhalese, and that contact metamorphosis must have occurred in both peoples. There is abundant evidence of this, and we should not insist further on this point if it were not necessary to combat a view which, if not clearly expressed, nevertheless seems to dominate much that has been written on the Veddas. We refer to the belief that although the Veddas have been much influenced by the Sinhalese, the latter owe little or nothing to the Veddas. The former proposition finds its fullest exposition in the statement so often made to us in Ceylon that "there are no real Veddas left"; but with the exception of Nevill, we cannot find that anyone who has written on Ceylon has held that the Veddas have strongly influenced the Sinhalese^[9]. That this influence was, however, of importance is shown by the fact that the families of the present aristocracy of the Vedda country are proud of their Vedda descent, which is equally acknowledged by themselves and the less wild Veddas. Thus Mr W. R. Bibile Ratemahatmaya pointed out to me that long ago his people were Veddas, and that even after certain of his ancestors had settled down and had intermarried so as to be classed as Sinhalese, there were subsequent infusions of Vedda blood into the family. It was clear that this relationship to the Veddas was the reason for the prestige he undoubtedly enjoyed among the Danigala and the Henebedda Veddas. For the same reason one of his relatives was allowed to pasture his cattle on Henebedda territory in the neighbourhood of Pattiavelagalge cave described in Chapter V. This was about 100 years ago, and may have been connected with the troubles of the revolution which undoubtedly led to an influx of Sinhalese into the wilds of the Vedda country.

Further, the eschatological beliefs of the Kandyan Sinhalese furnish abundant evidence that these have been influenced by the Veddas, and certain of these beliefs can be explained on no other hypothesis, unless it be asserted that the beliefs of the Veddas and those of the invading Sinhalese were from the first nearly identical. We refer particularly to the bandara beliefs described on pp. 141 to 145, which have probably attained to the position they now hold because, as pointed out to us by Mr Parker, it is in accordance with Sinhalese Buddhist teaching that the spirits of the deceased may become yaku. This of course might merely imply that Sinhalese Buddhism had originally been influenced by the Vedda Cult of the Dead, but that this is not the explanation is shown by the fact—for information concerning which we are indebted to Mr Parker— that the Low-Country Sinhalese have nothing of the Kandyan "hero and ancestor worship" as it is styled by this authority^[10].

Sir James Emerson Tennant devoted a chapter of his monumental work to the Veddas, but interesting as this chapter is it contains "little else than a comparison of the habits of the people of the island, as observed by the ancient voyagers in the fourth and fifth centuries, with the traditional…customs of the Veddahs as reported by Knox. The accomplished author throws no new light on the wild tribes of the Veddahs as they are. On the contrary, his account of them is in some important particulars defective, and even inaccurate. He glances casually at those tribes which are in the wildest state, touching with precision none of their peculiarities, and dwells in detail upon those only, which, from long association with the Sinhalese and Tamil races, have lost much of their originality. Of the ancient aborigines he has compiled much that is curious. Of the existing Veddahs he has given us little besides an epitome of former notices."

So wrote John Bailey in 1863 in a footnote to the paper in which his own observations are reported, and no one who knows the Veddas will disagree with him. Indeed, Bailey's paper is a remarkably careful and critical piece of work, concerning which all must agree with Nevill who recognised it as the first scientific account of the Veddas^[11].

It was succeeded in 1881 by a summary by Virchow of what was then known of the Veddas, and measurements were given of a number of Vedda skulls. This paper was translated into English and published in 1886 in Vol. IX of the Journal of the Ceylon Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. But no original detailed study of the sociology of the Veddas appeared until the extremely valuable observations of the late Hugh Nevill, to which we shall frequently refer, appeared in the Taprobanian, to be followed in 1893 by a magnificently illustrated work Die Weddas von Ceylon und die sie umgebenden Völkerschaften, published by the Doctors Paul and Fritz Sarasin, which however deals less fully with the sociology than with the physical anthropology of the Veddas^[12].

Three articles by Dr L. Rutimeyer, published in 1903^[13], describe the author's impressions of parties of Danigala and Henebedda Veddas who visited him at Bibile Rest House and review the then existing condition of of our knowledge concerning the ethnology of the Veddas, finishing with a summary of the views expressed by the Sarasins concerning the relationship of the Veddas to other races.

As this volume will scarcely touch on physical anthropology we now give a short account of the chief physical characteristics of the purer Veddas in order that the reader may appreciate the bearing of what will be said in other parts of the book concerning the different groups of Veddas we visited.

The general appearance of the Veddas will be most readily appreciated by examining the photographs of pure, or nearly pure-blooded Veddas reproduced in Plates II and III. The first of these represents four men of Danigala and a half-breed boy. The oldest man is Kaira (I), the "patriarch" or senior of the Danigala group^[14]. Of the three other men, his sons, the two in the foreground are Randu Wanniya (2), nearest to the pole supporting the hut, and Tuta (3). Plate III is a group of Henebedda Veddas, the relatively tall man with his hands hanging by his sides is the half-breed Appuhami (4), and the taller of the two men with axes over their shoulders, the Henebedda shaman^[15], is also a half-breed. The man to the right of the shaman with bow and arrows in his hands is Kaira (5), the youth in front of him is Poromala (6), on whose left hand Tuta (7) kneels by the side of Kalua who is in the same position. The four men between Appuhami and the shaman all appear to be fairly typical Veddas; the man next to Appuhami is Poromala of Bingoda, upon whose right stand Handuna (8) and Randu Wanniya (9).

In stature the Veddas are short: the Sarasins measured 24 men of the "Central Vedda district" whom they considered pure-blooded and obtained an average of 1553 mm. - (60⅜ inches) with a minimum of 1460 mm. (57½ inches) and a maximum of 1600 mm. (63 inches). There was only one man of 1600 mm. and 20 of the 24 men measured were below 1575 mm. - (62 inches). Eleven Vedda women of the same district gave an average height of 1433 mm. (56⅜ inches) with a minimum of 1355 mm. (53⅜ inches) and a maximum of 1500 mm. (59 inches). The median of the men was 1545 mm. (60¾ inches), that of the women 1435 mm. (56½ inches). Although Veddas do not become unduly fat they have, when well nourished, sturdy rather than slight figures, and a few of the older men may present rather prominent abdomens. The hair is wavy, sometimes almost curly, and in old age not rarely turns white. There is little hair upon the bodies of the purer Veddas and the growth of hair upon the face can best be described as slight or moderate, usually consisting of a rather thin moustache and sparse goatee beard.

The skin of the Veddas varies enormously, that of the face being generally somewhat lighter than that of the skin of the chest. But apart from these minor variations, the skin colour of any series of individuals will be found to vary from a deep brown-black, through various shades of bronze, in some of which a definite reddish tone can be detected, to a colour which can only be called yellowish-brown. A medium brown-black is perhaps the commonest, but apart from the darkest brown-black every colour, even the lightest, occurs in individuals whose general appearance suggests that they are pure-, or almost pure-blooded Veddas, and we have no doubt that the bronze shades occur quite as often among pure-blooded Veddas as among the less pure. Indeed our experience suggests that the occurrence of a skin colour of the darker shades of brown-black may be taken as evidence of miscegenation. The eyes are always dark brown. The head is long and narrow, the Sarasins give the average cephalic index of 17 male skulls as 70.5 (minimum 64.9 and maximum 75.9, median 71). The length-height index of the same skulls is 73 (minimum 65.4, maximum 79, median 73.4). Generally the face is long rather than broad, but in this respect there is considerable variation. Twelve skulls gave an average facial index of 88.2 (minimum 77.2, maximum 99.2, median 88.5), but ten of the skulls were over 85, the two lowest both giving an index of about 77.

The brow ridges are well marked so that the eyes appear deeply set or even sunken. The chin is somewhat pointed and is rarely prominent. The lips, though well developed, are not tumid (except sometimes in the young); sometimes the mouth is rather flat. This when accompanied by moderately prominent cheek bones gives some faces an expression of considerable energy. The jaw is not prognathous, the nostrils are moderately broad, the root of the nose is depressed but never flattened to any considerable degree. The average of the nasal indices of 17 skulls gave the figure 52.7 (minimum 43.3, maximum 62.2, median 52.3), which is just short of the index (53) at which platyrrhiny is commonly assumed to begin. Nevertheless we believe that the Veddas may more fairly be classed as mesorrhine than platyrrhine, for certainly the impression made on us by the living was that they were not specially broad-nosed. The capacity of the 18 male skulls described by the Sarasins varies from 1012 to 1502 c.c. with an average of 1278 c.c.: none of the three female Vedda skulls from the inner Vedda district have a capacity of less than 1150 c.c., though there is a skull of an adult Vedda woman in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons with a capacity of only 960 c.c.

Summing up the physical characters to which we have briefly referred we may define the Veddas as a short, wavyhaired, dolichocephalic race, with moderately long faces and moderately broad noses. Expressing the results of measurements taken by the Sarasins we may say that chaemaeprosopes and leptoprosopes occur in about equal numbers, and that the Veddas are mesorrhine or present a low grade of platyrrhiny.

The latest Vedda literature of any importance is a volume published by the Sarasins which records the work they did in Ceylon during 1907 when they established the existence of a stone age upon the island. This fact had not been realised before, though two naturalists, Mr E. E. Green and Mr J. Pole, both old residents, had already collected and recognised as artifacts the quartz implements which were the typical product of the stone age in Ceylon, and which, as pointed out by the Sarasins, are most reasonably to be attributed to the Veddas. A number of rock shelters were explored; these were situated at Kataragam in the south of the island where no Veddas now exist, and in other parts of Uva, in the present Vedda country. Not all the caves investigated yielded evidence of prehistoric habitation, but from a certain number were obtained quartz, chert and shell implements which put the matter beyond doubt and conclusively show that Ceylon formerly possessed a stone age. The greater part of the volume is taken up by an account of prehistoric quartz and chert artifacts, and the excellent reproductions given by the authors show that the quartz implements they discovered belong to the same type as those found by ourselves and described elsewhere^[16].

But in addition the Sarasins found hammer stones, a few pieces of worked bone, and a series of shells of the large land snail (Helix phoenix), the curve of each shell being occupied by a circular hole large enough to allow of its sharp edge being used as a cutting tool^[17].

Plate VIII shows a number of typical Vedda implements. All are of quartz except No. 2 which is of chert. Nos. 1 and 3 are worked on one side only, the unworked side being shown in order to illustrate the well-marked bulb of percussion which distinguishes many of the specimens. The general characteristics of these implements are so well shown in the plate that a description in detail is not necessary. Attention may, however, be called to figures 6, 8 and 9; the first of these shows a large part of the outer surface of the quartz pebble from which it was made. No. 8 belongs to a type of which numerous examples occur among European stone implements, this specimen is thicker than is usual and measures 15 mm. from one surface to the other. No. 9 can scarcely have been intended for anything but an arrow head, two views are given of this remarkable implement which comes from a cave on the Scarborough Estate at Maskeliya, and for a drawing of which I am indebted to Mr Pole. No. 2 is of chert and was found in the same cave; two views of this implement are given. The localities from which the other specimens were collected were as follows: No. 1 was found by Mr Pole at Maskeliya, No. 3 we picked up at Bandarawela, No. 4 was collected by Mr Green near Peradeniya, Nos. 5, 6, 7, and 8 are in Mr Pole's collection and were found by him near Maskeliya.

The questions raised by the discovery of implements such as those figured are so many and interesting that no excuse is needed for considering some of the issues at length. The data are the caves excavated by the Sarasins in which prehistoric implements were found, and our own work in Ceylon including the partial excavation of the Bendiyagalge caves which are described and figured in Chapter IV.

In the first place if we accept the suggestion that Veddas, the ancestors of those still existing, are responsible for these implements, their distribution will give valuable information as to the former extent of the Vedda country. It may be said at once that the distribution of these implements, as far as it is at present known, agrees with our historic knowledge of the extent of the Vedda domain, and adds to it the heights of Uva up to about 4000 feet (Bandarawela), the country around Kandy, and the hill country to the south (Gampola) and in the neighbourhood of Adam's Peak (Maskeliya)^[18]. And since they have been found in the neighbourhood of Matale they add an interesting confirmation to what Mr Parker has said on p. 9 concerning the former occurrence of Veddas in this part of the country. Within the last few months the range of these implements has been extended south to the neighbourhood of Ratnapura. where a number of excellent specimens were found by the late James Parsons, who wrote to us concerning them as follows: "I dug out a cave in Sabaragamuwa in a ravine to the north-east of Ratnapura which was most interesting. I have full notes of the cave—briefly it is sufficiently high above the stream for it to have been impossible for it to enter the cave in geologically recent times. To a depth of 8 feet the cave is full of black earth containing many shells of the big tree snail mixed with the river shells, bellan (Paludina ceylonica), in such abundance that these shells are now occasionally collected and burnt for chunam. A shell is said to occur that is found only in the river at Ratnapura, but I did not succeed in finding it. The tradition is that the molluscs were used as food by 'an ancient Tamil people.' The shells are not calcined, but with them were a number of flakes of clear quartz—mostly made from pebbles, some of them the best I have seen and undoubtedly neolithic… I do not think there can be any reasonable doubt about them. At a depth of five feet very rotten fragments of the top of a human skull and the region of the ear besides bits of long bones and some pieces of chert not obviously worked. At the entrance of the cave there is a sort of dyke thrown up, which is full of flakes some of which appear to be ground and polished."

Parsons' premature death renders it unlikely that a full account of this find will ever be published, but owing to the kindness of Mrs Parsons we have been able to examine a number of the implements excavated by her husband. These include a number of cores, worked flakes and scrapers, and one flake of chert showing a bulb of percussion, but none of the specimens that I have handled show any signs of polishing^[19].

With regard to the distribution in time of these implements, it seems that they are of respectable, but of no great antiquity. They are found abundantly on the surface of the open grassy patanas at Bandarawela and also on the surface of the soil near Kandy and scattered everywhere in the neighbourhood of Maskeliya over the ground planted with tea. Considering that Ceylon is a well vegetated country with an abundant rainfall, these facts do not point to any high antiquity even if it is allowed that in the tea country the cultivation of a century has lowered the level by 9 to 12 inches, the estimate given by planters whom we questioned.

The evidence from the caves seems to point in the same direction. The Bendiyagalge caves present well marked drip ledges and many signs such as the steps (Plate IX) hewn in the rock, between the upper and lower caves, which show that they were used by the Sinhalese during the efflorescence of Buddhism before, or about the beginning of, the present era. This date is made perfectly certain by the occurrence in one of the caves, a few miles from Bendiyagalge and used by the same Veddas, of a typical drip ledge associated with an inscription of which Mr H. C. P. Bell, archaeological commissioner, says, "The Brahmi [characters] are of the oldest type, therefore B.C." This inscription has been read by the same authority as,—"(cave of) the chief…son of the chief Vela." It is therefore clear that these caves were at one time—about 2000 years ago—inhabited by Sinhalese who, as the results of excavation showed, had left behind them abundant evidence of their occupation of the cave. This will be clear from the following short account of our partial exploration of these caves.

The nature of its bottom made the lower cave the easier to examine, accordingly a longitudinal trench about a foot wide was dug in the long axis of the lower cave. The first six inches yielded fragments of pottery and a number of bones, a much rusted catty, and an areca nut cutter, both of the pattern in common use. A good many fragments of charcoal were found in the upper 12 to 18 inches, and several pieces of iron slag—perhaps six in all—as well as a number of land shells lying in groups, were found at a depth of from 1 to 2 feet. Bones and fragments of pottery continued to occur until a depth of about 2 feet was reached. Massive rock, which was taken to be the bed rock of the cave, was reached at about 2½ feet, and within a few inches of this were found many fragments of quartz—some milky, some ice-clear, some faintly opalescent, some smoky and some amethystine. A few of these were as big as hens' eggs, the majority varied from the size of an apricot to a haricot bean, some were even smaller. From the large number of pieces of quartz—nearly 300—collected at the depth mentioned from this trench, and a small trench driven at right angles to it, as well as the absence of pieces of country rock, there can be no doubt that these pieces of quartz were brought to the site in which they were found by man. They were not water-worn, and the variety of colour and opacity they presented make it certain that they had not weathered out in situ, in spite of the fact that quartz (but not as far as we could determine ice-clear quartz) occurs in segregation masses in the gneissic rock of the neighbourhood. Further, when all the fragments were carefully washed and examined it was found that some three per cent, of the pieces of quartz obtained from this cave showed signs of working. Additional proof that the fragments of quartz had been brought by man to the site on which they were found were afforded by some irregular digging done in the upper cave formed by the same rock mass as the lower cave, and separated from it only by a few feet. The floor of this cave was so rocky that a regular trench could not be dug, but a number of holes, the largest perhaps 6 feet by 4 feet, were dug down to what was apparently the country rock at the bottom of the cave. Fragments of pottery and the bones of animals were found in plenty in these holes, but altogether they yielded only four pieces of quartz, namely two water-worn pebbles and two broken pieces of clear glassy quartz. As in the lower cave a few small pieces of slag were found some 18 inches to 2 feet below the level of the surface. Most of the fragments of pottery found in both caves in the first 2 feet are decorated and are certainly not the remains of Vedda pots, and since fragments of iron slag are found associated with this pottery, the deposit in which it occurs must be regarded as formed not earlier than the Sinhalese occupation of the cave. As already stated massive rock was found six inches lower, and from these last few inches were obtained quartz implements and many unworked pieces of quartz. Clearly then the people responsible for these occupied the caves before the Sinhalese, but there is no obvious reason for holding that the makers of these implements antedated the Sinhalese by any long period. All that can be affirmed is that no pottery was found associated with the quartz fragments either by the Sarasins or by ourselves, but this is no sign of great age considering the extreme roughness of the pots made by the Veddas at the present day, and the fact that the art is believed, doubtless correctly, to have been adopted from the Sinhalese. One of us has already stated in Alan his beliefs that these implements are neolithic and this is also the opinion of Mr Reginald Smith. Considering the refractory nature of the material, and allowing for the fact that it does not occur in large masses, the better formed implements must be regarded as neolithic in type, and in this connection it is significant that the bones found associated with the implements by the Sarasins are those of existing forms. These authors, however, believe that the implements they found are paleolithic, arguing that the absence of pottery and stone adze heads proves that they cannot be neolithic, though they apparently admit that in many respects the best implements approach neolithic forms.

The mention of these stone implements naturally brings us to the consideration of the advent of metal in Ceylon. We know of no fact indicating that this was not worked in the island before the advent of Vijaya, on the contrary, Vijaya and his band were obviously only one of many parties of settlers who came from India in prehistoric times. Perhaps the record in the Mahavansa of the coming of Buddha to Mahayangana refers to one such immigrant party, and the legend of Rama may with even more probability be taken to refer to an invasion from the mainland. It is quite certain that Vijaya found some sort of stable political organization on his arrival in the island to which he came after his followers had been repulsed from Jambudipa on account of their lawless character. The account in the Mahavansa by no means suggests that Ceylon was absolutely terra incognita, and the readiness with which communication with the mainland was kept up, and the facility with which other bands of adventurers arrive, confirms this.

Although these bands probably came from the valley of the Ganges there is evidence that there were highly civilised maritime powers in Southern India 2000 years ago. The Mahavansa states in the most matter of fact way that Vijaya sought and obtained the hand of a Hindu bride, the daughter of the king of an important Tamil state, and nothing is said as to difficulties encountered by his ambassadors in proceeding to the court of the Pandyan king, or by the princess in coming to Ceylon. Again a Pandyan king twice sent ambassadors to Rome to Augustus Caesar, B.C. 26 and 20, and Strabo records that the annual exports to India reached the large sum of 55,000,000 sesterces (nearly £500,000)^[20]. There is therefore every reason to believe that the early colonists from India were metal workers. Indeed, the matter becomes almost a certainty when it is remembered that no authenticated polished stone adze or axe head has been discovered in Ceylon, although many ancient sites have been excavated in certain districts, and gemming operations involving the digging out and examination of thousands of tons of gravel have taken place.

Probably the Nagas referred to in the Mahavansa are an immigrant race, and Mr Parker suggests that they may have been an offshoot of the Nayars of South-west India. Whether this is so or not the Nagas, according to Sinhalese historical works, drove the aborigines out of North and West Ceylon and "all Ceylon down to about Madawachchiya was known as Nagadipa (the Island of the Nagas) for many centuries after Christ^[21]." Further, the compiler of the Mahavansa who wrote about the end of the fifth century A.D. relates that after appearing to the "yakkhas" at Mahayangana, Buddha visited Nagadipa where he composed a quarrel between Mahodara and Culodara a maternal uncle and nephew concerning the ownership of a "gem-set throne." It is further recorded that "the maternal uncle of Mahodara Mani Akkhika, the Naga king of Kalyani" near Colombo, was visited by Buddha at Kalyani on which account the Kalyani dagaba was subsequently built^[22].

All these facts suggest that metal must have been known in Ceylon before the invasion by Vijaya, and once introduced, there is no doubt that within a few years metal would have been distributed throughout the whole island.

Although the Veddas are all agreed that they were never otherwise in habits and culture than they are at the present time, every Sinhalese in the Vedirata believes that they once had great, powerful and wealthy chiefs and that they possessed hoards of gold and gems. Nevill, who takes somewhat their view, says: "Sinhalese, who are old and intelligent, and who have lived among Vaeddas, all agree that in ancient times Vaeddas…were often very rich and powerful. In such cases their wealth was put into gold cooking vessels, and strings of gems, etc., for their women. Poorer men had copper cooking vessels. The last of these gold vessels were lost by them during the long guerilla wars between the Kandians of Velasse and Dumbara, and Europeans, especially the English. The tradition is positive, and seems reliable. Nigala Banda, a splendid old Kandian chief, now Ratemahatmaya of Lower Bintenne, whose ancestors have lived amongst the Vaeddas of Nilgala from time immemorial, assures me there is no mistake in this, but their former use of gold cooking vessels is clearly true, and that people now-a-days have no idea how proud and powerful they were, until the maha kaeraella (the long war with the English)."

We could discover no reason for this belief, which seems to be effectually disposed of by the evidence of the very old Sinhalese informant whom we quote at the beginning of the next chapter. It is, however, firmly rooted in the minds of the majority of the Kandyan Sinhalese and is probably in part due to confusion between Veddas and Kandyans of mixed Vedda descent who until recently called themselves Veddas or were known as Veddas to their neighbours. Many such men living in the Vedirata took care to keep in touch with the Veddas, who to some extent looked upon them as chiefs and protectors, and to whom they made presents of game and honey. Another factor leading to the belief in the former glory of the Veddas is the persistence in popular form of the legend of Vijaya and Kuweni, which though absolutely unknown to the Veddas is firmly established among the Sinhalese.