THE VEDDAS

CHAPTER II

PRESENT CONDITION OF THE VEDDAS

We propose to treat the Veddas under three headings:—

Although it may not be easy in every case to say into which group a given person falls, and although the proposed classification rests on no natural or known physical basis, it seems that at the present day the Veddas fall into these three groups characterised by different sociological features. The term "Rock" or "Jungle" Vedda will be avoided; it has been applied by some authors to the wilder specimens of that class which we propose to call simply Veddas.

The coast Veddas are briefly described in Chapter XII.; they live in scattered villages on the east coast and are chiefly to be found north of Batticaloa. They have much Tamil blood in their veins, and though often taller than pure Veddas, some still retain an appearance which suggests their Vedda origin. This is far more marked in the males than in the females, and it appeared to us that any of the latter might have been local Tamils, whereas some of the men clearly differed from the surrounding population.

Before giving an account of the present condition of the different Vedda communities, we propose to give the substance of a number of conversations with a remarkable old Kandyan who in his boyhood, youth and manhood was closely associated with the Veddas of the Eastern Province, and whose memory certainly goes back for 80 or 90 years. In order to make his account intelligible we must anticipate certain later chapters to the extent of defining the terms waruge and yaka, that is we must refer briefly to the essential features of the Vedda social system and religion.

Every Vedda belongs to a waruge or clan, as the term may be translated, and among a large number of the Vedda communities still existing, exogamy is the absolute rule. Further, with exogamy is associated descent in the maternal line, so that the fundamentals of the social system of the Veddas may, perhaps, be summed up as a clan organization with female descent. There is no evidence, as far as we can determine, of any dual organization of the clans, but perhaps they had originally a territorial distribution. Ignoring for a moment such debatable matters, the Vedda clans are:—

Turning now to the Vedda religion the word yaka (feminine yakini, plural yaku) is used to denote the spirits of the dead, and since the Vedda religion is essentially a cult of the dead, it is not surprising that the propitiation of the spirits of dead relatives, called the Nae Yaku, is at once its most obvious and important feature. With this is associated the cult of the spirits of certain long dead Veddas who may be regarded as legendary heroes. The most important of these is Kande Yaka, the yaka of Kande Wanniya, a celebrated hunter who lived many generations ago and whose assistance is invoked for good hunting. Kande Yaka especially helps in the tracking of sambur and spotted deer, and with him is often associated Bilindi Yaka, the yaka of his younger brother Bilindi. When a deer has been killed the head is set aside, and with rice and coconut milk (when procurable) dedicated to Kande Yaka, after which it is eaten with the rice. An essentially similar ceremony often spoken of by the same name (kirikoraha), but in which no meat is offered, is held after a death in order to propitiate the spirit of the dead man. The majority of Veddas believe that the Nae Yaku go to Kande Yaka, and become in some sense his attendants, and Kande Yaka, sometimes accompanied by Bilindi Yaka, is generally invoked at the beginning of the Nae Yaku ceremony. It was stated more than once that the Nae Yaku could not come to the offering unless accompanied by Kande Yaka, who was even spoken of as bringing the Nae Yaku. Some of our informants also said that the spirit of the deceased resorted to Kande Yaka and obtained his permission to accept offerings from his living relatives, in return for which the Nae Yaka would assist or injure them according to their behaviour, so that Kande Yaka, besides being of the greatest assistance in hunting, has also become the Lord of the Dead.

The Kandyan already mentioned, whose full title is Karagahavella Adenayaka Mudiyanselage Tissahami, visited us at Bandaraduwa; he lived at Bakiyella some ten miles from our camp. Mr Bibile, who was distantly related to the old man, told us that he must be nearly a hundred years old, since he had been brought to the wild country of the Eastern Province by his mother during the rebellion of 1818, his father having fallen in the fighting. His hair, of which he retained a fair quantity, was absolutely white and worn short, his complexion was pale with age, he had a slight unilateral facial paralysis and he walked with the aid of a stick, his back being bowed and both knees somewhat flexed; but he was withal an extraordinarily active old man, extremely intelligent and with an excellent memory, the play of the muscles of his face showing how well he realised the import of the questions addressed to him and how much they interested him. Further, his frank replies when he did not understand a question and the emphatic manner in which he delivered his answers carried conviction of the value of his evidence, and we believe that no one who listened to the old man would have considered him other than a good witness.

There were both "wild" and "village" Veddas even in the days of his youth, and the only difficulty experienced with the old man was in keeping the two classes perfectly distinct in his mind. The following facts were elicited in the course of three interviews, each lasting somewhat less than an hour. He stated that he was just able to walk when he came to the Eastern Province, and that as he grew up he spent much of his time with the Veddas hunting and collecting honey. The Veddas of those days were a merry people, and with a most eloquent gesture the old man showed how they would throw dry leaves into the air and shout and dance for happiness; he said also that they were absolutely truthful. Every Vedda carried a bow and arrows and an axe; more arrows than one were carried, but it was not clear that they only carried two; it seemed that tudaāi, a word that the old man said was used to describe the number of arrows carried, may have meant a small quantity or may have been a hunting term corresponding to "brace" or "leash." The old man had seen Veddas shoot lying on their backs and holding the bow with their feet, but this was only for amusement and to show their skill, no serious shooting was done in this way. The feathers of peacocks, herons and hawks were especially used in feathering arrows; any of these birds would be shot with an ordinary arrow, and peacock was eaten as was jungle fowl, though no one would eat porcupine or buffalo; for these abstinences he could give no reason. Traps were not used. Fish were eaten, being caught by poisoning the water of pools with the bark of damba, nahapata, puselpata (? Entada scandens) and the fruit of timbiri (Diospyros embryopteris) and kukuruman (Adenanthera bicolor). Pots and bark cloth bags were made and betel pouches of monkey skin, though even then some village Veddas had cloth betel bags, and these occasionally reached the wilder Veddas. Among the village Veddas both sexes bored their ears and the women wore ivory studs in them; whether the women of the wilder groups bored their ears and wore these ornaments was not clear, certainly the men did not. Fire was obtained from two pieces of wood by drilling.

The wilder Veddas of those days built no houses but lived entirely in caves; trading places called wadia near the caves, but out of sight of them, under a tree or rock, were used for bartering, where all strangers would stop and shout and then wait until their calls had been answered from the caves.

The Veddas were extremely jealous of their women, and intimate as our informant was with them as a young man, he was never taken to their caves while their women were there. The wilder Veddas could not count, at least they used no numerals beyond one, the method being to say "one" "and one" "and one," etc., probably putting a piece of stick on the ground or making a mark for each unit mentioned. Both hands with fingers extended were held up for ten, or perhaps for any number above six. The "silent trade" was only a tradition even among the wildest Veddas and had probably been extinct in this part of the country for at least two generations. The wilder Veddas had no areca nuts but chewed the bark of trees mixed with lime which they obtained by burning land shells which they called wantako.

Cousin marriage took place, the unions being arranged by the parents of the young people. Honey, dried venison and flesh of the monitor lizard were brought by the young man to the girl's father^[1], who would call his daughter and give her in charge of her husband, for whom she would immediately make a waist string (dia lanuwa). She made no pretence of running away from her husband. Widows married an unmarried brother of their first husband if this were possible, in any case they might remarry and their sexual morality was as high as that of unmarried girls.

The wilder Veddas of the district belonged to the Morane and Unapane waruge; each clan had its own set of caves, though, since their members intermarried, there could have been no rigid exclusiveness about the arrangement. There were people of Uru waruge at a little distance; their status was lower than that of the Morane and Unapane folk, neither of whom would marry into this clan, and it was even said that the men of Uru waruge should carry game and honey for the men of Morane and Unapane.

Some of the village Veddas of those days had cloth, and when dancing to the yaku they wore the long cloth garment called hangalla; the wilder Veddas had no cloth and wore leaves, but it was not clear whether they had not also a certain amount of bark cloth which was their ordinary covering, and leaves may have been worn in addition when they invoked the yaku^[2].

The old man knew of the custom of a man keeping a piece of human liver in his betel pouch; it was universal and in his young days every Vedda desired to have a piece. Strangers, even Veddas, who intruded on the hunting grounds would be killed and their liver taken, no other part of the dead man being used, and the custom gave rise neither to warfare nor to vendettas^[3].

Caves in which a death occurred were deserted, the corpse being covered with leaves; perhaps men very near dissolution were left before death had actually occurred, but this did not seem certain. Bones found in the cave when the group returned to it after an interval of some ten or twelve years were thrown away quite carelessly. The spirits of the dead became the Nae Yaku who, with Kande Yaka and Bilindi Yaka, gave game and prosperity. The kirikoraha ceremony was performed for the Nae Yaku, and adukku (cooked food), which even in the old days consisted of coconut and rice, was offered to them. The wilder Veddas gave nothing to the Buddhist priests and made no offerings at shrines, nor did they know the Kataragam God, Kanda Swami, though the village Veddas worshipped him and knew that Walliame had been taken to wife by him, and honey was presented to the goddess at certain shrines, especially one at Kokote Sila, frequented by the village Veddas.

A few of the village Veddas would dance for the Sinhalese in order to protect their cattle, bring prosperity to their villages, and secure them from epidemics; they would dance kolamaduwa which the old man pointed out was derived from a shorter ceremony ruwela, this being an older name than kolamaduwa^[4].

It appeared that the invocations at present in use among the Kovil Vanamai Veddas were those used in the old man's youth, for although he had not, as he stated (truthfully we believe), been closely associated with the Veddas for many years he recognised a number of Vedda invocations which were sung to him, as identical with those sung in his youth, and named the occasions on which each was used. Maligi was recognised as sung when honey was taken; the invocation at the beginning of the kirikoraha ceremony (cf. p. 285) was promptly named, and the occasions of its use pointed out, but the charm used when driving monkeys was not recognised. A song sung for amusement by the Veddas beginning Mamini mamini ma deyo was immediately recognised, as were two of the invocations of the Kolamaduwa ceremony, but considering how Sinhalese in substance this ceremony is this is perhaps not of much importance.

At the present day the number of Veddas living their natural forest life is necessarily few, for their territory has been gradually encroached upon by the Sinhalese who are inveterate poachers. The Veddas, who were never numerous within recent historic times, are now rapidly dying out, while many have settled among the Sinhalese and so lost their identity. We met with only four families who still led the life described by Bailey in 1863, and these were not among the Nilgala but among the Nuwaragala Hills. At Nilgala itself there are no Veddas at the present day, though the local peasant Sinhalese doubtless have much Vedda blood in their veins. The Henebedda and Danigala Veddas are the descendants of those recorded by Bailey in 1863, and the Kovil Vanamai Veddas are the descendants of those known and described by the old Kandyan who visited us at Bandaraduwa.

Hennebedda. At Hennebedda we met a number of families living together in the Bendiyagalge caves. They had come to this their largest cave, from several settlements all within a few hours' journey. The genealogies show that at least in one instance there had been intermarriage with Sinhalese, and we suspected this in other cases, though the majority appear to be reasonably pure-blooded.

These people make chenas^[5] on which they live temporarily in bark-covered huts; Plate X, figure 1, represents the chena settlement of the local group of the Namadewa waruge, some of the members of which are shown in Plate X, figure 2. They gather honey and hunt, several of them possess guns, and some of them rear cattle for the Sinhalese villagers. Indeed, for Veddas their lot is singularly happy, since they live in the heart of the park country where game is still abundant. Bailey first induced some Veddas in the Nilgala district to make chenas about the middle of the last century, before which all the Veddas in this district were probably living their natural hunting, honey-gathering life.

It is not often that a community that has taken to the semi-civilised life of chena cultivation is seen, in which its members are so healthy and well fed, for Veddas dislike settling down and do not generally do so until they find they can no longer subsist on the game in the country, when they either drift into Sinhalese settlements, or make extremely rough chenas for themselves, the produce of which is seldom sufficient to feed the community. Besides which, as is the case with the Sinhalese peasants themselves, the crop is often pledged to Moormen pedlars before it is reaped. The poor Veddas then subsist as best they can on yams, honey and berries, and usually fall a prey to fever. Several Veddas in this wretched condition were seen between Namal Oya and Bandaraduwa, while those at Godatalawa were scarcely better off.

In the Nilgala district the conditions are different. Chena making and cattle rearing had been introduced while game was still abundant, families are still able to leave the chena settlement and hunt and gather honey, living during such times in rock shelters within their own hunting boundary. However, the Veddas are coming more and more in contact with their Sinhalese neighbours, and it is extremely unlikely that the next generation will remain pure.

Fig. 1. A chena settlement of the Henebedda Veddas

Fig. 2. Henebedda Veddas of the Namadewa clan inhabiting the chena settlement

We visited two of the nearest chena settlements of these people, the huts (Plate X, figure 1) were about as well built as those of the average Sinhalese chena, though the cultivation itself was certainly less systematic and orderly. The Namadewa folk lived in one settlement while the Morane and Unapane inhabited another.

Although all these Veddas have come in contact with the Sinhalese and are visited by Moormen hawkers for trade purposes—as indeed even the wildest have been for many generations—they have retained their old custom of not allowing the stranger in the midst of their settlement where he might meet their women. A rough shelter had been built at one corner of the Namadewa chena in which the pedlars sat and waited until the Vedda men came to bargain with them. Hence in the main these people have retained their old virtues of truthfulness, chastity and courtesy. The first, upon which practically every observer has remarked, was modified in a particular direction, for they all wished to show that they were pure-blooded Veddas of the Morane and Unapane clans, which were considered superior to the rest. So the Namadewa men lied freely, declaring that they belonged to Morane and Unapane, and one young man, otherwise a good informant, insisted that he was still unmarried, as he did not want to own that his wife was a Namadewa woman. Cases of intermarriage with Sinhalese were also emphatically denied, or only admitted after much cross-examination. Plate III represents a number of the men we met at Bendiyagalge.

Danigala. The Danigala Veddas of the Nilgala district present a peculiar phase of the clash of civilization and barbarism. They are the classical "wild Veddas" of Ceylon described by so many travellers; their descent is pure but their own customs have been almost entirely forgotten, and are certainly ignored at the present day. They live in the park country, have a chena and a banana garden, and do a good trade in cattle both by herding for the Sinhalese, retaining every fifth calf as is the custom of the country and also selling those they have bred themselves. However, all this was unknown to us when we first met the people, nor would it have been possible to guess their prosperous condition from the first sight of their settlement. It was well known throughout the Vedirata that investigations were about to be made among the Veddas, and all the village headmen had been given instructions to render assistance. They therefore told the Veddas to expect us, and would have sent for them to come to the Public Works Department bungalow on our arrival had we not expressly stated that we preferred to visit the people in their homes. A very rough track led to the top of the Danigala Hill, about 1200 feet high, where, on a rounded shoulder of rock, stood the skeleton hut of the Danigala Veddas shown in Plate II. This was built on the pattern of the ordinary village Vedda habitations but entirely lacked the slats of bark which make the sides moderately weather proof. By its side was an even rougher shelter consisting of a large bough with the smaller branches trimmed and overlaid with banana leaves. Kaira the patriarch or "senior" of the group sat outside the hut with three other men; there were also present three women, a boy of about 12, and two younger children, and although both of the latter had many teeth they suckled persistently. This hut and some of its occupants are shown in Plate II, the rough shelter by its side in Plate XI, figure 1.

Although Mr Bibile, whom all these people knew quite well, was with us, they were quite apathetic, their attitude was clearly not the result of shyness, but simply due to the fact that they took no interest in our presence; the women continued to suckle their infants and the men squatted or lay upon the rocks and chewed in gloomy silence, and when addressed they grunted "yes" or "no." One of the infants who smiled and cooed and tried to gain our attention was the only member of the group who seemed to take the least notice of us. Kaira told us that the people we now saw represented all that remained of the Danigala Veddas. We noticed some bananas (which do not grow wild in Ceylon) on the further side of the ridge and we asked to see their plantation. A prompt denial of its existence was the result, though Kaira afterwards told Mr Bibile that he would show him his chena but that he did not wish the white people to know anything about it. Further talk with these people showed that it was impossible to obtain reliable information from them, they had been utterly spoilt as the result of being frequently interviewed by travellers.

Fig. 1. Rough shelter on the Danigala rock dome

Fig. 2. Veddas of Bandaraduwa

The Veddas have long been regarded as a curiosity in Ceylon and excite almost as much interest as the ruined cities, hence Europeans go to the nearest Rest House on the main road and have the Danigala Veddas brought to them. Naturally the Veddas felt uncomfortable and shy at first, but when they found that they had only to look gruff and grunt replies in order to receive presents they were quite clever enough to keep up the pose. In this they were aided by the always agreeable villagers ever ready to give the white man exactly what he wanted. The white man appeared to be immensely anxious to see a true Vedda, a wild man of the woods, clad only in a scanty loin cloth, carrying his bow and arrows on which he depended for his subsistence, simple and untrained, indeed, little removed from the very animals he hunted. What more easy than to produce him? The Nilgala headman sends word when strangers are expected, then the Veddas repair to their very striking hut on the rock dome and often post a look-out on a big rock about half way up, for on our second visit the leading man of our party who was carrying the camera stated that he saw a Vedda bolting from this rock as we came up. These folk, who when we saw them wore their Vedda loin cloths and were smeared with ashes, are reported to wear ordinary Sinhalese clothes when not in their professional pose, and Mr Bibile, who has himself seen one or more of them in sarongs, points out that the imposture is kept up for two main reasons; firstly, they fear that their cultivation might be stopped (evidently an echo of the chena difficulty of the Eastern Province), or that they might be taxed if they did not appear to be poor fellows living on hardly won jungle produce; secondly, their pose of poverty interests strangers and procures them visitors, whose generosity is the greater the more primitive their mode of life appears to be.

As a matter of fact the Danigala Veddas like those of Henebedda (with whom we became really friendly) keep cattle for the Sinhalese of Potuliyadde, receiving every fifth calf that is born. The community has, or recently had, ten or more head of cattle of their own and have sold bulls to the brother-in-law of our tavalam^[6] leader for as much as 30 Rs., indeed, our tavalam leader stated that he had himself visited the Danigala chena and had also seen the cattle. On this occasion Kaira and his sons wore a coloured cloth as the Sinhalese do and their women wore a kambaya and coloured breast handkerchief. Mr Bibile was able to confirm some of these statements from his own knowledge and on making investigations among the local villagers discovered that there was a whole community living on the chena settlement, some of whom had married Sinhalese. Indeed it appeared that not only have members of this community learnt to play the part of professional primitive man, but there has even been specialisation, for as far as we could learn, the men we met at the look-out hut are those who always receive visitors or come to Bibile when sent for, while the others whom we did not see do not pose as wild Veddas. Probably the part they now play had only recently crystallised into a professional role, but it must be remembered that so long ago as 1863 Bailey discussing these Veddas, or their fathers, says "they were brought in from the forests to be 'looked at'" and he adds, "I never saw that contempt for money which Tennant supposes is still existing^[7]."

Kovil Vanamai. In the Eastern Province in the neighbourhood of Devulani tank the Kovil Vanamai Veddas are found, this term being applied to a number of groups of Veddas living in this neighbourhood. The name Kovil Vanamai means temple precincts and seems to have arisen from there being one or more temples in this part of the country, while some of these shrines are traditionally associated with Veddas, apparently with old settled coast and village Veddas, for we have no reason to think that the ancestors of the folk we saw at Bandaraduwa, or the other wilder Veddas of fifty years ago, were in any way guardians of the temples or dependent on their bounty. Although at the present day the Kovil Vanamai Veddas are represented by scattered groups, for the most part badly off and in varying conditions of ill health and malnutrition, there is abundant evidence that only a generation back these communities were composed of a large number of families who, although they made chenas, led a healthy hunting life for a great part of the year. Plate XI, figure 2, represents some men and children of the Bandaraduwa chena settlement; from this photograph it is evident that in spite of their prosperity even twenty-five years ago, there must have been much miscegenation, and the appearance of a couple of old grey-headed men alleged Veddas whom we saw in this neighbourhood certainly suggested that they possessed only a fraction of Vedda blood^[8].

The following account of the Kovil Vanamai Veddas as they existed some 20 or 25 years ago was given us by Tissahami, Arachi^[9] of Potuliyadde, a man who on account of his long association with Veddas is often spoken of as the Vedda Arachi. This man though presenting the appearance of a typical Kandyan Sinhalese has Vedda blood in his veins, for his ancestors were Veddas of Moranegala in the Eastern Province, his great grandfather being a Vedda shaman who settled at Damenegama in Uva Province. Although this man's descendants intermarried with the local Sinhalese (who are themselves in part the descendants of Veddas) and adopted the Sinhalese mode of life, one man at least in each generation continued to act as shaman (S. kapurale) and the father of the Arachi was a devil dancer and wederale (native doctor) of some note. This man's son, the Arachi, now a man of between 40 and 50, exerts a great deal of influence over the peasants in his neighbourhood, who all recognise that he is in more or less constant communication with the spirits, to which fact his neighbours attribute much of his success. In this manner was explained the quickness with which he recently learnt blacksmith's work. We had not heard of his reputation when he first joined our party,but it was very soon evident that he was handier, quicker and more intelligent in every way than the other peasant Sinhalese with whom we came in contact. Still later we discovered that by his influence a large clearing had been illegally made in a remote part of the jungle near Nuwaragala, and that on account of this he was doing his best to prevent our coming in contact with the Sitala Wanniya Veddas in whose territory the clearing had been made. Although in this he played us false and caused much needless trouble we found him in other matters a perfectly trustworthy witness, and as he had associated more or less constantly with the Kovil Vanamai Veddas from the age of 10 to 20, there is every reason to accept his account of their condition 25 years ago. At this time there were about 50 families, i.e. some 200 people, who led a wandering hunting life for half of the year, during which time they lived in rock shelters and depended largely on honey; for the rest of the year they paid more or less attention to chena cultivation, growing especially maize and kurakhan (Eleusine coracana). Two or three families—not necessarily the same year after year—would usually wander and hunt together; such groups of families might also make chenas together, though five or six families would often join to make a single chena.

Although they had a few guns even 20 years ago, bows and arrows were in common use and much of their hunting consisted of monkey drives. There were no mixed Sinhalese and Vedda chenas then. The Arachi remembers three caves belonging to the ancestors of the present Bandaraduwa Veddas, viz. Walimbagalagalge, Ellavellagalge and Vianbendegalge. Each family was the recognised possessor of one or more rocky hills on which there were colonies of the rock bee, but the whole of the small hunting community would join to collect honey from each hill and the honey was always equally shared.

The Kovil Vanamai Veddas belonged to Morane and Unapane and Uru waruge. The latter lived apart near Uniche, i.e. between Tumpalamcholai and the coast. The Arachi states that the language has altered during the last 20 years, Tamil tending to displace Sinhalese, thus tirakodoi, "nothing," is said instead of kodoi, tira being a Tamil word, so that a composite word meaning "really nothing" is now used.

Fig. 1. Mixed Sinhalese and Vedda chena at Bandaraduwa

Fig. 2. Uniche Veddas

At the present day there are probably no more than a dozen families left as representatives of the Kovil Vanamai Veddas and all of these live on Sinhalese chenas and are in dire poverty. The country has been referred to already as unhealthy, monkeys although abundant are not easily approached especially in the dry season, and other game is scarce. Isolated families have settled down in Sinhalese villages to pick up whatever living they can as occasional hired labourers, and some of these people were seen in a wretchedly starved condition. The most prosperous are three families living on the large Sinhalese chena (Plate XII, figure 1) at Bandaraduwa near Devulani tank. But even with the assistance of the chena these people are not well off, and it appeared that they were no strangers to hunger. Owing to their position on the border of the Sinhalese and Tamil country, they had been influenced by both Hinduism and Buddhism to a certain extent. In spite of this they knew numerous Vedda songs and incantations, and the ceremonies following a death which occurred in the vicinity during our visit clearly demonstrated that foreign ideas formed but a thin stratum overlying their own beliefs.

The Uniche Veddas were not seen in their own country but some men were brought to us by the Forest Ranger, Mr S. Perera, at Maha Oya, where the photograph shown in Plate XII was taken. We have no note that these Veddas were Uru waruge men, but it seems probable that they represented the Uru waruge community recorded (as mentioned by the Vedda Arachi) on the last page. They had retained their own customs and beliefs very largely and appeared to be living in a condition very similar to the people near Devulani, though perhaps they were better fed.

Sitala Wanniya. After visiting so many decaying or degenerate communities a refreshing state of affairs was found at Sitala Wanniya. Here there were at least four families who were living the life their forefathers had lived for generations without perceptible change. They still found game, honey and yams in quantities sufficient not only to support life, but to leave a surplus to barter with the Moormen on their annual visit, or to take into the nearest Sinhalese village to exchange for iron, cloth, pots and occasional rice and coconuts.

Plate XIII represents the women of this group, the plates on which the men were photographed were accidentally destroyed shortly after we left Sitala Wanniya. Handuna whose height was 1530 mm. (60¼ inches) looked a typical Vedda; Vela who was two inches taller also had a Vedda physiognomy though his appearance was not so typical; Kaira and Pema both looked as though they were of mixed blood, and Nila, height 1555 mm. (61¼ inches), shown in Plate LV, would certainly not be taken for a Vedda at all.

Neither the assurance of a regular supply of food, nor the apathy produced by gradual starvation, had caused them to neglect their old ceremonies, and we found that once these people had overcome their shyness they were communicative, extremely courteous and merry. When the men understood they were free to come to our camp whenever they liked and that areca nut and betel leaves were always ready for them, they granted us the same freedom of their own cave, only stipulating that we should never allow our servants to go near it.

When they first led us to their cave we noticed that they stopped and shouted when about a quarter of a mile distant and did not proceed until an answering shout was heard. This they said was their custom and was equally observed whether they were accompanied by strangers or not. The place at which they stopped was their usual dancing ground as well as the spot on which pedlars were received and barter carried on, for strangers were never allowed to approach their caves or see their women.

Women and girls of Sitala Wanniya

Galmede. A family of Veddas of the Galmede group, seen at Godatalawa, consisted of ten persons who had left their old home in the Nuwaragala Hills, and who appeared to be moderately pure-blooded. The old man of the community proved a good informant, remembering a considerable number of old customs and invocations, but he was not a shaman, and as there was not one in the community most of the customs had fallen into desuetude. The members of this community were living on a very poor chena and, when we saw them, were in great difficulties as they had been called upon to pay a chena tax as well as 1.50 Rs. per adult male road tax. Of course they were unable to collect this money and they dreaded the ensuing penalty, that of serving on the roads, for should the two young men leave the settlement the old man and woman and the girl must starve, the first being too old to work and the woman a cripple. Their plight would have been just as bad had the young man gone to work on some Sinhalese rice fields in order to earn the money^[10].

Degenerate Veddas in the neighbourhood of the main Badulla-Batticaloa road^[11]. The main road from Badulla to the east coast passes through country that was once the centre of the Vedirata, and on either side of it at a distance of some 2—6 miles are various settlements of half-bred and degenerate Veddas who will soon be entirely lost among the Sinhalese. Plate XIV, figure 1, represents two men of this class: it is obvious that the young man would pass for a Sinhalese, indeed in spite of his bow and arrows and traditional scanty Vedda garb the condition of his hair shows that he has at least been following a Sinhalese mode of life. It is possible that the whole Vedda getup may have been assumed for our benefit, though in view of the comparative skill with which he handled his bow we do not think this likely. The old man was doubtless one of the last degenerate Veddas of the district.

Before passing to village Veddas a word must be said concerning the Omuni folk and those of Unuwatura Bubula. Sir James Emerson Tennant, in his work Ceylon published in 1859, states that Mr Atherton, A.G.A., in conjunction with the Wesleyan Methodist Missionaries, attempted to civilise the Veddas^[12]. In 1838 "cottages were built for them in their own district, rice land assigned to them, wells dug, coconuts planted, two communities were speedily settled at Vippammadvo." A school was founded and two other settlements formed at Oomany and Villengelavelly. However, the enterprise was soon abandoned owing to the misconduct of some of the teachers. "But," continues Tennant, "the good effects of even this temporary experiment were apparent; not one of the Veddas returned to his cave and savage habits….The other colony at Oomany continues to the present day prosperous and successful, twenty-five families are resident around it, rice and other grains are produced in sufficiency and coconuts are planted near the cottages. The only desertions have been the departures of those in search of employment, who have removed to other villages in quest of it. The school was closed in 1847 owing to there being no more children at the time requiring instruction…."

The colony can no longer be called "prosperous and successful," indeed, we found it in a state of semi-starvation. Before 1838, when these people were induced to settle, there can be little doubt that they were living in a somewhat similar condition to the Sitala Wanniya Veddas of the present day, but since then there has been a considerable infusion of foreign blood, for it has long been the habit of criminals and others desirous of concealment, to seek refuge with the village Veddas, who usually receive them kindly and accept them as members of their community. Since the artificial origin of this settlement is known it cannot be regarded as belonging to the village Veddas, but rather to a colony of degenerate settled Veddas.

Omuni. At Maha Oya three half-bred Veddas from Omuni were seen who had been brought in by the Sinhalese headman to work on the road as they had not paid their "road tax." It was unnecessary for them to plead they were poor and hungry, for their miserable condition showed this all too clearly. Happily Mr S. W. Woodhouse, the district judge, was then in Maha Oya and realising that while these men were absent from their village, their women and children would be in a worse plight than ever, he excused them their tax and sent them back to Omuni. About a week later we visited Omuni and although we were met with the customary gift of honey to which were added a few berries, it was obvious that the settlement was really short of food and this in spite of a number of families having left some months previously to wander into Tamankaduwa where they hoped to get yams and perhaps some game. A number of women left the village immediately after our arrival, explaining that if they did not go and find some yams they and their children would get nothing to eat that night. Some of the men possessed bows and arrows but game was scarce, and their living was obviously precarious, yams, monitor lizards, honey and berries forming their staple diet. Fowls were kept and were taken down to the road (10 miles distant) to sell. Like all Veddas they possessed dogs, invaluable to them in catching monitor lizards when there is no bigger game to hunt, and their care for them was shown by a small shelter which they had built in order to shade a bitch with a litter of puppies.

Fig. 1. Men of mixed Sinhalese and Vedda blood from the neighbourhood of Maha Oya

Fig. 2. Women of Omuni

In physical characters these Veddas somewhat resembled the neighbouring Sinhalese, but were less stoutly built; this appearance may however in part have been due to malnutrition. Their headman is a short, well-nourished, exceedingly active and intelligent individual, whose only Vedda characteristic is his short stature. Plate XIV, figure 2, represents a number of Omuni women.

Unuwatura Bubula. The position of the Unuwatura Bubula Veddas is extremely difficult to understand, they occupy two small groups of huts (one of which is shown in Plate XV, figure 1) a little distance from the huts of some peasant Sinhalese. They formerly lived at Mudugala and have doubtless been in close contact with the Sinhalese for many generations, but whether they are the remains of village Vedda settlements or are settled wild Veddas cannot be stated with certainty, though the latter seems more probable. It must be explained that though this community has mixed much with the Sinhalese and has doubtless been much influenced by them, they have their own shamans and they perform their own rites quite apart from their Sinhalese neighbours. Unfortunately the shaman of these people who knew most about the customs and rites of this community was ill, having overtaxed his strength at the first ceremony performed for us, and was not able to talk much, but he was present at most of our conversations and was thus a check on the younger man, but for the reason indicated many points were left doubtful. The extent of their neighbours' influence upon this community may be gauged to a certain degree by the following fact. When visiting the shaman we asked him to show us his aude and other sacred objects (as will be seen later, certain beads are held sacred in this community), he replied that he did not keep them at his own hut because of the noxious influence due to the presence of the women^[13], but that the Sinhalese gamarale^[14] took charge of them for him. We then went together to the house of the gamarale; this consisted of a hut divided by a partition at the back, one room being the sleeping room and the other the granary, and a large open barn in front, with its roof continuous with that of the hut. In the part of the barn nearest the rooms, the women of the household were cooking and pounding rice, while the back was railed off to form a byre in which a number of calves were tethered and into which the cows were driven at night. When it was pointed out that there were also women living in this house the shaman explained that their influence was counter-balanced by the presence of the cows. Physically some of the Unuwatura Bubula Veddas must be regarded as tolerably pure-blooded, since they included some of the shortest men we met. One man measured only about 1360 millimetres (53½ inches), but probably he is to be regarded as almost a dwarf.

VILLAGE VEDDAS

The village Veddas form a class which it is most difficult to describe briefly, yet fairly. The term must not be taken to apply to degenerate Veddas who have lost their jungle characteristics and independent habits under Sinhalese encroachment. Doubtless many such folk do live as Sinhalese in chena settlements for a short time before their extinction in the surrounding mass of peasant Sinhalese. But this is not the sense in which the Sinhalese apply the term Gan Veddo (village Veddas), nor is it the sense in which we use the term. Knox speaks of "wild" and "tame" Veddas, and to come to more recent times, there is evidence that a hundred years ago there were organized communities of house-building Veddas, while certain Veddas received grants of land from the Sinhalese kings, and on these lived as definite village communities until quite recently, probably till within the last half century.

Fig. 1. Vedda settlement at Unawatura Bubula

Fig. 2. Village Veddas of Dambani

VILLAGE VEDDAS OF UVA BINTENNE.

Dambani. The present community of Dambani, in the jungle between Kallodi and Alutnuwara, may serve as an example of a village Vedda community. Some twenty families living in tolerably built houses keep buffaloes and cultivate chena, the latter being big enough not only to supply their own wants, but to permit of a lively trade with Sinhalese traders. These Dambani folk have been known to the Arachi of Belligala as a flourishing community in the same social condition for the last thirty years, and he states that they were in this condition in his father's time. A short visit was sufficient to show that here was a community which, though it had lost many Vedda beliefs, still retained others, and was so strong and independent that there was little likelihood of its immediate fusion with the surrounding population. Physically these people (Plate XV, figure 2), though somewhat darker and often of a stouter build than the Danigala Veddas, could not be mistaken for Sinhalese. The Dambani people are unfortunately "show" Veddas, that is to say, people who have been sent for so often by white visitors that they have learnt certain tricks, which they show off directly they see a European, and so constantly demand presents that serious work with them is an impossibility.

A positive advantage which has, however, arisen from this condition, is that these folk have kept up the remains of the so-called Vedda language. The headman in whose district these Veddas are situated is largely responsible for this, for he always speaks to them in their own dialect in harsh tones. He is an extremely kind old man, and answers definite questions perfectly truthfully, yet like so many Sinhalese, he generally says only what he thinks is expected of him, hence, the belief in the fierce sullen ways of the Veddas and their inability to laugh has been unconsciously fostered by him. A brief account of our visit to Dambani will best show the present condition of these people.

While in the jungle we were suddenly met by four Veddas, who greeted the Arachi in a deep and apparently fierce tone, he returning the greeting in the same manner. To our surprise these men came up to one of us (C. G. S.), shook hands, and then turned and led us to their village, on the way to which we passed a couple of "tame" buffalo that tried to charge us. There were three huts in the village and the headman's wife—not at all shy or diffident—after shaking hands took one of us (B. Z. S.) by the arm and led her into a hut. This had a good roof and walls of sticks, only one side being closed by bark slats, it was full of pumpkins and other chena produce, which were however soon removed. We then sat down to take vocabularies, as the talk going on around us sounded quite different from Sinhalese and they professed not to understand our interpreter who was unable to follow them. So we spoke through the Arachi. The headman's wife brought us each some honey and yams and commanded us to eat. We sucked the honey comb, but that did not satisfy her and she tried to feed one of us (B. Z. S.) with yams herself and to pour water down her throat. After giving us a few Vedda words, the Vidane (headman) began to talk very angrily and then stalked out of the hut. He complained that we had not given him presents and refused to speak another word until we gave him something. Other men came into the village making a total of about 10 or 11 grown men and some boys, but only two middle-aged women, the wife of the Vidane and another, so it was evident that there were other huts in the neighbourhood. We told the Vidane that our carriers would bring presents and made him and a few other men come back to the hut. But after every two or three words there were more angry protests and our interpreter explained that "other white men had not treated them so." When they raised their voices their talk sounded fierce, every word being shouted with emphasis and accompanied by scowling looks. Then we found out from the Arachi that these like the Danigala Veddas were "show Veddas" who had been utterly spoilt by presents from "distinguished visitors," some of whom had actually been to the village. They had been sent for often to see others at Wewatte and Alutnuwara bungalows, and for even greater folk had been taken to Kandy. And so they had learnt to shake hands and had picked up exaggerated ideas of their own importance and the value of their information, and expected a present for every remark they vouchsafed. It was a horrible change from the courteous behaviour of the Sitala Wanniya cave Veddas.

As the Dambani folk were so very unfriendly we began to hope the carriers would not come at all that night, there was nowhere for them to sleep, and we thought the Veddas might resent their presence. They told us repeatedly that "Sinhalese men would not dare to come to their village," in spite of the fact that there were two petty Sinhalese traders in the village at the time, who did not even trouble to go away before dark, but seemed naturally to expect a night's lodging, which was granted them without any fuss, and there appeared to be no difficulty about language with them. About six o'clock our servants and the carriers arrived, and curiously enough instead of resenting the intrusion the Veddas seemed very impressed by their number, and presumably our importance, in having so many dependents, for they became much more friendly.

The next morning early, we set the phonograph going with a Vedda song: immediately the whole village crowded round us, intensely interested. They recognised the song and said it was very good. The Vidane then sang a song into the machine and was quite excited to hear it repeated, but again began his demand for presents although besides a rupee we had now given white cloth to him and the other men from whom we had got vocabularies. Having obtained records we realised that it was impossible to do any good work among such spoilt people and decided to go to Belligala. We offered some beads to the headman's wife, but she said the string was not long enough; this annoyed us and we asked her if she would prefer not to have any, and on her repeating they were not enough we put them away.

The Dambani men said they did not know to which waruge they belonged, which suggested to us that perhaps they belonged to Uru waruge or one of the other clans which are considered of inferior status. Although the Arachi of Belligala did not know their waruge and believed that they had really forgotten them themselves, our opinion was confirmed by information obtained later from the Arachi of Alutnuwara who said that they were of the Uru and Namadewa waruge, while a Vedda of Horaborawewa told us that his mother came from Dambani and she was a Namadewa woman.

As the Arachi of Belligala assured us the Bulugahaladena Veddas lived in a condition precisely similar to those of Dambani, we did not visit their village but arranged for two of them to visit us at Belligala; they greeted us in the same way as the Dambani folk, with loud and guttural voices, accentuating all the "chs," and shook hands. They brought some honey and yams. They said they could not bring bambara honey (for it was too early in the year) so they had brought honey from the stingless bee. After a little while they gradually dropped their guttural tones, especially when they were speaking to the villagers and not to us, their voices, naturally deep, assumed a sing-song tone not unlike that of Nila of Sitala Wanniya. We consider that the gruffness of these Veddas is almost entirely affectation. They have been expected to be sullen and morose and never to laugh. For thirty years the Arachi of Belligala has acted as "show-man" to the Veddas of his district, and he always speaks to them in their "language" in similar or even fiercer tones, and he has shown them so many white men that he has quite lost count of their number. He has thus helped to keep up the fiction of "wildness," for these Veddas are not wild since they are not shy but come up, shake hands, ask for presents, and offer to dance.

We believe that they keep up few, if any, of the old Vedda customs; they cultivate chenas and keep cattle, their bows and arrows are probably more for show than use, for the Arachi told us that some of them possess guns while others go to the Sinhalese and borrow them. Deschamps says that Veddas never laugh nor have they ever been seen to smile. Of course this is not true of the Veddas of Nilgala, nor do we think it is true of these village Veddas, though they seem to be of a somewhat morose disposition. He also said they take no interest in things unknown to them. However, the phonograph attracted as much attention and interest as it always had from Veddas and Sinhalese alike, and we distinctly saw one Vedda smile when his song was reproduced.

The chena settlement at Wallampelle was seen, but here it appeared that much intermarriage had taken place with the Sinhalese.

Malgode. There are a number of people very mixed blooded, but calling themselves Veddas, living at Malgode on the shores of Horaborawewa, a beautiful tank traditionally associated with the Veddas. They have dropped their old Vedda customs so entirely that the local Sinhalese no longer look upon them as true village Veddas, an attitude that has perhaps been fostered by the fact that here in Uva where the Veddas are exempt from all taxation these people pay road tax. Such at least was the point of view of the Arachi of Alutnuwara, "how can these people be Veddas?—they pay road tax." In spite of this there is no doubt that they are largely of Vedda descent and in many instances remember their waruge. They live in very poorly built houses and depend largely on the seeds of the lotus for food. They still pose as pure-blooded Veddas to white visitors, and have been recently described by Drs H. M. Hillier and W. H. Furness, 3rd. "We followed the jungle path along the eastern shore of the lake, sometimes over outcrops of granite, or down by the lake side…and after following our guide through thick undergrowth for half-an-hour, suddenly, and without warning, we came out into a cleared space, where there was the merest excuse for a hut, and beside it a man and woman squatting side by side and cooking something in a blackened earthen pot, which rested on a fire of twigs and branches; a little beyond them were more huts and more women and children—lo! the Village Veddahs. The elderly man and woman whom we first saw had between them scarcely a yard of coarse cloth as clothing, their hair hung loose in dishevelled twists and strings about their faces, and they both squatted so low that their knees stood up above their shoulders. But the most impressive thing about them was their unhuman apathy and utter lack of interest… Although we came upon them unexpectedly, and although, as they told us later, they had never before seen white people, nevertheless, neither of them showed the slightest astonishment or interest in our appearance; both glanced up for a second, and then cast down their eyes, and continued silently shelling the seeds of the lotus pods beside them, and stirring the simmering pot over the fire. Near the other huts, women and children were occupied at the same task; some were sitting on the ground around a pile of lotus pods, others were attending to the cooking. At first the children seemed a little frightened at us, but contrary to expectation, did not rush off to the jungle….

"At the time of our visit there were but three men and seventeen women and children in Makulugulla; these were distributed in five shelters or huts. The chiefs house was made of four upright posts and a flat thatched roof of palm leaves, but without walls or flooring. The other huts were shaped like A-tents, one was thatched with coarse grass, the other covered with large circular leaves of the lotus. The remaining two huts were shaped like wall tents, the roofs of grass or palm-leaf thatch, and the walls of bark. They all had dirt floors, and not one of them was over eight feet square. In three of the huts the utensils, such as earthen pots, baskets, gourds and mats, were piled on the ground at one end; in only two were there any shelves. The floor of each, however, was neatly swept, and even outside the huts, where all but the aged and the very young slept, the ground had been swept clear of leaves and twigs.

"The cooking was all done out of doors, at a fire-place consisting of three stones; and the cook was honoured by having a seat, either a block of wood or the dried skin of the Axis deer or the Muntjac. We were also surprised to see their providence, in that they had quite a good-sized bundle of dry firewood on store in the huts. We expected to find the village reeking with refuse and decaying game, of which we heard that they were fond, but the place was free from smells, and really clean. The jungle at this spot was composed of large trees and sparse undergrowth, so that it was an ideal place for a camp, within easy distance of water. They may remain at this place three or four months, or even longer, before they seek a new village site, but probably they never go far from Horabora tank, on account of the great supply of lotus and other seeds which the lake affords.

"None of them is tattooed, and they wear very few ornaments. Both sexes, however, perforate the lobe of the ear, and through the opening pass a wire, strung with beads or seeds. The women sometimes enlarge this perforation, and wear in it a plug, made by rolling a strip of palm leaf into a cylinder, from one half to an inch in diameter.

"We got from them one of their earthen bowls that had rough patterns drawn upon it, but saw no other evidence of artistic ability. They make coarse mats and baskets of reeds and strips of bamboo, and use gourds and coconut shells for water bottles and cups. Spoons and ladles they make from a piece of coconut shell, with two holes, on one side, and a stick thrust through them to form a handle^[15]."

VILLAGE VEDDAS OF TAMANKADUWA.

There are a number of communities of village Veddas in Tamankaduwa, all of which show marked evidence of intermarriage with the Sinhalese and Tamils.

Elakotaliya. There is a large Vedda chena here, but most of its inhabitants were away at the time of our visit, those present appeared distinctly half-bred. Their mode of life is similar to that prevalent at Dambani and Bulugahaladena, i.e. they are occupied in chena cultivation, cattle rearing, and do a little hunting, but as they have not specially preserved it for show purposes they have forgotten the Vedda dialect. However, they remember their waruge and practise exogamy; they also reverence the Nae Yaku.

Kalukalaeba. Another settlement was seen at Kalukalaeba, here were about twelve mud huts, all empty on our arrival, as it was the harvesting season and the people had gone to live on their chena. We waited here a little while and two Veddas passed, one carrying a gun; we asked them to return to their chena and fetch some of the other villagers. Soon some twenty men and about as many women and children arrived bringing us presents of honey, pumpkins and sweet potatoes. Scarcely any of them presented the Vedda type, they were all distinctly larger and more heavily built. Except their knowledge of their waruge and recognition of the Nae Yaku all remains of Vedda customs seemed to have been lost.

Yakure. The inhabitants of Yakure, a village about six miles from Kalukalaeba, call themselves Veddas, though physically (Plate XVI, figure 1) they would pass as Tamils or mixed Tamils and Sinhalese, and show even less evidence of Vedda blood than do the Kalukalaeba people. Their village consists of about 40 mud houses and is compactly built; a great number of cattle was seen grazing outside the confines of the village. Like the Kalukalaeba folk they know their waruge and invoke the Nae Yaku, but they have a temple, a simple mud hut, and worship a number of Sinhalese gods. Some men (Plate XVI, figure 2) from a village called Ulpota near Gunner's Quoin were seen here who also appeared to have mixed blood; they knew the "Vedda language," that is to say we were able to get from them about the same number of words as we obtained at Dambani. When one of them was asked when this dialect was used he replied "only when we are sent for by the Government agent or any other white man." Among themselves they speak Sinhalese though they can also speak Tamil as it is largely the language of Tamankaduwa.

Rotawewa. There is a settlement of alleged Veddas at Rotawewa about six miles from Minerriya tank. Concerning these we were told that they cultivated rice, and were in no respect different from the neighbouring Sinhalese, while Mr Jayawardene writes: "There is only one village of Veddas in Sinhala Pattu of Tamankaduwa District, and that village is Rotawewa, about six miles from Minerriya. These Veddas lived on the chase and subsequently took to chena clearings, and when the place began to be frequented by the low-country Sinhalese and other traders, some of them were able to sell their meat to them and they saved a little money and bought a patch of land of about 11 acres from Government, which land they now cultivate with paddy…. There are sixteen houses in the Vedda Settlement of Rotawewa, and the householders in every case are descendants of Veddas. They are Sinhalese without any signs of Tamil admixture."

Fig. 1. Men of Yakure

Fig. 2. Veddas of Ulpota

They say they are of the Morane waruge, and they seem not to know any other waruge. Mr Horsburgh however states that "there is one other Vedda village in Sinhala Pattuwa besides Rotawewa, viz. Gallinda, with about three families who are the same people as those of Rotawewa."

As a matter of convenience we have prepared a tabular summary of the conditions prevailing at the various settlements of wild and village Veddas that we visited. Besides those mentioned, many other families and even isolated individuals exist scattered throughout the Vedirata, especially in the neighbourhood of the Badulla-Batticaloa road near Maha Oya and Kallodi. These folk are in the last stage of degeneration, having given up their own wandering life and habits; they have mostly drifted into Sinhalese villages there to die out miserably.