THE VEDDAS

CHAPTER III

SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

GENEALOGIES.

THE genealogies on the next two pages show the relationship existing between the various individuals of the three Vedda communities, which still retain enough of the old Vedda mode of life to make a study of their organization valuable. At the first glance it is obvious that these genealogies do not go back beyond the memory of middle-aged men of the present day. We are convinced that this is due, not to any general distrust of our inquiries, but simply to certain peculiarities of the Vedda habit of thought which is directly dependent on their mode of life. The first of these is the extraordinary lack of memory shown by every Vedda for the names of individuals of more than one generation older than himself. This may perhaps be due to the fact that the number of individuals whom any one knows well is really small, being necessarily limited to the community to which he himself belongs. The genealogies show how small are these communities and, since every Vedda should marry a first cousin, marriage does little or nothing to enlarge the number of his connections. Further, each of the people with whom he comes in contact is related to him in a definite manner and is called and spoken of by a definite kinship term, so that personal names come to play a very small part in the daily life of the Veddas. It is this, doubtless, that has led to the frequent persistence of the baby names Tuta and Tuti, "little one" in its male and female forms, as the only names by which many individuals are known, and this together with the number of children called by such favourite names as Kaira, Poromala and Handuna leads to confusion, not only in the minds of strangers, but also we believe in the minds of the Veddas themselves.

Sinhalese who come in contact with the Veddas find the same difficulty, and the individuals of certain communities, e.g. Danigala, have each a Sinhalese name by which they are known to the peasant Sinhalese, and which in many instances they themselves recognise, so that some Veddas actually know each other by these Sinhalese names, and give them when asked their own names or those of their companions. This is the explanation of the majority of Sinhalese names occurring in the genealogies. Again, the fact that among the Veddas there is no system of hereditary chieftainship, or any other custom such as the vendetta, forcing a man to know and remember his grandfathers, cannot but have assisted to bring about the forgetfulness of previous generations, which with the rarest exceptions makes everyone entirely ignorant of his grandparents. In the case of the Danigala and Henebedda Veddas there was an additional difficulty to be met in conducting our investigations. The men of these communities who for the most part belonged to the Morane and Unapane clans, traditionally the proudest and most important of the Vedda waruge, had to a certain extent intermarried with Sinhalese and also with the Veddas of Namadewa clan, a waruge which in this part of the country is regarded as of inferior status. They are most anxious to conceal instances of both these classes of marriage and lied freely concerning them and this is the reason for certain lacunae in their genealogies, which in the case of the Danigala community could not have been given at all had not Mr Bibile's position as Ratemahatmaya, i.e. hereditary overlord or "laird" of this part of the country, enabled him to make inquiries from the surrounding peasantry, and thus check, and in many instances correct, the information we obtained from the Veddas themselves.

A Vedda community consists of from one to five families who share the rights of hunting over a tract of land, of gathering honey upon it, fishing its streams, and using the rock shelters. But the whole of the community does not commonly move about its territory as one band, it is far more common to find only the members of single families or small groups of two families living and hunting together.

Each family consists of parents and unmarried children to whom are generally added married daughters and their husbands. It is rare to find a married son with his father and mother, and a widow often marries the brother of her dead husband. We may now give some examples of the communities we actually met, premising that where a community such as that of Godatalawa consists of a single family only, this is probably due to depopulation and "hard times."

By consulting the genealogies on pp. 60 and 61 it will be seen that the Godatalawa family consisted of an old white haired man, Handuna, the "senior" of the group, his wife Dilisini, their daughter Kumi, a girl scarcely past puberty, and another daughter, Mutumenike, whom we did not see. Besides these there were Kaira (Hudubandar) and Kaira (Vinake), both sons of the old man's sister Hudi, and therefore actual or potential sons-in-law, and the two young children of the dead Ukumenike, a daughter of Handuna by his first wife Dingerimenike.

The Sitala Wanniya community when we first met them consisted of two families, those of Handuna the "senior" of the group, and his half brother Vela. Handuna had with him his wife Tandi and his two boys, his married daughter Kandi, and her husband Kaira with his sister Selli and the two young children born to Kaira and Kandi. Vela had only his wife Bevini (sister of Tandi) and his two young children. After a few days they were joined by another family consisting of Nila and his wife Wiri, with their daughter and her husband Paema, an unmarried girl and a small boy. The relationship between Handuna and Nila was that their grandmothers were sisters and their mother and father cousins who reciprocally called each other akka (elder sister) and maleya (younger brother).

KINSHIP.

The system of kinship was studied by means of the genealogies, and the following list of relationship terms compiled from the genealogies shows that the Vedda system of relationship is a late form of the kind known as classificatory. Further, since the Vedda system closely resembles the Sinhalese the one may have been borrowed from the other.

Mutta, father, grandfather.
Atta, mother, grandmother.
Puta or tuta, son, sister's son (fem. loq.), brother's son (m. loq.).
Duwa or tuti, daughter, sister's daughter (fem. loq.), brother's daughter (m. loq.).
Munubura, grandson.
Miniberi, granddaughter.
Aiya, elder brother, maternal aunt's son, paternal uncle's son.
Maleya, younger brother, maternal aunt's son, paternal uncle's son.
Akka, elder sister, daughter, paternal uncle's daughter.
Naga, younger sister, maternal aunt's daughter, paternal uncle's daughter.
Mama, maternal uncle, paternal aunt's husband.
Nendamma, paternal aunt, maternal uncle's wife.
Lokuappu, paternal uncle (older), maternal aunt's husband.
Kuduappu, paternal uncle (younger), maternal aunt's husband.
Lokuamma, maternal aunt (older), paternal uncle's wife.
Kuduamma, maternal aunt (younger), paternal uncle's wife.
Hura, paternal aunt's son, maternal uncle's son.
Naena, paternal aunt's daughter, maternal uncle's daughter.
Baena, sister's son (m. loq.), brother's son (fem. loq.).
Yeli, brother's daughter (fem. loq.), sister's son (m. loq.).

It will be noticed that none of these terms, except hura and naena when used between individuals of the same sex, are reciprocal.

The working basis of the Vedda kinship system is the marriage of the children of brother and sister, but not of two brothers or sisters. Thus, when a woman's son marries his mother's brother's daughter the man's maternal uncle (mama) becomes his father-in-law and his maternal uncle's children (his hura and naena), except the girl he has married, become his brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law. None of these relatives, however, change their kinship term on this account, hura and naena being only applied to individuals with whom intermarriage is actually possible, or would be possible if the sex of the speaker permitted it. On marriage the girl's paternal aunt (nendamma) becomes her mother-in-law, but as before marriage this woman's children remain her hura and naena.

The words lage eto, lato or sometimes leto, the two last being abbreviations of lage eto, were often added to relationship terms; as examples of this we may record mutta lage eto, atta lato, maleya leto. We were told that the term in its various forms had the sense "of" or "from my own people," and it would only be used of near relatives, thus Poromala of Henebedda added some form of this word to the terms by which he called almost all his relations. This was not the case at Sitala Wanniya where Handuna (being then in our camp) said that he might use the term maleya lage eto when speaking of his brother who was up in the cave.

A man usually spoke of his wife as his "woman," gani. Addressing her he would probably say thopi, "thou." At Henebedda the term meli was used. We have no record as to how a Vedda woman of the Sitala Wanniya group addressed her husband; at Henebedda we were told that a childless woman addressed and spoke of her husband as wani lage eto but that after children were born he should be addressed (as among the peasant Sinhalese) as "father of so and so" using the name of the youngest child.

At Unuwatura Bubula it was said that not all naena and hura should marry, the correct marriage being for a man to marry the daughter of his mother's younger brother. We were not able to satisfy ourselves that this rule is especially observed at the present day. Of fifteen marriages between cousins—none of which are marriages of village Veddas—nine are marriages in which the man married his mother's brother's daughter, five are unions between a man and his father's sister's daughter, and one man married a woman who was equally his mother's brother's daughter and his father's sister's daughter, according to whether the relationship was traced on the mother's or father's side.

The number of cousin marriages of which we have details is too small to allow the definite statement that marriages between a man and his mother's brother's daughter were especially frequent, though as far as they go they support this idea, which becomes all the more probable when the specially close relationship existing between a man and his mother's brother (cf. p. 67) is considered.

Since the children of two brothers or two sisters cannot marry each other, they are not hura and naena but call each other "brothers" and "sisters," using the terms for elder or younger brother or sister according to their age^[1].

Every Vedda so readily helps all the other members of his community and shares any game he may kill or honey he may take in so liberal a manner that at first it was difficult to determine who were the individuals who had a special claim on others of the group. Certainly at first sight it seemed as if all game were equally divided among the members of the group, but after a little time we perceived that while an unmarried man looked especially after his mother, a married man's father-in-law had at least an equal claim on his son-in-law and in practice often received more attention, since a man generally spent most of his time with his wife's family. That the relationship between father-in-law and son-in-law is very close was shown in a number of ways, thus, when discussing children and their bringing up with Handuna of Sitala Wanniya, we asked him whether Veddas preferred to have a son or a daughter, the answer was prompt and decided, "a daughter, for thus a man obtains a son-in-law"; and on another occasion when discussing relationship he stated very decidedly, amma mama ekei, mother and mother's brother (i.e. father-in-law) are alike, and pointed out that as a man treats his mother so should he treat his mama. A man's father and his father's brothers are less important than his mama who receive the largest share of all game killed by their actual or potential sons-in-law.

The love and comradeship existing between father-in-law and son-in-law was often very marked, and sometimes the voice of Handuna of Sitala Wanniya took on a special tone of tenderness when speaking of his baena; indeed, the importance of the relationship existing between father-in-law and son-in-law is shown in many ways. Thus not only do they very generally hunt and move about together, but whereas when a girl marries she is often given pots and gourds by her mother, a man receives wedding gifts, which—as is shown in the chapter on land transfer—often consist of tracts of land, not from his father but from his father-in-law, who should be his mother's brother.

Again, although a man presents part of his kill to his father's brothers and mother's sisters, a larger share is given to his actual or potential father-in-law and mother-in-law, and before marriage these may get a specially large share. A man would assist his potential father-in-law and mother-in-law in house building and chena cultivation as a matter of course, but he would only help his other uncles and aunts if asked. When hunting, a son-in-law will usually carry his father-in-law's kill, but he would show the same consideration for his own father and probably for any older man.

We may perhaps fairly sum up this matter by saying, that whereas before marriage a man paid at least as much regard to his future father-in-law as to his own father (and in theory he should pay more), after marriage his father-in-law becomes more important, and the association between father-in-law and son-in-law becomes far closer and more intimate than that existing between father and son. There are, however, certain matters in which father and son are more closely associated than mama and baena; a boy's bringing up is essentially a matter to which his father attends, and in which the mama takes no great part unless the father dies. Again, in theory, sons should take at least as large a part in looking after their aged and infirm fathers as do the latter's sons-in-law.

All Veddas of a group are so nearly related that, with the exception of the bond of the mama and baena relationship, the only duties which clearly fall to any individual on account of his relationship to others are certain ceremonial avoidances. These are limited to members of opposite sexes and practically include all the men and women whom an individual of either sex might not marry. There is the most rigid avoidance between mother-in-law and son-in-law, and at Godatalawa we had an opportunity of seeing how sternly this rule is carried out. Dilisini is the oldest woman of the community, the wife of the patriarch or "senior" of the group; she is physically unattractive and apparently long past the menopause, nevertheless her son-in-law Kaira who was standing a few paces off would not assist her to rise from the ground, although she had an acutely inflamed knee which was obviously extremely painful. In fact no man may come into any physical contact with his mother-in-law or even approach her closely. Thus, if a man met his mother-in-law in the jungle he would move aside off the track. He may however speak to her in the presence of others, though if he found her alone in the rock shelter he would not enter it until there were others present. Similarly though a man may eat food prepared by his mother-in-law he would not take it directly from her, it would be passed to him by someone else, most probably by his wife. A man avoids his son's wife in precisely the same way, as also his brother's wife, and a woman her sister's husband. It was said that if a man attempted to speak in private to any of these women, she would probably suspect him of endeavouring to make improper advances to her which her kinsmen would resent. A man should also avoid touching the daughters of his mother's sisters and his father's brothers as well as all those girls whom he calls "sisters" if these have attained puberty; he may, however, speak to these relatives. We are not quite clear what is the correct attitude of a man towards his wife's sisters or those of his naena whom he does not expect to marry, but we believe that generally speaking any close contact is avoided between adults of opposite sexes, and that practically no man may come in contact with any woman of about his own age except his wife. At Unuwatura Bubula these rules were so rigidly observed that we were told that a man might not assist his sister to rise from the ground if she had fallen down and injured herself. Further, it seemed that he should not see much even of the girl whom he was about to marry until she was handed over to him, though according to our Unuwatura Bubula informants it was not really bad for a man to touch any of his naena and he was allowed to do this in an emergency. At Sitala Wanniya it was said that adult hura and naena should not speak to each other even when it had been arranged that they should marry, and at Omuni we were told that if in the old days a man was seen speaking to an unmarried girl, her outraged relatives would seek to kill him. Children may of course come in contact with their parents to any extent and at any age.

Second marriages are, and always have been frequent, a man often marrying a sister of his deceased wife and a woman marrying one of her dead husband's brothers. We believe that such unions were regarded as both a privilege and a duty, though according to Handuna of Sitala Wanniya a man married his dead wife's sister principally because if he married any one else his children would not be looked after so well. If a widow does not marry one of her dead husband's brothers she may return to her parents, though it seemed that if these were no longer living she would generally stay with her late husband's group, whose duty it would then be to look after her and her children.

With regard to name avoidance, a man does not speak the name of his mother-in-law and daughter-in-law and they also refrain from speaking his name, relationship terms being used instead. Nor does a man commonly speak of his son-in-law or father-in-law, or his brother's wife or sister's husband, except by the appropriate relationship terms; beyond this we would only point out that, as already mentioned, neither man nor woman commonly speaks of his or her spouse by name, and there is a general tendency to avoid the use of names and where possible indicate an individual by a relationship term. In no case did we notice any hesitation in giving the name of any adult which we sought to obtain in the course of our inquiries. The objection to saying a young child's name and the reason for this is referred to on p. 103.

Terms of respect were commonly used in addressing the aged, thus although siya or mutta really mean father or grandfather, these words might be used as terms of respect in addressing any old man, and in the same way the terms kiriamma (grandmother) or atta might be used to any old woman, and we were told that siya was constantly used by members of the group in addressing the "senior" or patriarch. An individual of either sex would call his or her father-in-law's father siya or kiriappa, and a mother-in-law's mother is addressed as kiriamma.

CLAN ORGANIZATION.

It has already been mentioned that the Veddas at the present day are divided into clans (waruge); almost every man who calls himself a Vedda can give the name of his waruge and this applies even to many village and coast Veddas in whom there is a minimum of true Vedda blood. The clan organization of the Veddas was first pointed out by Nevill, who says: "The Veddas north of the Mahawaeli Ganga have lost their original divisions… and reduced to a few isolated families.…The Vaeddas known as coast Vaeddas have abandoned most of their ancestral customs and I cannot even ascertain from them their original name. Vaeddas of the forest districts do not preserve any tradition of relationship with these Vaeddas of the coast^[2]." Nevill then gives the following nine names as those of the Vedda clans, to which he adds the Veddas of Tambalagama Pattu, Kattakulam Pattu and Anurajapura as true Veddas though their waruge names seem lost.

1. Morana waruge.
2. Unapana waruge.
3. Bandara or Rugam waruge.
4. Namada, Namadana or Nabadana waruge.
5. Ura-wadiya waruge.
6. Uruwa waruge.
7. Kowil waname.
8. Aembala or Ambala waruge.
9. Tala waruge.

In this list no account is taken of the coast Veddas, of whom Nevill says that they "evidently belong to several distinct sections.…Only the old men speak what they call Vaedda, which is pure but quaint Sinhalese with a Vedda accent, as a rule, though mixed with some words characteristic of true Vaedda.…The Vaeddas say they never were related to these Coast Vaeddas, and do not know when they came to the coast, or where they came from, nor did they ever hear that they belonged to any waruge of the race.

"The Coast Vaeddas do not know when they came, or how they came, but they say that long ago their ancestors came from the Gala, far beyond the hills to the west^[3]."

The Doctors Sarasin state that they attempted to map the territorial distribution of the clans given by Nevill, but on account of the vagueness of his statement were unable to do this. With regard to Nevill's clans we must point out that his 5th, 6th, 7th clan names are open to criticism. Kovil waname is a descriptive term meaning "temple precincts" and, as has already been stated, is the general name for certain Veddas who live in the Eastern Province in the neighbourhood of Devulani tank and who belong to the Morane and Unapane waruge. It was formerly the general name for the Veddas who lived in the neighbourhood of the Kataragam temple in the extreme south of Uva.

As for Nevill's Ura-wadiya waruge and Uruwa waruge, these are not two waruge each having one of these names but are other names for the Uru waruge mentioned on p. 33. The nine clans given by Nevill are thus reduced to seven and, as will be shown later, there is every reason to believe that this number must be still further reduced by the exclusion of Rugam, i.e. Bandara waruge, from the list.

We may now give the distribution of the waruge as determined by ourselves.

Morane. This clan is found at Nilgala, Henebedda, Bandaraduwa (Kovil Vanamai Veddas), Sitala Wanniya, Godatalawa (Galmede Veddas), and among the Mudugala Veddas now settled at Unuwatura Bubula, as well as among many of the last remains of the Veddas who lead a miserable existence in the neighbourhood of the Badulla-Batticaloa road between Kallodi and Maha Oya. The Morane clan probably also exists at Bingoda near Mullagama, and a few Morane people are to be found among the village Veddas of Tamankaduwa. There is, however, reason to believe that this clan has been recently introduced from Omuni, where there are many people who in spite of the Sinhalese blood in their veins say they belong to Morane waruge.

Unapane. The distribution of this clan is the same as Morane, and judging from the fact that all the Bingoda people we met said they were Unapane, it must be especially strong there.

Namadewa. This clan is found at Henebedda where that part of the jungle known as Kolombedda was pointed out as their property, and among the village Veddas in Uva Bintenne (Dambani, Bulugahaladena, Girandura). It also occurs in Tamankaduwa where it was one of the chief waruge of Elakotaliya, Kalukalaeba and Yakure.

Uru. This clan is found at Uniche among the village Veddas of Bintenne and Tamankaduwa and among the coast Veddas. Its name was known to the Sitala Wanniya Veddas and to many of the small settlements in the neighbourhood of Maha Oya.

Aembala. Some of the coast Veddas say they are of this clan which is also found in Tamankaduwa, at Yakure and Ulpota. The name of this waruge was known to the Sitala Wanniya Veddas.

Tala. This clan was only known at Yakure.

The distribution of Namadewa, Uru, Aembala and Tala waruge described above agrees with that given by Nevill.

Besides the waruge, the distribution of which has just been described, certain other alleged waruge were mentioned to us. In some instances it was certain that these were merely groups of people who were named after the locality they now live in or formerly inhabited. The most important of these territorial names was Rugam. The Rugam waruge was accounted an offshoot of Morane, and since Rugam is the name of a large and important tank some 12 miles from Maha Oya where Veddas were formerly numerous, it seems reasonable to suppose that Rugam waruge was originally a local group called after the territory they inhabited.

Dehigama is another waruge name given as one to which a small number of Veddas of Uva Bintenne belonged and is avowedly a place name.

Bendiya was also given as a waruge name and perhaps is also a place name.

With regard to the origin of the names of the genuine Vedda waruge, the only hint that any of them are recognised by Veddas as springing from place names was that conveyed by the statement of a number of Morane men that their ancestors came from Moranegala in the Eastern Province, but no Unapane man ever suggested that his clan had originally come from the place of that name near Kallodi. Moranegala is a hill name, and probably the hill has been named from the mora trees (Nephelium longana) which it may be assumed grew there, so that Moranegala means "the hill of the mora trees," and it might be argued that Morane waruge derived its name from the mora tree. Some support for this argument might be adduced from the fact that in songs collected at Sitala Wanniya both men and women of Morane waruge are addressed as "mora flowers." We were unable to discover that any Veddas had legends of the origin of their clans, but this is not to be wondered at in view of the almost total absence of myths among them. The Sinhalese on the other hand have legends of origin for four of the Vedda clans, and these legends, varying only slightly in form, can be collected from the Sinhalese all over the Vedda country. This, as well as the fact that Mr Bibile heard most of them many years ago from his father, show that they are not of recent origin, or invented for the benefit of European inquirers.

With the exception of the legend of the origin of Morane waruge given by Mr B. Horsburgh the accounts here given of the origin of the Vedda clans were obtained from the Vedda Arachi of Potuliyadde, but the same stories with only slight variations were also obtained from the Lindegala "Veddas" and the Arachi of Belligala.

Mr Horsburgh obtained his account of the origin of Morane waruge from the "Veddas" of Rotawewa—a rice-growing village in Sinhala Pattuwa of Tamankaduwa, the inhabitants of which say they are descendants from Veddas—although all accounts show that they are indistinguishable from their Sinhalese neighbours. "When Kuveni was abandoned by Vijaya she returned with her two children, a boy and girl, to her own people, who killed her. Her children fled to the jungle and lived on the fruits of the 'mora' tree. One of their children came to Minneriya and founded the Minneriya (now Rotawewa) Veddas of the Morane Waruge." We have not visited these people but it may be assumed that they are at least as sophisticated as the "Veddas" of Yakure.

Unapane. Unapane waruge is an offshoot from Morane. A chiefs daughter was given to another chiefs son. When going to the bridegroom's cave the girl got thirsty on the way and the only water available was a minute trickle down the face of a rock. The man allowed this to soak into a piece of cloth which he squeezed into a bamboo from which the girl drank. This is the origin of the name from una "bamboo" and pane "water," and the descendants of this couple were called Unapane.

Uru. A Morane girl became pregnant and refused to give the name of her lover. She was beaten and driven away from the group and brought forth her child in a hole dug by a wild boar, uru, hence the name Uru waruge.

Aembala. Aembala waruge has sprung from Unapane. An Unapane girl's husband died while she was pregnant, and all her other relations were dead. When her child was born she left it under a tree while she went to dig yams. On her return she found that red ants (aembaleo) had blinded her child, whence the child was called Aembeli, and her descendants formed Aembala clan.

Namadewa. An Aembala woman brought forth a female child under a namada tree; this girl was therefore named Namadi and from her descendants arose the Namadewa clan.

Exogamy prevails among the Veddas of Bintenne and Tamankaduwa and clan descent is matrilineal. These conditions also prevail at Godatalawa and therefore must be assumed to have existed at Galmede whence the Godatalawa family had come, but strangely this and the nearly related Sitala Wanniya Veddas were the only communities to the east of the Badulla-Batticaloa road in which exogamy prevailed. The Henebedda and Kovil Vanamai Veddas all married freely within the clan. It is, however, probable that this is a recent though not quite modern innovation, since at Henebedda it was said that it was particularly fitting that Morane and Unapane should intermarry.

Nevill recognised the existence of exogamy, and presumably it was of the Bintenne Veddas that he made the following very definite statement, which applies equally well to the condition of things existing at the present day, even among such sophisticated folk as those of Omuni, where genealogies were taken in order to make quite certain of this matter. "The rule for marriage was stringent. The daughter represents her mother's family, the son also represents his mother's family. In no case did a person marry one of the same family, even though the relationship was lost in remote antiquity. Such a marriage is incest. The penalty for incest is death. Thus the daughter must marry either her father's sister's son, or her mother's brother's son, neither of whom would be of the same clan name. Failing these she may marry any of their name, and should no such bridegroom be available, marriage into a third family becomes necessary^[4]."

If the distribution of these Vedda communities in which exogamy prevails be studied on the map it will be seen that with the exception of the Sitala Wanniya and Godatalawa (Galmede) groups all the Veddas to the west of the Badulla-Batticaloa road are exogamous, whereas those to the east of the road contract marriage within the clan.

As a matter of convenience we now give a list complementary to that on pp. 71 to 74 showing what waruge were represented in each of the communities we visited. Danigala: Morane, Unapane, Namadewa (the last not acknowledged). Henebedda: Morane, Unapane, Namadewa (the latter properly forming the Kolombedda community and settlement). Kovil Vanamai (Bandaraduwa): Morane, Unapane, Uru (the latter forming the settlement at Uniche). In all these settlements marriage occurs within the clan.

Sitala Wanniya. The Sitala Wanniya people said that Morane and Unapane were the only waruge of which they had any first-hand knowledge. They had, however, heard that formerly three other waruge called Uru, Kabela and Aembala existed, and that the folk of these waruge were of lower status than the people of Morane and Unapane.

Godatalawa (Galmede). These people all belonged to Morane and Unapane waruge.

Unuwatura Bubula. The waruge of this settlement were Morane, Unapane and Bandara waruge. Exogamy was strictly adhered to, and the children took their mother's waruge. As far as we could determine, all the poverty-stricken Veddas settled on chenas in the neighbourhood of Kallodi and Maha Oya on the Badulla-Batticaloa road belonged either to Morane, Unapane, Bandara (Rugam) or Uru waruge, the Morane and Unapane Veddas of the large chena settlement at Rerenkadi holding the last to be of inferior status.

Lindegala. Three men, the last remains of the Lindegala Veddas, visited us at Kallodi. The oldest of these, the possessor of the aude with inlaid silver work referred to on p. 171, was a rather tall stoutly built man who looked like a Sinhalese. He, however, remembered his waruge Morane and stated that his wife belonged to Bandara waruge and one of his companions who belonged to this waruge had a wife belonging to Morane waruge. It was stated that children took their mother's waruge.

Elakotaliya. The waruge of this settlement are Namadewa, Uru and Rugam; exogamy was insisted on, and in all the nine marriages of which we have notes the contracting parties were of different waruge. In seven cases Uru and Namadewa waruge intermarried, in one instance Namadewa and Rugam warugey while in the last instance the waruge of the woman was uncertain. Although it was clearly stated that the children should take their father's waruge, it was certain that in some cases they took their mother's waruge.

It was said that a man should marry his father's sister's daughter and not his mother's brother's daughter but we could not establish this.

Kalukalaeba. Morane, Namadewa, Uru and Rugam waruge are represented in this settlement. Although in conversation no importance was attached to exogamy this must be taken to exist since all of the ten marriages recorded are exogamous. These include six marriages of Morane with Namadewa waruge, two of Morane and Uru waruge and one each of Morane and Rugam waruge and of Rugam and Namadewa waruge. Children take their mother's waruge.

Yakure. The waruge existing here are Namadewa, Aembala, Bendia, Rugam and Tala. Uru waruge was known by name but not otherwise, Dehigama was recognised as belonging to the Uva Bintenne and Morane waruge as existing in the neighbourhood of Omuni. Exogamy was the rule and occurred in every marriage (8) of which we have records. Waruge descent should be in the female line but in some instances children took their father's waruge. Seeking to elucidate this matter it was said that whereas girls took their mother's waruge boys took their father's, but this rule certainly did not hold in all cases^[5]. Cousin marriage was said to be the old custom, but it was admitted that at the present day this custom was more often neglected than observed.

Ulpota. This is said to be the most important of four small settlements of village Veddas in the neighbourhood of Dimbulagala (Gunner's Quoin). These settlements are Ulpota, Kohombolewa, Alagonagoda and Gonandamene all of which, according to Mutua our informant, consist of a small number (Kohombolewa eight, Gonandamene three) of huts. Mutua, who said that he was headman of the Tamankaduwa Veddas, gave the waruge of these settlements as Rugam, Aembala and Morane; the last being to his mind less numerous and less important than the others. The conditions as regards waruge descent and exogamy are the same as at Yakure. Of fifteen marriages recorded eleven are between individuals of Rugam and Aembala waruge, the remaining four between Morane and Aembala (2) or Rugam (2) waruge.

Dambani. These extremely sophisticated Veddas probably belong to Namadewa waruge and descent is probably matrilineal.

Malgode (Horaborawewa). Our informants knew of Namadewa, Dehigama and Kapatu waruge and no others, but when Morane waruge was mentioned to them one man stated that he had heard of a waruge of that name.

Girandura. Here too exogamy prevailed though children took their father's waruge, and we could discover no exception to these rules. The marriages we could trace took place between Dehigama and Namadewa waruge, and between Dehigama and Uru waruge, we consequently assume that these are the waruge represented in this community.

THE COMPARATIVE STATUS OF THE CLANS.

The members of the Morane and Unapane clans generally considered themselves superior to the Namadewa, Uru and Aembala waruge. This feeling was so strong at Henebedda that much difficulty was at first experienced in collecting genealogies. Representatives of the Morane, Unapane and Namadewa clans were for the time living together at Bendiyagalge caves, and the difference in status between the Morane and Unapane on the one hand, and Namadewa on the other, was felt so strongly that the members of the last-mentioned waruge invariably denied their clan, while the Morane and Unapane folk said the Namadewa were their servants. It seemed clear that in the old days Morane and Unapane folk never married into one of the servile clans, but two or three such marriages had taken place within recent years, and in every case these marriages were at first denied. The most striking proof of this feeling was evinced when we had come to know all the members of the community and pretence had been largely given up; Sita Wanniya and Poromala our usual guides, both Morane men, led us one day to the Namadewa chena. The Namadewa men immediately began an angry protest. "These people," they said, meaning Poromala and Sita Wanniya, "call us Namadewa; it is not so, we are as good as they," and again on leaving they declared that even if they were not Morane folk they were certainly as good, for had not the eldest born of Kaira the patriarch of Danigala, a Morane man, married a woman from their family? This last statement was proved to be true by the genealogy. As neither we nor our guides said anything to provoke these remarks the intensity of the feeling cannot be doubted. At Bandaraduwa there were only Morane and Unapane men, but they said that Uru waruge were their servants, and that some people of this clan lived near Uniche; Wannaku seen later was doubtless one of these. At the chena settlement at Rerenkadi one woman said the Uru waruge were "dirty" people. This was one of the first Vedda communities we visited, and the significance of the remark was not realised at the time. At Dambani the people professed to have forgotten their waruge; we therefore surmised that they might belong to one of the inferior clans, and later at Horaborawewa a Vedda boy said his mother was a Namadewa woman from Dambani. Additional evidence in support of this view was furnished by the statements of the Alutnuwara Arachi recorded on p. 52.

The services that the inferior clans were said to render to other clans were as follows: when big game was shot and fish caught the Namadewa men must carry it, and they must make the creeper ladders for gathering rock honey. How much of this work was really done by Namadewa people is extremely difficult to say, it is scarcely credible that when living apart from the servile clans the Morane and Unapane men would send for them to carry a kill, but when Poromala of Henebedda (Morane) had killed a deer and cut it up on the talawa near our camp, it was noticed that Kalua, a Namadewa boy who had not been hunting, came down from the cave and carried back the greater part of the meat.

THE TERRITORIAL GROUPING OF THE CLANS.

Although at the present day it cannot be said that a territorial grouping of the clans certainly exists, or ever existed, there is considerable evidence that this once prevailed. We would in the first place refer to what we have already stated to be the geographical distribution of the clans at the present day. The fact that Unapane waruge, so important to the east of the Badulla-Batticaloa road and in its immediate vicinity to the west, is absent in Tamankaduwa is extremely suggestive, as is the limited distribution and importance of Morane waruge in Tamankaduwa. The existence of only one known Tala waruge centre (Yakure) and the limited distribution of Aembala waruge which, as far as we can determine, only exists in the country round Gunner's Quoin and among the coast Veddas who have avowedly come from inland, points in the same direction, as does the name Rugam waruge derived from the country round the tank of that name and often applied to a sub-group of Morane who are also called Bandara waruge. Turning now to evidence of a rather different nature our old Kandyan informant, whose statements have been quoted at length on pp. 29 to 34, was very emphatic in assuring us that the local representatives of Morane and Unapane clans, the two waruge with which he was well acquainted in his youth, each had their own territory and caves, and even at the present day the information we were able to gather strongly pointed to Bingoda being an old centre of the Unapane clan, while Danigala was probably a Morane centre. Again Kolombedda was quite definitely said to be the Namadewa territory, and the Bandaraduwa community stated that a certain area in the neighbourhood of Uniche was the domain of the local group of the Uru waruge.