THE VEDDAS

CHAPTER V

PROPERTY AND INHERITANCE

ALL Veddas have a keen sense of ownership, and this is equally developed with regard to the hunting land of the group and the possessions of the individual. It was clear that of old the boundaries of the former were accurately known to all the men of the group and were seldom disregarded except in pursuit of a wounded animal, a contingency especially provided for by the Vedda game laws, and many writers have borne testimony to the unwillingness of Veddas to trespass on the territory of another group.

This was noted by Knox, whose remarks on this subject have already been quoted on p. 7. The next mention of this important feature in the organization of the Veddas is made by the Dutch Governor of Ceylon, Ryklof van Goens (1664—1675), the following account being taken from the Drs Sarasin: "The jungle is so divided among the Veddas that every one can easily recognise his boundary…they leave, however, comfortable roads through the interior of their country, for their own purposes as well as for strangers who are obliged to travel from the hills to the plains and vice versa. Don Juan de Costa has told us of such a journey made in the service of Rajah Singha. It was 45 years ago (consequently in 1630) that he descended from the mountains to these Veddah districts. There he was stopped by an archer who was accompanied by others who, armed in a similar manner, stood under the trees. The first enquired his business, whither he intended travelling and what was his mission, whereupon he explained his purpose. He had then to wait there between one and two hours until word arrived from the elder of the district. Then one of the archers accompanied him to the boundary which took between two and three hours' walking. Here he had once more to wait until word arrived from the elders of this district, whereupon the first guide handed him over to a second and then returned. In this way the second guide brought him to a third, and the process continued until he had had more than twelve guides, being over seven days on the way before he reached the province of Batticaloa and the flat district which extended to the coast, and is inhabited by Tamils. He and his ten or twelve companions never suffered any want on the way, as the Veddahs supplied them with food, consisting of good dried venison which was preserved in honey, ground nuts (probably yams) and fruit. But none of the Veddahs spoke a word with him or his companions because it was so prescribed by their customs^[1]."

Nevill's account of the life led by both the wilder and the more sophisticated "forest" Veddas has been quoted on pp. 81 and 82, in the chapter on Family Life. Nevill's experience was chiefly gained among the Veddas of the Bintenne, but if rather less emphasis be laid on the hut built "close to a place where water can be got," and it be realised that even during the hot dry season rock shelters are the common homes of the wilder Veddas to the east of the Badulla-Batticaloa road, all that he says on this subject can be implicitly accepted.

Commenting upon Nevill's account, the Sarasins point out that since trespassing on land belonging to another group leads to fierce quarrels, the condition described by Nevill must be taken to imply that the territory of each group includes the whole or a part of one considerable hill or rock massif. Our experience enables us to confirm this suggestion, and it will be shown later that not only are hills the property of particular groups, but that subject to the rights of the group there is also personal property in hills. Text figure 4 is a sketch map of the territory of the Henebedda Veddas. and roughly shows the position of their caves, which are named Bendiyagalge, Pattiavelagalge, Hitibeminigalge, Punchikiriammagalge, Uhapitagalge, Maladeniyagalge and Kirawanbalagalge. The last is almost too small and too exposed to be called a shelter, consisting as it does of a small space under an overhanging slab which offers scarcely any protection from the weather, for which reason it seemed that it was never used. Bendiyagalge, situated about the centre of the Henebedda territory, consists of two rock shelters formed by a single mass of rock, broadly speaking, rectangular in shape, with its long axis running roughly from north to south. The rock mass is somewhat tilted so that its southern edge is high above the talawa towards which its northern extremity slopes, and the whole rock somewhat resembles an immense wedge. Its eastern face has weathered so as to form two rock shelters, each of which has a well-cut drip ledge in no respect differing from those admittedly cut by the Sinhalese about the time that Buddhism was introduced to the island, and the lower cave has in addition two square sockets cut in its roof resembling those discovered by Mr F. Lewis at Nuwaragala and figured by him^[2]. Further, there are three steps cut in the solid rock shelters, and other smaller steps and signs of ancient working are to be found in the caves, though there are no inscriptions on the rocks of either of these caves, as there are below the drip ledge of Uhapitagalge.

Pattiavelagalge lies at a distance of rather less than an hour's walk to the S.W. of Bendiyagalge, at the base of the rocky hills forming the boundary of the territory of the Henebedda community. It was said that the name of this cave was derived from pattia, a place where cattle were tied, and vela, a field, the reason for the name being that about 100 years ago a Sinhalese chief, recognised by the Veddas as being partly of Vedda descent, was allowed to come and live here and pasture his cattle. This man may have been a fugitive during the rebellion of 1818, but this could not be determined with certainty. Hitibeminigalge lies a short distance due west of Bendiyagalge.

Punchikiriammagalge is a small shelter situated almost due south of Bendiyagalge and near the main track across the country. At the present day it is often used by Tamil gall-nut gatherers. Maladeniyagalge, about two miles from Ambilinne rest-house, is also much used by gall-nut collectors. Uhapitagalge, shown in Plate XVII, figure 2, has a well-carved drip ledge, beneath which is the inscription in Brâhmi characters referred to on p. 22.

The natural boundaries of the Henebedda territory as well as the fact that they still have as neighbours the Danigala Veddas, who exercise a jealous supervision of the border on that side on which there is no well-marked natural boundary, made this particularly easy territory to map out. The Sitala Wanniya territory, which we have attempted to delimit in text figure 5 was more difficult and its boundary is only an approximation.

Nevill has pointed out that besides the territory of the group which is common land, every Vedda has "within this…a subdivision of his own which compares with the manor." In this he is no doubt right, though it was only at Sitala Wanniya that we were able to trace even approximately the hunting grounds belonging to individuals, which are theirs for the whole of their life, and descend to their heirs unless voluntarily alienated with the full consent of the group. So well is private ownership in a portion of land belonging to the group recognised in this community, that a man would not hunt even on his brother's land without the latter's permission; and if game started and wounded on his own land were killed on another man's domain, the man on whose territory the animal died would be given a portion of the flesh, apparently that side of the animal which touched the ground as the animal lay dead. Among other Veddas it was said half, or more generally a quarter, of the animal belonged to the man on whose land it died.

At Sitala Wanniya we not only found particular hills regarded as the property of individuals, but besides the big cave Pihilegodagalge, which was the property of the whole group of five families, there were smaller caves which were the property of the heads of individual families to which no others would have been welcomed, even had they thought of intruding. An exception was, however, made in the case of a man's baena (son-in-law), who we were told would naturally come and go as he pleased.

As has been shown in the chapter on Family Life, presents are often given at marriage, and these may take the form of personal property or hills or pools. In this section we shall deal with such transfers of real property, which in normal circumstances were made only to children and sons-in-law, and even then were not made over without the assent of every adult male member of the group. As this difficult subject does not lend itself to a general description, we shall limit ourselves to giving actual instances of land transfer with which we became acquainted.

When Vela of Sitala Wanniya married a woman of Bingoda his father-in-law gave him a piece of land in Marniye pangua with a hill on it containing a cave called Marniyegalge and a number of bambara colonies. He was also given a number of pools in a river in Damenegama^[3].

Handuna of Godatalawa on his marriage was given a hill with a cave in it called Balatgalagalge. This was handed over to him by his father-in-law and the gift carried with it the sole right to take rock honey on the hill, which was known to be the home of six swarms of bambara. Kaira Hudubandar son-in-law of Handuna of Godatalawa received on his first marriage a big pool in the Tota Oya river.

When Kumi the sister of the Vidane of Bandaraduwa married Tissahami, the bride's parents made over to her the hill Rajahele near Walimbagala, upon which there were about ten bambara colonies. Kumi also received Nalle Kotanwala, a stretch or pool—we could not determine which—in the Kalugal Oya. They also gave her husband the hill called Kuda Rasahele upon which six combs of the rock bee were known.

When Badapisi married, her father gave her husband Sinawa a hill called Bala Attahele on which there were known to be eight bambara colonies and a pool called Adanewala in the Kalugal Oya.

Tissahami the Vidane of Bandaraduwa received on his marriage the hill Maha Yakini Hela, upon which there were over twenty known bambara colonies^[4].

With regard to these gifts of land we must record that although a man divides his landed property equally between his children in preparation for his death, property given at marriage to a son-in-law is counted as the daughter's share when the time comes for a man to make his final disposition.

When the land belonging to a Vedda group was not defined by natural features, such as a stream or hill, a mark representing a man with a drawn bow was cut upon the trunks of trees along the boundary line. It is doubtful whether these marks are made at the present day, but Handuna readily cut with his axe the mark shown in Plate XXII, figure 2, and of which a drawing to scale is given in text figure 6.

The sign of transfer of a hill, pool, or piece of land, was a stone; we heard of this from so many independent sources that we have no doubt that this was formerly the universal custom, but it was not until we reached Sitala Wanniya that we found people among whom this sign of land transfer was still in vogue. Here Handuna showed us a stone—a water-worn quartz pebble about the size of a filbert—which he assured us represented the "seisin" of his hunting ground. Besides one or more stones a tooth was commonly given to the new owner by the man handing over the land, but this was not essential, and if the donor had not kept his old teeth as they fell out no attempt was made to find a substitute^[5].

It was said that sometimes the donor would add his flint and steel to the stone and tooth; we believe, though we are not certain, that this was only done when land was passed as the result of a death, in which case a lock of hair from the head of the dying man was added to the other objects and became a most important part of the "seisin." The lock of hair would only be cut from the head of the sick or dying man at his own request by the man to whom his land would pass, who would cut the lock with an arrow. It was necessary that the sick man should be conscious and that he should himself give the lock to his heir, to whom he might say, "If there is any dispute after my death show this to whoever gives you trouble." Plate XXIII represents the "seisin" of certain land at Damenegama given by the last Vedda of the group to whom the land in question belonged, to the father of Tissahami the Vedda Arachi referred to on p. 41. The "seisin" here shown consists of a lock of hair, a tooth, a metal strike-a-light and a piece of milky quartz. All these objects were sent for our inspection in an old Kandyan embroidered betel bag in which it was said they were always kept, but we had no opportunity of discussing their significance with the Arachi and thus cannot say whether the quartz stone belongs to the strike-a-light or is an essential part of the "seisin." It was explained that a Vedda would not give land to a Sinhalese under ordinary circumstances, but only when a Vedda is the last of his folk and knows not where to turn for food and shelter. The father of the Arachi only obtained the Damenegama land because the last of the local Veddas was a very old man, so forlorn and feeble that he could no longer provide for himself and his wife. He accordingly made over his land to the father of the Arachi, in return for food and shelter for the rest of his and his wife's days. Probably the fact that the man who took over the land had Vedda blood in his veins and had always associated with the Veddas made the transaction easier.

The near relations, including sons-in-law of the dying man, would come to him when death was expected, and it was a matter of duty for the sons or other near relatives to send information of a man's dangerous illness to his sons-in-law, and the latter would be justly angry if this information were withheld from them. We were never able to determine whether a son-in-law actually benefited by being present at his father-in-law's death, we believe that his presence was only an act of pious duty, and that he derived no increased right to the dead man's property by this. Certainly the land which came to a man at his marriage from his father-in-law would not be given to anyone else by the latter on his deathbed; we have, however, some reason to think that the unmarried sons of a man's sisters might, as the result of their attendance at their potential father-in-law's death-bed, be given land which otherwise would not have come to them until their marriage, or perhaps not at all. Handuna of Sitala Wanniya thought that a sick man might sometimes give his son-in-law a lock of his hair, but unfortunately it was not possible to discover under what circumstances, if any, this occurred. That land was commonly given to sons and not to sons-in-law by a dying man was clear from the very explicit statement made by Handuna, "My sons will naturally take my stones as evidence of their right to possess my land." With regard to the division of land between a man's children, it was pointed out that most people made their wishes on this point clear during their lifetime and it must always be remembered that no landed property passed without the consent of the grown men of the group.

It seemed that the borders of each group's territory were so well known to all the members that quarrels concerning land were very rare, trespassing upon another man's domain was almost unknown, though when it did occur it was strongly resented. Knox's account of something very like a pitched battle between two parties of Veddas which has already been quoted on p. 7 shows this, and we were everywhere told that until a few years ago a man trespassing on the territory of others might have been shot without fear of this provoking reprisals.

The care with which the seclusion of the rock-shelter is still maintained probably belongs to a different category of ideas, and is an example of the jealousy with which Vedda women are guarded.

At SitalaWanniya we heard of the following method of settling disputes concerning boundaries, though Handuna my informant had never known of any example of a difficulty of this kind arising, and had only heard of the method of settling them from his father and father-in-law. When two Veddas, or groups of Veddas, are not satisfied as to the position of a boundary, the disputants each bring their "seisin" stone to the land over which the quarrel has arisen. Here the stones are placed in pots upon supports of the kind used in the Nae Yaku ceremony at Bandaraduwa (Plate XXXVI, figure 1). When this has been done the disputants invoke certain spiritual agencies, but who these are my informants could not tell me. As a result of this, a wild animal, usually an elephant, would come and destroy the pot set up by the party wrongfully claiming the tract of land.

Every Vedda has one or two dogs with which he does not readily part, though with characteristic generosity he is ever willing to give away pups to any of his friends or relatives. Vedda dogs are invariably well fed and well treated, and it was clear that the warmest feelings exist between a man and his dogs. As evidence of the importance of dogs in the community we may cite their use as wedding gifts and refer to the process of anointing them with a part of the offering dedicated to the yaku described in Chapter VI. Bailey's account of the relation of Vedda dogs to their masters brings out so much of this feeling that it is quoted here at length. "They have dogs perfectly trained to follow up and pull down the wounded deer. These they value highly; but they are of no distinct breed and do not differ from the ordinary country dogs. But it would appear that at a time when hunting was of more importance to them than it is now, the dog was more valued….

"But dogs are still prized by the Veddah. Of all his possessions he values most his bow, which is placed under his head when he sleeps; and next in his estimation is the dog who guards it, sleeping always at his master's head. 'What would you do,' I asked a Veddah once, 'if your bow were stolen?' 'No one could steal it,' he replied, 'the dog would not let him.' 'But if anyone killed your dog?' His answer was significant. He clutched his axe, and made a motion as though he would cut down the man who did so.

"And this was no idle threat. In 1849, a Bintenne Veddah deliberately knocked a man's brains out for having, as he believed, killed two of his dogs by magic^[6]. He never attempted to deny what he had done. 'It is true,' he said at the coroner's inquest, 'I killed him, and I did so because he had killed, by witchcraft, the two dogs I had reared and hunted for my support^[7].'"

The following is a list of the names of dogs and bitches obtained from the Henebedda Veddas:

Dogs. Kapura, Kadiya (kadi, black ant), Muranduwa (obstinate), Hudena (white), Pandina (spotty), Dimbula, Boriya, Taniya, Tambula, Senba, Katakaluwa (black mouth), Bahira, Pulana, Kambiliya, Komiya (a Sinhalese corruption of "come here," the name of a dog belonging to the Korale of Nilgala).

Bitches. Pandi (spotty), Katakalu (black mouth), Handani (white), Dassi (clever), Dimbile, Makedi (like iron), Bosari, Hudu Valli, Mukulu.

The following list represents the usual property of an elderly Vedda, that is, of one of the influential men of the group, and actually records the property of Poromala (Walaha) the "senior" of the Henebedda Veddas; one axe, bow and arrows, three pots, a deerskin, a "flint and steel" and supply of tinder, a gourd for carrying water, a betel pouch containing betel cutters and some form of vessel or small box, perhaps of metal (e.g. an old brass covered cartridge case), for holding lime. Most Veddas also possess a certain amount of cloth besides that actually in use on their person, and Handuna was no exception to this rule.

Kaira of Henebedda had only two pots, but otherwise the list of his property is identical with that already given. Handuna of Sitala Wanniya had three dogs, an axe, bow and arrow, one pot, betel bag, betel cutters, "flint and steel" and gourd for carrying tinder.

It seemed that adult sons inherited most of their fathers' personal property, but certainly the sons-in-law had the right to receive something. We have no doubt that what actually occurs, or until recently occurred, is that the adult children and the sons-in-law talked over and decided who should have each article of property, the whole being fairly shared; or if the sons-in-law were well provided with goods the whole of the dead man's property might go to his sons; thus Poromala (Walaha) told us that when his father died, leaving an axe, a bow and arrows, a deerskin, "flint and steel" and a betel bag with accessories, he took the axe and bow and arrows, leaving the other articles to his brother Handuna. Poromala added that as elder brother the division of the property was his affair. When Poromala dies his property will be divided among his children, and it appeared that his eldest child, his daughter Tuti and her husband, would take the leading part in the distribution of his personal property. Handuna of Sitala Wanniya says that his property will be divided as follows; he has three dogs, each of his two sons and his baena will take one of these; his axe and bow and arrows will be divided between his sons; his son-in-law will take his strike-a-light and his wife his betel bag and its appurtenances and probably his pots. Handuna added that his landed property would naturally go to his sons, but pointed out that his baena had a right to demand any personal property he cared to have, though no baena would behave unfairly or badly to his father-in-law's sons.

At Godatalawa, where Handuna the "senior" of the group had no adult sons, it was said that his dog, axe and bow and arrows would be divided between his sons-in-law; his betel bag and his deerskin would go to his son, a boy of eight or ten, who would also take his rice mortar and divide his father's pots with his baena. From these examples, it will be clear that a man's personal property is fairly equally divided between his children, the daughters' shares being often nominally given to their husbands.

In concluding these remarks on property we may refer to the list given by Rutimeyer (Globus 1903) of Vedda objects of personal property in the Basle Museum, these are:

1. Bow and ordinary arrows with iron heads of different sizes.
2. Elephant arrows (i.e. ceremonial arrows or aude).
3. Simple sharpened wood arrows.
4. Boy's bow with wooden arrows, being an exact facsimile of the iron tipped arrows.
5. Axes.
6. Digging sticks.
7. Drill for producing fire.
8. Apron made of the bast of Antiaris toxicaria (riti bark).
9. Tortoise shell from the Danigala used as a dish.
10. Disc of wax from wild bees (trading asset).
11. Ball of bast cord for bow strings.
12. Fire lighting appliances with hollowed areca nut for keeping tinder.
13. Earthenware pot hanging in a bast net.
14. Pouch made of squirrel skin.
15. Kilt made of leaves.

To this Rutimeyer would add a riti bark bag, the message stick referred to in the anonymous report of 1820, printed by Le Mesurier^[8], and clay figures and marbles mentioned by Stevens, in order to have "a rather complete inventory of all utensils of the 'Nature Veddas.'" This list, however, omits dried deer skins and the skin and wooden honey-collecting utensils described in Chapter XI. Further, no mention is made of beads, which are certainly much appreciated by even the wilder Veddas (cf. Chapter XI).

With regard to the existence of message sticks mentioned in the last paragraph, very careful inquiries were made of Veddas, Sinhalese peasants and Sinhalese headmen, including Mr Bibile, Ratemahatmaya. There seemed no doubt that among the peasant Sinhalese messages were traditionally transmitted by the conveyance of certain objects. We are unable to say whether this system was ever well developed and applied to many of the emergencies of life, but it seemed to be the general impression among our informants that the practice was formerly more common than at present. We were able, however, to hear of two messages habitually sent in this way among the more backward jungle Sinhalese at the present day. The first of these was the transmission of a piece of creeper with one, two or three knots tied in it. This was sent wrapped in a fragment of cloth and was a call to the recipient to come to the sender, the urgency of the latter's need being indicated by the number of knots. We consider the use of this message object thoroughly established as a Sinhalese custom, it was in use in the neighbourhood of Bibile until recently and is still used in remoter jungle districts.

A lock of hair usually cut from the head of the dead man and twisted round a small stick and wrapped in a leaf or fragment of cloth was sent as a sign that a death had occurred. Our impression is that at the present day this is essentially a Sinhalese custom, for the Vedda Arachi of Potuliyadde told us that among the jungle Sinhalese when a man died away from his home, his people might be informed of his death in this way. We could not hear of this custom among the least sophisticated of the Veddas we met, though it was said to exist at Henebedda, where however, if it really occurred, it may have been due to Sinhalese influence. With regard to its existence among the Veddas apart from Sinhalese influence, it seemed to us that the importance of a lock of hair as evidence of land transfer (described on p. 114) renders it unlikely that hair would be sent as evidence of death. The care that the Vedda Arachi of Potuliyadde took when bringing me his "seisin" to photograph, of which a lock of hair was an important part, was very noticeable^[9].

Turning now to the message sticks, certain conventional signs scratched on leaves or flat slips of wood were at times sent by Sinhalese chiefs to the Veddas as an intimation that they required them to bring venison and honey. These signs always took one form, representing a carrying stick (pingo), to each end of which a circular object representing a pot of honey was attached. By the side of the pot of honey there were generally drawn two short vertical lines, immediately beneath which were a number of rather longer horizontal lines. Each pair of horizontal lines represented a joint of venison and the vertical lines immediately above them the cord by which they would be suspended from the pingo. As far as we could determine no other form of written message ever passed between the Sinhalese and Veddas, but there is no doubt that although the Sitala Wanniya Veddas knew nothing of such messages the Danigala Veddas recognised their meaning and acted on them. Mr Bibile told us that on one occasion when he had sent this message scratched on an ola leaf to the headman of the Danigala Veddas he had received the honey and venison he had asked for in about a week. We were told that on receiving this message a Vedda might say

Dik, dik, ewuwā; kac kuṭṭā
Waṭa kuru ewuwā; paeni muṭṭā^[10]
Koṭa koṭa ewuwā; mac kuṭṭā^[11].

Long long (ones I) have sent; cut pingos
Round (ones I) have sent; honey pots
Short short (ones I) have sent; cut meat.