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VEDDAHS, or WEDDAHS (from See also: primitive See also: people of See also: Ceylon, probably representing the Yakkos or " demons " of See also: Sanskrit writers, the true See also: aborigines of the See also: island
.
During the Dutch occupation (1644-1796) they were found as far See also: north as See also: Jaffna, but are now confined to the See also: south-eastern See also: district, about the wooded Bintenna, See also: Badulla and Nil-gala hills, and thence to the See also: coast near See also: Batticaloa
.
They are divided into two classes, the Kele Weddo or See also: jungle Veddahs, and the Gan Weddo, or semi-civilized See also: village Veddahs
.
The Veddahs exhibit the phenomenon of a See also: race living the wildest of savage lives and yet speaking an See also: Aryan dialect
.
Craniometrical evidence strongly favours the theory, now generally accepted, that they represent a branch of the pre-Aryan Dravidians of See also: southern See also: India, and that their ancestors probably made a See also: settlement in the island of Ceylon in prehistoric times, detaching them-selves from a migrating See also: horde which passed through the island to find at last a permanent home in the continent of See also: Australia
.
The true jungle veddahs are almost a dwarfish race
.
They are dark-skinned and flat-nosed, slight of See also: frame and very small of See also: skull, and See also: average no more than 5 ft
.
Their black hair is shaggy rather than lank
.
They are a shy, harmless, See also: simple folk, living chiefly by hunting; they lime birds, catch See also: fish by poisoning the See also: water, and are skilled in getting See also: wild honey; they have bows with iron-pointed arrows and breed hunting See also: dogs
.
They dwell in caves or bark huts, and their word for See also: house is Sinhalese for a hollow See also: tree, rukula
.
They count on their fingers, and make fire with the simplest See also: form of fire-See also: drill twirled by See also: hand
.
They are monogamous, and their conjugal fidelity contrasts strongly with the vicious habits of the Sinhalese
.
Their See also: religion has been described as a kind of demon-worship, consisting of See also: rude dances and shouts raised to scare away the evil See also: spirits, whom they confound with their ancestors
.
The Veddahs are not to be confounded with the Rodiyas of the western uplands, who are a much finer race, tall, wellporportioned, with See also: regular features, and speak a language said to be radically distinct from all the Aryan and See also: Dravidian dialects current in Ceylon
.
There is, however, in See also: Travancore, on the mainland, a low-caste " Veda " tribe, nearly black, with wavy or frizzly hair, and now speaking a Malayalim (Dravidian) dialect (Jagor), who probably approach nearer than the insular Veddahs to the aboriginal pre-Dravidian " negrito " See also: element of southern India and Malaysia
.
See See also: Percival, Description of Island of Ceylon (1805); Cordiner, Description of Ceylon (1807); See also: John
See also: Davy, Ceylon and its Inhabitants (1821); Stirr, Ceylon and the Singhalese (185o), See also: Sir Emerson See also: Tennent, Ceylon (1859); J
.
See also: Baily, Trans. of Ethnol
.
See also: Soc., New Series, vol. ii
.
(1863); Rolleston, Trans. of Brit
.
Ass
.
(1872); B
.
F
.
Hartshorne, Fortnightly Review, New Series, vol. xix. p
.
406
.
The most elaborate monograph is that of ProfessorSee also: Virchow, Ober die Weddds von Ceylon and ihre Beziehungen zu den Nachbarstammen (Berlin, 1882)
.
See also E
.
B
.
See also: Tylor, Primitive Culture; A
.
See also: Thomson, " See also: Osteology of Veddahs," in Journ
.
Anthrop
.
Institute (1889), vol. xix. p
.
125; L. de Zoysa, " Origin of Veddahs," in Journal, Ceylon Branch, Royal See also: Asiatic Society, vol. vii
.
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