Page images
PDF
EPUB

blood; I have seen it with a very dark skin. The forehead is narrow and not high; it does not recede much from the line of the face.

Dr. Virchow gave the following proportions of their skulls, together with those of Sinhalese 1 and Tamils:

1

[blocks in formation]
[ocr errors]

He remarked that the average index of the ratio between the length and breadth proves that the skull is decidedly dolichocephalous,' only four out of the twenty being mesocephalous, with an index of seventy-five, while the index of seven was under seventy. He also stated that no elaborate proof is needed that neither Sinhalese nor Vaeddas, at least in the form of their skulls, present the slightest indication of any relationship to the Mongols. Such a remarkably dolichocephalous tribe has never yet been found among the Mongols.' I may add that neither do they resemble the Australians in any respect, to judge by the illustrations of them in the elaborate works of Dr. Howitt and Messrs. Spencer and Gillen. On this subject Dr. Virchow said: 'One glance at the skull, and still more at the skeleton, of the Australian convinces us that here a great and unmistakable contrast exists.' 2 Some have endeavoured to connect the Vaeddas with the Andamanese. This is at once disposed of by Dr. Virchow, who remarked: 'The Andamanese, as well as the Negritos generally, are in reality brachycephalic, and this one circumstance distinguishes them definitely from all the Ceylon races. If we add to this that their hair grows in spiral coils, and is to be classed with the woolly hair of the genuine negro, then every possibility disappears of a union with the Vaeddas unless we assume that climatic influences have specially affected the hair.'' The hair of the Vaeddas is black with a slight brownish

1 It is uncertain how many of these were the skulls of Kandians. 2 Op. cit. p. 131.

tinge, and, if attended to, is not more frizzly than that of ordinary Kandian Sinhalese. It is never cut, and is tied in a knot at the back of the head (as stated by Knox, p. 62), exactly like that of all Sinhalese. Photographs of some Village Vaeddas who have been brought to Kandy and elsewhere to be exhibited represent men with wild unkempt frizzly locks; but I have never seen anything of the kind in their own districts, and it is probable that the heads of those who have been so pourtrayed have been 'made up' specially, in order to increase their wild appearance-as, in fact, I was informed by their Sinhalese neighbours has been done on similar occasions. The wildest Vaeddas whom I ever met, in the middle of dense forest, had their hair tied up in a knot at the back of their heads in the usual way of the villagers; these were the true Forest Vaeddas who could speak only the Vaedi dialect.

It may occasionally be a practice of the Vaeddas when hunting, as it is of other hunters in Ceylon, to wander in the forest with unfastened hair; but from my own experience of them, and from that of Sinhalese who live in their district and are well acquainted with them, I am able to state that it is not otherwise done habitually by any but an extremely limited number. In answer to special inquiries, I was informed that some few individuals do neglect to attend to their hair, and allow it to stand out in this wild-looking manner. Instead of their hair being naturally frizzly, I have never seen a Vaedda with hair more wavy than that of the Low-country Sinhalese of the western coast districts. I may repeat that so far as superficial appearances go, there is nothing in the figure (except the smaller height), the features, or the ordinary coiffure, and very little in the average colour of the skin, to distinguish the Vaedda from many low-caste Kandians found in the northern and north-western Sinhalese districts.

There is only one race in Ceylon with curly hair; they are the Kinnaras or Karmantayō, the mat-weavers, the lowest caste in the island. In the case of some of the men the whole hair of the crown consists of a mass of very short thick curls, while the lips of those I have seen were invariably rather thick, although the jaws were not prognathous. Their faces resemble

in other respects those of Kandians, and are not of the Mongolian type. The hair of the women is tied up in a knot like that of the ordinary Sinhalese. The men never allow their hair to hang down beyond the upper part of the neck, even in the case of those whose locks are not so curly as others; it is always cut off when it reaches this length. The colour of these people is the same dark brown as that of the average Kandian villager; I have seen none who were much darker than this.

Their mode of life does not indicate any connexion with the Vaeddas, none of them being either hunters or fishers; all gain their living by weaving mats in frames, and by cultivating millet and rice. They have village tanks and rice fields, and keep cattle; their villages and houses are clean and neat, being exactly like those of the Kandian Sinhalese. They have no tradition regarding their origin, and no dialect of their own, knowing not one word except Sinhalese; and nearly all their folk-stories are the same as those of the Kandians. Those which vary from the latter are chiefly Buddhistic, the race being all Buddhists, though not permitted by the Kandians to enter the wihāras, or the houses of other villagers. Their rank is so low that, as some of them admitted to me, they address even the Roḍiyas, whom many wrongly believe to be the lowest race in the island, as Hāmaduruwō,' my Lord,' and do not pass them on a path without first asking permission to do so. I was informed that the Roḍiyas at once interfere if any of the men attempt to allow their hair to grow beyond the upper part of the neck, and order them to cut it shorter.

I believe that they are now found only in the district immediately to the north and north-west of Kandy and near Kurunãegala; but a Sinhalese folk tale places some on the western coast. This may indicate that we have in them the remnant of another tribe who came from the Malayalam country. It is interesting to note that, like the Vaeddas, they have completely abandoned their original language.

On the other hand, there is another race, of which only a few villages exist in the North-western and perhaps in the North-central Provinces, called 'Waga' or 'Waga men,' who

are traditionally supposed to be the descendants of some of the Tamil captives brought from Southern India by Gaja-Bāhu I, in the second century A.D. These people, though nearly as much isolated among the Sinhalese as the Vaeddas, but not so much as the Kinnaras, still retain and speak their original Tamil tongue, in addition to Sinhalese. They closely resemble Sinhalese of some low castes, and are rather darker in colour than the average Sinhalese villagers. Why some races should have abandoned their mother tongue and others have retained it is a fact for which I am unable to offer any satisfactory explanation.

The Waga people, although they are supposed to have been originally only charcoal burners, are now cultivators exactly like their neighbours. They term themselves of good caste, and the men have the usual names which denote that position, such as Maeņikrāla, Kapurāla, etc.; but the women have names that belong to persons of low caste, such as Bokki, Bandi, Badi, Kombi, Gaembi, Ţikiri, Latti. One might expect the name of the race to mean Vanga, that is, Bengal, but that the people both speak Tamil and claim to be Tamils.

The figure of most of the Tamil-speaking Vaeddas naturally approximates to that of the Tamils with whom they are intermarried-so much so that there is little in it to distinguish them, and especially the women, from many village Tamils of a rather low caste. In the greater width of the hips and the amount of posterior tissue, the difference between the females and the Village Vaedda women is marked. Their colour is also commonly darker than that of the Vaeddas of the interior, and is sometimes black, with brownish shadows. The character of the features of the men approaches that of the Village

1 The only races I have seen with jet-black skins, which always have distinctly blue or purple shadows, are many of the Tamils of Southern India (not Ceylon), and all the Wolofs of the Senegal and Gambia coast districts, who have no resemblance to the true negroes. Some of the Andamanese are also described as having skins of this black-lead colour. The same peculiar colour is to be seen in some few northern Kandians, but such cases are quite exceptional, and are doubtless due to a strain of Dravidian blood. It does not occur among the Vaeddas.

Vaeddas; there are the same scanty hair or absence of hair on the upper lip and chin, and the somewhat prominent cheek bones, and, according to my observation, straight noses. The hair is always tied in a knot at the back of the head.

The description of the Village Vaeddas is generally applicable to the Wanniyas, who, however, are perhaps an inch or two taller, on an average, and I think have slightly less prominent cheek bones. Their eyebrows are low and fairly straight, their eyes deep set, their noses generally straight, and their lips not thicker than those of the average Kandian villager. There may also be a slight difference in the shade of the skin, which is perhaps not quite of the same dull dirty tint as that of the Vaeddas; but otherwise, like theirs, is nearly always a dark brown with a reddish tinge, though darker shades are also seen. There are variations in the colour, some having distinctly reddish skins, and others skins of a deep walnut hue. The hair is nearly straight, and excepting sometimes when they are hunting is always tied in a knot at the back of the head. The face is commonly nearly hairless below the eyes. The women differ in appearance from Tamils; they have oval faces, pleasant comely features, and not ungraceful figures. Among all Vaeddas and Wanniyas the superciliary ridge is rather prominent; it is never absent in Kandian Sinhalese, but is often unnoticeable in Tamils and the so-called Moormen.'

Ornaments.-The Tamil-speaking male Vaeddas and those of the south-eastern coast tract, who are brought into communication with the Tamils, or Sinhalese who have adopted some of the habits of Tamils, carry a ring or stud in the lobe of each ear after marriage, and some of the former also wear silver bangles. The Vaeddas of the interior and the Wanniyas often have silver rings in their ears, and I have observed the Forest Vaeddas with similar ornaments, which some of the most northern Kandian villagers, as well as the Roḍiyas, also commonly wear, but not other Sinhalese men, nor the Kinnaras.

Mr. Nevill remarked that the females put on necklaces of coloured glass beads when they can get them, and shell, ivory, glass, or brass bangles. The Village Vaedda women are said

« PreviousContinue »