VED'DAS. A people of Southeastern Ceylon, who have sometimes been regarded, chiefly upon somatic and osteological grounds, as constituting a separate race of mankind. The Veddas are one of the most primitive of human types, represent ing, perhaps, the original stock which, travel ing to the north, produced the Dravidian peoples of Southern Hindustan, and going to the south gave rise to the Australians. The features of the Veddas are 'Hindu rather than Negroid or '1\longoloid, while the hair is jet-black, wavy, and frequently curly, but never kinky. They are somewhat darker in color than the neighboring Singhalese. They are of slender build, erect carriage, and small stature (full-grown males about five feet). A noteworthy characteristic of the Veddas is their monogamous form of mar riage. Their honesty. hospitality, morality, and good nature are praised by those who have come to know them. They have their primitive songs and dances, but their religious ideas are not much in evidence. They use the fire-drill and have bows and arrows of their own make, but obtain their arrow-heads and axes from the Sin ghalese. with whom the more secluded Veddas traffic by a sort of dumb-show. From the Sin ghalese also they have obtained written charms, and occasionally a palm-leaf hook serving as an oracle or fetish. The 'Village Veddas' are
largely vegetarians, but the 'Rock Veddas' hunt birds and animals. The .Veddas still existing are divided into three classes. The 'Coast Veddas' of Baltiealoa„ who have taken on something of civilization, associate freely with their Sin ghalese neighbors, devote themselves to fishing, and in appearance only differ from the primi tive Singhalese living in the same region. The Village Veddas of the wooded lowlands, known as the Bintenne, are nomadic harvesters of the products of the jungle, making an attempt at building huts. and collecting together in fam ily groups. The most primitive and secluded are the Rock Veddas, as they are called from their cave-life in the jungles of the Badulla and Nil gala hills. They live chiefly by hunting, almost never come in contact with the Singhalese, and do not associate with each other in a tribal life, but band together only in small family groups.
Consult: Virehow, Lebec die Theoldas von Cey lon (Berlin, 1881) ; Deschamps, _In pays des Feddas 1892) ; Sarasin, Die von Ceylon (Wiesbaden, 1891).