第31章

Character of the Veddahs--Description of the Veddahs--A Monampitya Rogue--Attacking the Rogue--Breathless Excitement--Death of a Large Rogue--Utility of the Four-ounce--A Curious Shot--Fury of a Bull Buffalo--Character of the Wild Buffalo--Buffalo-shooting at Minneria Lake--Charge in High Reeds--Close of a Good Day's Sport--Last Day at Minneria--A Large Snake--An Unpleasant Bedfellow.

Doolana is upon the very verge of the most northern point of the Veddah country, the whole of which wild district is the finest part of Ceylon for sport.Even to this day few Europeans have hunted these secluded wilds.The wandering Veddah, with his bow and arrows, is occasionally seen roaming through his wilderness in search of deer, but the report of a native's gun is never heard; the game is therefore comparatively undisturbed.I have visited every portion of this fine sporting country, and since I have acquired the thorough knowledge of its attractions, Ihave made up my mind never to shoot anywhere but there.The country is more open than in most parts of Ceylon, and the perfect wildness of the whole district is an additional charm.

The dimensions of the Veddah country are about eighty miles from north to south, by forty in width.A fine mountain, known as the 'Gunner's Coin,' is an unmistakable landmark upon the northern boundary.From this point a person may ride for forty miles without seeing a sign of a habitation; the whole country is perfectly uncivilised, and its scanty occupants, the 'Veddahs,' wander about like animals, without either home, laws, or religion.

I have frequently read absurd descriptions of their manners and customs, which must evidently have been gathered from hearsay, and not from a knowledge of the people.It is a commonly believed report that the Veddahs 'live in the trees,' and a stranger immediately confuses them with rooks and monkeys.Whoever first saw Veddah huts in the trees would have discovered, upon enquiry, that they were temporary watch-houses, from which they guard a little plot of korrakan from the attacks of elephants and other wild beasts.Far from LIVING in the trees, they live nowhere; they wander over the face of their beautiful country, and migrate to different parts at different seasons, with the game which they are always pursuing.The seasons in Ceylon vary in an extraordinary manner, considering the small size of the island.The wet season in one district is the dry season in another, and vice versa.Wherever the dry weather prevails, the pasturage is dried up; the brooks and pools are mere sandy gullies and pits.The Veddah watches at some solitary hole which still contains a little water, and to this the deer and every species of Ceylon game resort.Here his broad-headed arrow finds a supply.He dries the meat in long strips in the sun, and cleaning out some hollow tree, he packs away his savoury mass of sun-cooked flesh, and fills up the reservoir with wild honey; he then stops up the aperture with clay.

The last drop of water evaporates, the deer leave the country and migrate into other parts where mountains attract the rain and the pasturage is abundant.The Veddah burns the parched grass wherever he passes, and the country is soon a blackened surface--not a blade of pasture remains; but the act of burning ensures a sweet supply shortly after the rains commence, to which the game and the Veddahs will then return.In the meantime he follows the game to other districts, living in caves where they happen to abound, or making a temporary but with grass and sticks.

Every deer-path, every rock, every peculiar feature in the country, every pool of water, is known to these hunting Veddahs; they are consequently the best assistants in the world in elephant-hunting.They will run at top speed over hard ground upon an elephant's track which is barely discernible even to the practised eye of a white man.

Fortunately, the number of these people is very trifling or the game would be scarce.

They hunt like the leopard; noiselessly stalking till within ten paces of their game, they let the broad arrow fly.At this distance who could miss? Should the game be simply wounded, it is quite enough; they never lose him, but hunt him up, like hounds upon a blood track.

Nevertheless, they are very bad shots with the bow and arrow, and they never can improve while they restrict their practice to such short ranges.

I have often tried them at a mark at sixty yards, and, although a very bad hand with a bow myself, I have invariably beaten them with their own weapons.These bows are six feet long, made of a light supple wood, and the strings are made of the fibrous bark of a tree greased and twisted.

The arrows are three feet long, formed of the same wood as the bows.The blades are themselves seven inches of this length, and are flat, like the blade of a dinner-knife brought to a point.Three short feathers from the peacock's wing are roughly lashed to the other end of the arrow.

The Veddah in person is extremely ugly; short, but sinewy, his long uncombed locks fall to his waist, looking more like a horse's tail than human hair.He despises money, but is thankful for a knife, a hatchet, or a gaudy-coloured cloth, or brass pot for cooking.

The women are horribly ugly and are almost entirely naked.They have no matrimonial regulations, and the children are squalid and miserable.

Still these people are perfectly happy, and would prefer their present wandering life to the most luxurious restraint.Speaking a language of their own, with habits akin to those of wild animals, they keep entirely apart from the Cingalese.They barter deer-horns and bees'-wax with the travelling Moormen pedlers in exchange for their trifling requirements.