ROCK TEMPLES AND INSCRIPTIONS: VEDDAS. 35

leaf, on which the characters were inscribed with an iron
stile, the writing being rendered legible, and the pages at
the same time secured from the ravages of insects by
the application of charcoal compounded with a fragrant oil.
Grants of land and other very important documents were
sngraved on strips of copper.
Of great ethnological interest are the Veddas, a remnant
of the aboriginal inhabitants of Ceylon. The Veddas, who
lurk in the forests in the eastern parts of the Island, subsist
upon the produce of the chase, which they secure by the use
of the bow and arrow. Among their habits is that of
Preserving the flesh of deer, &amp;c., in honey and storing it in
the hollows of trees, closing the apertures with clay, and that
of exchanging their superfluous venison with their civilized
neighbours for salt, iron, cloth, &amp;c., by a curious system of
barter, leaving the flesh and models of the articles they
féquire in exchange, at the edge of the jungle over-Dight
 and returning at daybreak to disappear with the
produce of this surreptitious trade.
A few thousands of these specimens of man in a very
Primitive stage of civilization, or rather want of it, still exist
0 the remoter jungles of the eastern side of the sland.
The interest in antiquarian research in Ceylon is well
Maintained not only by the Archaeological Survey, but by
independent scholars and by the Ceylon Branch of the
Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain, whose journals extend
back to the year 1845. A complete list of works dealing
with the history, religions, and antiquities of Ceylon is given
among the list of books relating to Ceylon elsewhere in this
Handbhaoole

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