Such is the aversion of this untamed race to any intercourse with civilised life, that when in want of the rude implements essential to their savage economy, they repair by night to the nearest village on the confines of their hunting-fields, and indicating by well-understood signs and models the number and form of the articles required, whether arrow-heads, hatchets, or cloths, they deposit an equivalent portion of dried deer's flesh or honey near the door of the dealer, and retire unseen to the jungles, returning by stealth within a reasonable time, to carry away the manufactured articles, which they find placed at the same spot in exchange.
This singular custom has been described without variation by numerous writers on Ceylon, both in recent and remote times. To trace it backwards, it is narrated, nearly as I have stated it, by Robert Knox in 1681[1]; and it is confirmed by Valentyn, the Dutch historian of Ceylon[2]; as well as by Ribeyro, the Portuguese, who wrote somewhat earlier.[3] Albyrouni, the geographer, who in the reign of Mahomet of Ghuznee, A.D. 1030, described this singular feature in the trade with the island, of which he speaks under the name of Lanka, says that it was the belief of the Arabian mariners that the parties with whom they held their mysterious dealings were demons or savages.[4]
1: KNOX, Historical Relation, &c., part iii. ch. i. p. 62.
2: VALENTYN, Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indien, ch. iii. p. 49.
3: "Lorsqu'ils ont besoin de haches on de flèches, ils font un modèle avec des feuilles d'arbre, et vont la nuit porter ce modèle, et la moitié d'un cerf on d'un sanglier, à la porte d'un armurier, qui voyant le matin cette viande penduë à sa porte, sçait ce que cela veut dire: il travaille aussi-tôt et 3 jours après il pend les flêches ou les haches au même endroit où étoit la viande, et la nuit suivante le Beda les vient prendre."—RIBEYRO, Hist. de Ceylan, A.D. 1686, ch. xxiv. p. 179.
4: "Les marins se réunissent pour dire que lorsque les navires sont arrivés dans ces parages, quelques uns de l'équipage montent sur des chaloupes et descendent à terre pour y déposer, soit de l'argent, soit des objets utiles à la personne des habitans, tels que des pagnes, du sel, etc. Le lendemain, quand ils reviennent, ils trouvent à la place de l'argent des pagnes et du sel, une quantité de girofle d'une valeur égale. On ajoute que ce commerce se fait avec des génies, ou, suivant d'autres; avec des hommes restés à l'état sauvage."—ALBYROUNI, transl. by REINAUD, Introd. to ABOULFEDA, sec. iii. p. ccc. See also REINAUD, Mém. sur l'Inde, p. 343. I have before alluded (p. 538, n.) to the treatise De Moribus Brachmanorum, ascribed to Palladius, one version of which is embodied in the spurious Life of Alexander the Great, written by the Pseudo-Callisthenes. In it the traveller from Thebes, who is the author's informant, states, that when in Ceylon, he obtained pepper from the Besadæ, and succeeded in getting so near them as to be able to describe accurately their appearance, their low stature and feeble configuration, their large heads and shaggy uncut hair,—a description which in every particular agrees with the aspect of the Veddahs at the present day. His expression that he succeeded in "getting near" them, [Greek: ertasa engus tôn kaloumenôn Besadôn] shows their propensity to conceal themselves even when bringing the articles which they had collected in the woods to sell.—PSEUDO-CALLISTHENES, lib. iii. ch. vii. Paris, 1846, p. 103.
Concurrent testimony, to the same effect, is found in the recital of the Chinese Buddhist, Fa Hian, who in the third century describes, in his travels, the same strange peculiarity of the inhabitants in those days, whom he also designates "demons," who deposited, unseen, the precious articles which they come down to barter with the foreign merchants resorting to their shores.[1]
1: "Les marchands des autre royaumes y faisaient le commerce: quand le temps de ce commerce était venu, les génies et les démons ne paraissaient pas; mais ils mettaient en avant des choses précieuses dont ils marquaient le juste prix,—s'il convenait aux marchands, ceuxci l'acquittaient et prenaient le marchandise."—FA HIAN, Foeĕ-kouĕ-ki. Transl. RÉMUSAT, ch. xxxviii. p. 332
There are a multitude of Chinese authorities to the same effect. One of the most remarkable books in any language is a Chinese Encyclopædia which under the title of Wen-hian-thoung-khao, or "Researches into ancient Monuments," contains a history of every art and science form the commencement of the empire to the era of the author MA-TOUAN-LIN, who wrote in the thirteenth century. M. Stanislas Julien has published in the Journal Asiatique for July 1836 a translation of that portion of this great work which has relation to Ceylon. It is there stated of the aborigines that when "les marchands des autres royaumes y venaient commercer, ils ne laissaient pas voir leurs corps, et montraient au moyen de pierres précieuses le prix que pouvaient valoir les merchandises. Les marchands venaient et en prenaient une quantité équivalente à leurs marchandises."—Journ. Asiat. t. xxviii. p. 402; xxiv. p. 41. I have extracts from seven other Chinese works, written between the seventh and the twelfth centuries, in all of which there occurs the same account of Ceylon,—that it was formerly supposed to be inhabited by dragons and demons, and that when "merchants from all nations come to trade with the, they are invisible, but leave their precious wares spread out with an indication of the value set on them, and the Chinese take them at the prices stipulated."—Leang-shoo, "History of the Leang Dynasty," A.D. 630, b. liv. p. 13. Nân-shè, "History of the Southern Empire," A.D. 650, p. xxxviii. p. 14. Jung-teen, "Cyclopædia of History," A.D. 740, b. cxciii. p. 8. The Tae-pîng, a "Digest of History," compiled by Imperial command, A.D. 983, b. dccxciii. p. 9. Tsih-foo-yuen-kwei, the "Great Depositary of the National Archives," A.D. 1012, b. cccclvi. p. 21. Sin-Jang-shoo, "New History of the Tang Dynasty," A.D. 1060, b. cxlvi. part ii. p. 10. Wan heen-túng-Kwan, "Antiquarian Researches," A.D. 1319, b. cccxxxviii. p. 24.