File:Ridpath's Universal history - an account of the origin, primitive condition and ethnic development of the great races of mankind, and of the principal events in the evolution and progress of the (14767419111).jpg

Identifier: ridpathsuniversa08ridp (find matches)
Title: Ridpath's Universal history : an account of the origin, primitive condition and ethnic development of the great races of mankind, and of the principal events in the evolution and progress of the civilized life among men and nations, from recent and authentic sources with a preliminary inquiry on the time, place and manner of the beginning
Year: 1897 (1890s)
Authors: Ridpath, John Clark, 1840-1900
Subjects: World history
Publisher: Cincinnati : Jones
Contributing Library: University of Pittsburgh Library System
Digitizing Sponsor: Lyrasis Members and Sloan Foundation

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, and thewomen being lower by two or threeinches. The heads are small, the skullthick, and the average capacity of brainhardly as much as forty ounces. Theirintellectual abilities are correspondinglysmall. Their domestic estate is commu-nistic. Tribal organization does notexist. The true aborigines have neitherheadmen nor kings. The same inert manners which wehave noted in Africa are repeated inCeylon. The Veddahs scarcely build atall. We speak here of the rock tribesdwelling in the unmodified estate awayfrom the coast. The people live incaves and hollow trees. They subsistupon what reptiles, insects, vermin,wild roots, and the like, they can takeby their savage wits, or scratch, beastlike,from the earth. Of mind proper theycan scarcely be said to possess aught.They are incapable of counting beyondtwo, or at most, five. They can not re-member. They can be taught the sim-plest knowledge only with the greatestdifficulty. Even their senses are defi-cient. They have little appreciation of
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TODA TYPES.—Drawn by Fritel, from a photograph. A US TRA LI A NS. — THE VEDIh 1 IIS. 697- sound or color. It is believed by ob-servers that they scarcely distinguishbetween loud and soft, between redand green! Only in a single point dothey appear to have gained, even bycontact with superior peoples. Unlesslinguistic scholars have mistaken thefacts, the language of the Veddahs isformed mostly of Aryan words. If so,we must conclude that by degrees theCoast Veddahs first, the Village peoplesecondly, and even the Rock tribes atlast have taken from the conqueringHindus a sufficiency of the Aryan vocab-ulary to meet the poor, savage require-ments of the race. Of the means of subsistence, wheresuch means are merely natural; of thesocial estate, where that estate reachesnot further than a degraded communis-tic marriage; of civil in- Veddah institu- . tions and super- stitutions, where none is, stitious beliefs. -, -. we need not pause to speakat length. No people, however, haveprobably be

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