There are no headmen or chiefs – leadership is based on recognized ability in different activities. Fulltime specialists and differentiated economic, political and religious institutions are alien to the Wanniyala-aetto. They do have shamans and people who know about herbal medicines, but other than the family itself is the group that fulfill all roles. The only consistent supremacy of any kind is that of a person of higher age and wisdom who might lead a ceremony, a person with a special skill may be asked to give advice or occasionally to lead, a hunter with sharper eyesight may walk some steps ahead of the others when searching for game.
Justice as employed by the Wanniyala-aetto is based on common understanding. Relatives and friends of the accuser and the accused discuss and negotiate with each other until an acceptable agreement or a compromise is made. Direct confrontation between the parties is not the rule. After the consensus the two main protagonists meet directly to clarify and to confirm what they have agreed to, mediated by their delegated relatives and friends. This is usually accomplished in a polite and cordial manner, which prescribes a symbolic contribution of betel by the accuser to the family of the defendant, who in turn is invited to share a meal with them. Both parties find it equally important to maintain good relations and peace between the hamlets (Stegeborn 1993).
Among the Village Veddahs the women wore ivory studs in bored ears. Fire was obtained from two pieces of wood by drilling. The method of making fire by stone and a piece of metal, which is showing for tourists in Dambana as a traditional and ancient, was a traditional for Sinhalese (Rutimeyer 1903; Sarasin 1893). The tradition of chewing of areca-nuts or bark of trees mixed with burned land-shells (“wantako”) was very common.
The soil is poor and unproductive. But the Wanniyala-aetto plant many different grains, vegetables and tubers. Most of the Wanniyala-aetto clear a piece of land close to the house to do swidden cultivation of maize and kurakkan millet (Eleusine coracana). This type of cultivation is practiced by both Sinhalese and Tamil small scale farmers and is called “chena”. An enormous fence surrounding the chena must resist the elephants, be taller than the sambhur’s leap and tight enough to keep out the hares. Staples include maize, finger millet (Eleusine coracana) and dryland rice. They obtain wetland rice from Sinhalese shops. Maize is sown just before the monsoon in mid-September, followed by kurakkan in October, and it is time for the boys to make use of the double-stringed bow – they guard the chena from birds, then sambhur who is looking for a taller plants, and wild boars seeking roots. The chena can’t be cultivated for more than two to three years – then it must lie fallow for ten to twelve consecutive years (Spittel 1950).
The harvest time of the kurakkan millet is in February, which is done by the wife and the children. The main danger in this period is elephant who can eat 250—300 kg of vegetation per day. In March or April the corn cobs are ready and all the family members cooperate before the monkeys steal the crop. The chena must be guarded night and day. The Wanniyala-aetto build watch huts on poles in the middle of the field and on the trees at the edge of it. The husband and sons bear this responsibility. If animals come, the watcher shouts and makes noises, hitting buckets with sticks and stones. If elephants threaten, the guards shout for assistance, make torches from bundles of tall grass and chase the elephants away from their homes (Stegeborn 1993).
Some Wanniyala-aetto also cultivate a small garden close to home, where they grow manioc, beans, chiles, curry leaves (Murraya koenigii), pumpkins and plantains. They may also try to grow some betel vines (Piper betel), which is highly valued among them, but it is cheap to buy, so they generally obtain it at the local tea-shop (ibid.). A very old habit adopted from the Sinhalese long ago is betel chewing, together with the accompanying ingredients – areca-nut and lime. Betel is chewed together with the bitter tasting areca-nut from the betel palm (Areca catechu). Before putting the wad in the mouth, a “pinch” of lime is smeared on the leaf to give it the “right” taste. To give a mildly spicy flavor they sometimes add pieces of cinnamon bark and cardamom seeds (ibid.). The areca doesn’t grow wild in the Eastern Province (Seligmann 1911) or in the bordering Uva Province where the Wanniyala-aetto live. They buy areca-nuts, betel leaves, chewing tobacco, lime, coconuts, spices and edible fruits such as jack-fruit (Artocarpus integrifolia) at Sinhalese owned tea-shops. But it was difficult to obtain them in the forests, so they have modified their own substitutes which can be found in the forests. Such analogs can be made from the bark of the “demate” (Gmelina asiatica) and “davata” (Carallia brachiata, corkwood tree) trees which substitute for the betel leaf and areca nut respectively (Seligmann 1911). Then they collect large, white land snails (Cyclophorus volvulus), burn them in fires, pulverize the shells into powder, add water to make a paste and use this in place of lime (Spittel 1950).
Important items used for trade are honey, meat, medicinal herbs, wild berries and cultivated grains. With the money they can buy clay vessels, cloth, salt, gunpowder and betel (Stegeborn 1993). Livestock herding has been adopted by a Wanniyala-aetto from their neighboring Sinhalese agriculturalists. On the first stage, Wanniyala-aetto came to watch the herds (the cattle graze around the house and sometimes the man’s wife or children bring them to other places where there is a fresh feed). In addition to the daily pay, they may receive a calf born that year. If they watch several herds, they obtain more livestock. The Wanniyala-aetto milk the cows, boil the milk and drink it or make yoghurt. Also they use cows to plow their rice-paddies. Some families have had four to five chickens freely walking inside and outside their houses, they were kept only for the eggs.
The Wanniyala-aetto do not eat their domestic animals such as their hunting dogs, chicken or cows. They are considered as pets and part of the compound like the children. The Wanniyala-aetto do not practice endocannibalism and do not eat their dead pets (Stegeborn 1993).
Nowadays the hunting and gathering traditions of the Wanniyala-aetto are almost lost. Some individuals sometimes go to collect honey and medicinal herbs. The native diet has changed considerably. Canned fish and meat replace fresh produce; sugar replaces honey; fewer vegetables are eaten. That contributes to new diseases: obesity, high blood pressure, heart problems, and alcoholism.
Nandadeva Wijesekera (1964) informed that “personal cleanliness of the Veddas leaves much to be desired, for sanitation and personal hygiene receive no attention. They wash their faces and mouths in the morning from a stream or water-hole nearby, as a matter of casual routine but thereafter for the rest of the day, although water may be available, they show no inclination to bathe in streams due to fear of being drowned”.
Also, Wijesekera supposes that the main reason is that they do not see the need to bathe nor can they think of any special benefit there from. He declares that very few “of the Veddas can swim even in streams and they do not dare to cross them unless forced to do so”, but he points out that the Veddahs love the rain, feel quite happy to get wet and thereafter sit by the fire (Wijesekera 1964). He mentions that the Veddahs seldom cut their hair, so their hair grow together into a massive lump. According to him, the act of beautifying the body, male or female, has never appealed to the Veddahs. Clothing was used only to cover their nudity. The hair is allowed to grow anyhow, the beard and moustache are not trimmed. But at the time of writing of that book (1964) the new habit of wearing by women necklaces of colored glass, beads, shell or bangles of ivory or brass; the practice of wearing ornaments (typical to Sinhalese and Tamils) became universal both among women and men. Due to Wijesekera, in the past flowers did not enter the scheme of adornment either of the person or hair, but “during recent times flowers and twigs have been used” (1964). We don’t have any concrete information about the group of the Veddahs which Wijesekera described, but the details given helped us to determine them as “Wanniyala-aetto”.
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