other village within forty miles in the
direction that we wished to steer. Not a soul could we obtain as a
guide--no offer of reward would induce a man to start, as they declared
that no one knew the country, and that the distance was so great that
the people would be starved, as they could get nothing to eat. We looked
hopelessly at the country before us. We had a compass, certainly, which
might be useful enough on a desert or a prairie, but in a jungle country
it was of little value.

Just as we were in the greatest despair, and we were gazing wistfully
in the direction which the needle pointed out as the position of the
'Park,' now separated from us by an untravelled district of an unknown
distance, we saw two figures with bows and arrows coming from the
jungle. One of these creatures bolted back again into the bushes the
moment he perceived us; the other one had a fish in his hand, of about
four pounds weight, which he had shot with his bow and arrow; while he
was hesitating whether he should run or stand still, we caught him.

Of all the ugly little devils I ever saw, he was superlative. He
squinted terribly; his hair was greyish and matted with filth; he was
certainly not more than four feet and a half high, and he carried a bow
two feet longer than himself. He could speak no language but his own,
which throughout the Veddah country is much the same, intermixed with so
many words resembling Cingalese that a native can generally understand
their meaning. By proper management, and some little presents of rice
and tobacco, we got the animal into a good humour, and we gathered the
following in formation.

He knew nothing of any place except the northern portion of the Veddah
country. This was his world; but his knowledge of it was extremely
limited, as he could not undertake to guide us farther than Oomanoo, a
Veddah village, which he described as three days' journey from where we
then stood. We made him point out the direction in which it lay. This he
did, after looking for some moments at the sun; and, upon comparing the
position with the compass, we were glad to see it at south-south-east,
being pretty close to the course that we wished to steer. From Oomanoo,
he said, we could procure another Veddah to guide us still farther; but
he himself knew nothing more.

Now this was all satisfactory enough so far, but I had been completely
wrong in my idea of the distance from Doolana to the 'Park.' We now
heard of thr