Livelyhood

    

 Veddas were originally hunters. They use bows and arrows to hut and they gather wild plants and honey. Some Veddas also farm, which is called as Chena cultivation and East coast Veddas practice fishing. The flesh deer, rabbit, turtle, tortoise, monitor lizard, wild boar and the common brown monkey are killed and used as their food. They do not kill or harm young animals and pregnant animals and they kill animals only for food.


They have given some names for their food. Some of them are,

• 'gona perume'  -  a sort of a sausage containing alternate layers    of meat and fat.
• 'goya-tel-perume'  -  the tail of the monitor lizard stuffed with fat obtained from its sides and roasted in embers.

They followed some ways to preserve food

• preserve meat by soaking it in honey
• preserve meat in the hollow of a tree, enclosing it with clay.

They considered January and February months as the season of yams and June and July months as the season of fruit and honey,Throughout the year they hunted.