We present the results of a pilot wide-field radial velocity and metal abundance survey of red giants in ten fields in the Small Magellanic Cloud ( SMC ) .
The targets lie at projected distances of 0.9 and 1.9 kpc from the SMC centre ( m - M = 18.79 ) to the North , East , South and West .
Two more fields are to the East at distances of 3.9 and 5.1 kpc .
In this last field we find only a few to no SMC giants , suggesting that the edge of the SMC in this direction lies approximately at 6 kpc from its centre .
In all eastern fields we observe a double peak in the radial velocities of stars , with a component at the classical SMC recession velocity of \sim 160 km s ^ { -1 } and a high velocity component at about 200 km s ^ { -1 } , similar to observations in H I .
In the most distant field ( 3.9 kpc ) the low velocity component is at 106 km s ^ { -1 } .
The metal abundance distribution in all fields is broad and centred at about [ Fe/H ] \sim - 1.25 , reaching to solar and possibly slightly supersolar values and down to [ Fe/H ] of about -2.5 .
In the two innermost ( 0.9 kpc ) Northern and Southern fields we observe a secondary peak at metallicities of about \sim - 0.6 .
This may be evidence of a second episode of star formation in the centre , possibly triggered by the interactions that created the Stream and Bridge .