DUBLIN VA.TVRAL HISTOBY 80CU£TT. 105 



then died, and at this period the most forward had the anterior extremities well 

 formed, and the situation of the posterior marked by a protuberanoe on each 

 side, as you may see. With respect to fecundation, my experience with regard 

 to this species goes to corroborate the opinion of Professor Bell, as opposed to 

 that of liuseoni and others, including Mr. Higginbottom, that is to say, it is 

 internal with actual contact. 



With respect to its distribution, this species is found through this entire 

 eonnty, eyen at considerable elevations above the sea. I have found them near 

 the summit of Howth, and in every quarry-hole among the Dublin and Wicklow 

 mountains. It is known by several names — in its aquatic state, as man-keepers, 

 man-eaters, dark-lewkers, daddy-lewkers, and art-lewkers; and in its terres- 

 trial stage as the dry ask lizard, and derrig na dawn. It is much earlier in 

 awaking from its hibernation and seeking the water here than in the midland 

 counties of England. I generally find them in the ponds in the Bishop's Fields 

 about the second week in February. In other parts of Ireland they are pretty 

 generally distributed. Thompson states, *' occurring from north to south, but 

 not generally distributed," and in his comparative list records it in Belfast, 

 Dubun, and the west. There are numerous specimens of this species, obtained 

 in the north, in the Ordnance Survey collection, now in the Museum of Irish In- 

 dustry. I have obtained it in, or received specimens from, the following 

 places : — North of Clare, rare ; south, common ; Tipperary, north, scarce ; 

 south, common; King's County, Kildare, Wicklow, Wexford (where it is also 

 called Evet) ; Kilkenny, on the authority of the Rev. J. Graves, who informs me 

 it there goes by the name of dark-lewker, which, he suggests, is derived either 

 from dearc, a reptile, and leucair, brightness, i.e. the shining reptile ; or from 

 luacrac, a rush, i.e. the reptile dwelling in rushy places — by this name it is 

 known all over Ireland. It is also, I am informed, found in Louth and the 

 Queen's County. It is omitted in the Catalogue of the Cork Cuvierian Society, 

 and I searched for it unsuccessfully about Youghal and Ardmore, though I have 

 reason to believe it is found in part, at least, of the county of Waterford. Rutty, 

 in his ♦♦ Natural History of Dublin," mentions this animal among "the quadru- 

 peds," in its two states, as distinct species : 1st, the Dry Ask, or man-keeper. 

 2nd, the Water Ask, or arglogher (the last manifestly the same word as dark- 

 lewker, which name, in some parts of the county of Dublin, is pronounced art- 

 looker). He mentions, for the purpose of contradiction, two traditions con- 

 nected with it as current in his time — 1st, That it is poisonous ; 2nd« That it 

 can live in the midst of fire. With respect to its popular name, I find some of 

 the lower orders call both the Dry Ask and the Water Ask, man-keeper or man- 

 eater, while the names dark-lewker. Sec, are restricted to the animal in its aqua- 

 tic state. In Scotland, in Craelic, the animal is also called Dearc luachrach. 



This brings me to the third part of my paper, viz., the Superstitions connected 

 with this animal. There are several of them curious and interesting, as having 

 a connexion with the religious belief of the former inhabitants of this country, 

 and which are now fast dying away. In almost every part of the country we find 

 these animals looked on with disgust and horror, if not with dread. This arises 

 from two superstitions — one, common to a great part of Ireland, relating chiefly 

 to the animal in its aquatic state, and which in the county of Dublin has earned 

 for it the names of man-eater and man-keeper, though the dry ask of the county 

 of Dublin, i.e. the animal in its terrestrial stage, is supposed to be equally guilty 

 with the first-mentioned in the habit of going down the throats of those people 

 who are so silly as either to go to sleep in the fields, with their mouths open, or 

 to drink from the streams in which the dark-lewkers harbour. They are also 

 said to be swallowed by the thirsty cattle ; in consequence, the country people 

 kill them wherever they meet them on land, and poison the stream the v are found 

 in by putting lime into the cattle's drinking pools. In either case the result is 

 the same; the animal taking up his quarters in his victim's interior — in some 

 way, it would puzzle a physiologist to explain how— it contrives to live on the 

 nutriment taken by the luckless individual or animal, so that, deprived of its 



