19 



of neat whisky all this time. Then my leg went 

 quite numb, so I limped across to the writing table 

 and drew up a will, which he signed. Just as I had 

 finished the pains came on ; I writhed in my chair 



in agony All this time the " boy ^' was 



rubbing my leg with limes, but I could feel nothing. 

 After finishing a whole bottle of raw whisky I got 

 more or less drunk, which is the only thing to do 



under the circumstances I soon went 



to sleep, then began to turn grey, and my pulse 

 stopped beating. The doctor injected strychnine 

 and started things off again. My friend resigned 

 himself to the fact that I was pegging out, when 

 the local barber, a Tamil, ran up, saying he could 



cure master He produced a small 



black stone shaped like an almond 



First of all, passing the palms of his hands from 

 my head to my feet several times, as if hypnotising 

 me, he then placed the stone on the bitten place, 

 where it stuck like a limpet. After several hours 

 he took off the stone with great difficulty and 

 placed it in some milk, which was quickly impreg- 

 nated with the poison. He told me that I had 

 been undoubtedly bitten by a ticpolonga. In the 

 middle of the night the pains returned, and my 

 friend sent off at once for the barber, who went 

 through the same operation as before, telling me 

 that the stone would drop off by itself in twelve 

 hours. He applied the stone at twenty-five 

 minutes after midnight, and it dropped off at 

 twenty minutes to one the following afternoon ! 

 My leg is now sound again, and, except for 

 occasional cramp, causes me no trouble." 



Mr. E. E. Green, of Peradeniya, in reference 

 to the poisonous snakes of Ceylon, writes as 

 follows : — 



*' But we have more than one species of 

 venomous snake, the bite of which is seldom, if 



