NOTES, LS7 
of this lizard have been registered in the Vital Statistics during the 
last ten years, a fact to which Mr. Julius drew public attention in a 
letter to the “Times of Ceylon,” dated 20th October, 1906. It 
seems to be assumed that because the deaths are attributed to the 
lizard, therefore they must be due to it, there being no suggestion 
of a faulty diagnosis. As a matter of fact the belief is interesting as 
folklore and as illustrating the tenacity of Brahminical mysticism in 
the affairs of common life. 
lf the following extracts from the papers which Mr. Julius has 
placed at my disposal do not speak for themselves, nothing more can 
be done from this side. So many deaths are reported as due to the 
hikanala, but how many are registered as being due to the effect of 
jivama ? The answer is: Not one. JI do not wish for one moment 
to cast ridicule upon this tradition. Its recognition in the serious 
columns of the Vital Statistics up to the present year of grace is 
indeed extraordinary, and may provide matter for a future chapter 
in zoological mythology. Having referred to the effects of jivama 
or sorcery, | may recount an incident which was related to me the 
other day by the Hon. Mr. G. M. Fowler, C.M.G., how that a huni- 
yam charm* in the form of an ola with cabalistic characters on it, 
directed against a servant in his employ at Jaffna some twenty-five 
years ago, had been buried at the entrance to the godown. The 
first living thing to pass over it the next morning was a valuable 
deer hound. Before the day was out the dog was accidentally shot, 
and the servant said that the dog, having passed over first, 
had saved his life. The charm was there and a life had been lost, 
post hoc ergo propter hoc. 
Mudaliyar A. Mendis Gunasekera quotes ‘the case of the death of 
a girl thirteen years old in the Galle District “‘ by poison caused 
by a hikanala licking one of her toes.” 
The Trustee of the Jayawardhana Kotte Raja Maha Vihare gives a 
list of seven [a mystic number] varieties of the lizard: Tel-hikanala, 
with oily scales ; Le-hikanala, bright red colour ; Petideka-hika- 
nala, the double-tailed hikanala known to be very poisonous ; 
Penda-rata hikanala, with a red tail [the Brahminy Lizard has a 
red tail when very young]; Polon-hikanala, spotted like the polonga : 
Kalu-hikanala, the black variety ; Gerandi-hikanala,“‘ the largest and 
the most harmless species, running away at the approach of man.” 
It is possible that several species of skinks are indicated by these 
names. The correspondent adds: “ It is stated in medical works 
dealing [with] snakes and their poisons that hikanalas are often 
hatched from the eggs of cobras, polongas, and mapilas, all highly 
venomous snakes.” I will not quote further from this part of the 
testimony, but will state for the public benefit that whatever the 




* 1am told that the term huniyam may be applied to all injurious charms 
which are buried in the ground. 
