THE HYPODERMATIKOSYRINGOPHOROI. 205 



without them. By inquiry among natives I have learned a 

 few remarkable facts about it, as, for instance, that it has 

 eight legs, and is a hybrid between a cobra and that 

 gigantic lizard commonly miscalled an iguana ; but last 

 year a brood of them suddenly appeared in Dustypore, 

 and I saw several. The first was killed by some of the 

 bravest of my own men with stones, for it can spring four 

 feet, and no one may approach it without hazard of life. 

 Even when dead it is exceedingly dangerous, but, with my 

 usual hardihood, I examined it. It was nine inches long, 

 and in appearance like a pretty brownish lizard spotted 

 with yellow. It has no trace of poison-fangs, but I was 

 assured that an animal so deadly could dispense with these. 

 If it simply spits at a man his fate is sealed, for, excepting 

 a few cunning Bengalees, no one knows any muntra, or 

 charm, which has power against it. Aftenvards one ap- 

 peared in my own garden, and I made an attempt to cap- 

 ture it alive with my butterfly-net, my devoted butler's 

 hair turning grey as he watched me from a great distance ; 

 but the biscobra got off into a hole. It escaped me once 

 or twice again, and then, finding I was bent on catching it, 

 it gradually changed colour, like a chameleon, and grew 

 larger at the same time, until in a few weeks it had de- 



