CHAPTER XVI. 

 THE MURRAL. 



" Ah me ! what perils do environ 

 The man (? fish) that meddles with cold iron ! " 



BUTLER'S Hudibras. 



THE Murral or Marral, misspelt also marrel, murl, morrul, in the 

 various untutored efforts to transliterate the Hindustani name, is 

 the Ophiocephalus, or snake-headed, of Ichthyologists, and the Viral, 

 misspelt Verarl of Tamil, Hal Mars of Assam, and Owlu minu, I am 

 told, of Coorg ; and, to make all sure, here's his honour's likeness. 



I have been much exercised by this fish as to what is his proper 

 place, whether in this book or in " Tank Angling." I think the latter 

 has the stronger claims on him, for though he is in every river, he is 

 also in every reservoir ; not only because he enters them voluntarily 

 when they are river fed, but also because natives esteem him such 

 good eating, and find him so easy of transport, by reason of his being 

 so tenacious of life out of water, that they have introduced him into 

 every pond, fort-moat, or other reservoir in their neighbourhood, and 

 even into wells. Once introduced they will survive the annual drying- 

 up of a tank by sestivating, as will be seen below. So I think this 

 fish should be relegated to " Tank Angling." 



But as I have been charged, and I fear I must admit rightly charged, 

 with having therein treated him with little ceremony, I will here 

 endeavour to atone, adding only such matter as has been omitted from 

 "Tank Angling," and should appear in the next edition of it, and 

 referring my reader for the rest to that book. 



It is a funny compound, is the scientific name of this fish, and is 

 illustrative of many another scientific name, see p. 172, supra, for 

 which, by the way, I am not presuming to blame any one, but rather 



THE ROD IN INDIA. Q 



