I S L A N D O F C E Y L O N. 199 



a fpring from bough to bongh. It does not appear that they 

 attack mankind, but rather ghde from his approach : but 

 the Indians have the fame notion as the Arabs have, of its being 

 a flying ferpent. 



The Poifon- Snake is only two feet long, and very flender, Poison-Snake. 

 and freckled with pale brown or red. Its bite brings death as 

 rapidly as Lucan''s Volucer ferpens. Our author faw a Gentoo 

 bit by one. The fufFerer could only give a Oiriek, and advance 

 a few fteps, when he fell down dead. 



The Burning-ferpent feems to poflefs the dreadful poifon of Burning-Ser- 

 three fpecies : It gives by its bite the fymptoms of raging fire, ^^^^* 

 like the Torrida dip/as. It caufes, at other times, the blood to 

 flow through every pore, like the i/2:;;zorrZ'(3yj' ; at other times> 

 to caufe fwelling like the PreJIer, and to incite racking pains ; 

 at length, by a happy numbnefs, death brings kindly relief to 

 the miferable fufterer. The Reverend Edzvard 'Terry * faw a 

 criminal put to death at Amedavad^ with all the effedts of the 

 bite of the Dip/as and of the Prejler. This fpecies much re- 

 fembles the laft in form ; both inhabit dry, hot, and rocky 

 places ; and live on infects full of faline and acrimonious parti- 

 cles, which cannot fail of exalting the virus of the ferpents that 

 make them their food. 



Our great Ray^ Syn. §luadr. 331, enumerates feveral of the 

 Ceylonefe ferpents : one is the Oehcetulla, i. e. ocuUs infejius, the 

 very fame with that defcribed above, under the name of Javelol. 



The Ninypolonga is the fame with the Afp, which kills the 

 perfon it bites, by flinging him into an endlefs fleep. 



* Voyage, in 1615, p. 381. 



The 



