144 ZOOLOGY. [PART II. 



in Ceylon is inferior to that of India. The Palm-cat 1 

 lurks by day among the fronds of the coco-nut palms, 

 and by night makes destructive forays on the fowls of the 

 villagers ; and, in order to suck the blood of its victim, 

 inflicts a wound so small as to be almost imperceptible. 

 The glossy genette 2 , the " Civet" of Europeans, is common 

 in the northern province, where the Tamils confine it 

 in cages for the sake of its musk, which they collect 

 from the wooden bars on whicli it rubs itself. Edrisi, the 

 Moorish geographer, writing in the twelfth century, enu- 

 merates musk as one of the productions then exported from 

 Ceylon. 3 



Dogs. There is no native wild dog in Ceylon, but 

 every village and town is haunted by mongrels of Eu- 

 ropean descent, that are known by the generic descrip- 

 tion of Pariahs. They are a miserable race, acknowledged 

 by no owners, living on the garbage of the streets 

 and sewers, lean, wretched, and mangy, and if spoken 

 to unexpectedly, they shrink with an almost involuntary 

 cry. Yet in these persecuted outcasts there survives 

 that germ of instinctive affection which binds the dog 

 to the human race, and a gentle word, even a look of com- 

 passionate kindness, is sufficient foundation for a lasting 

 attachment. 



The Singhalese, from their religious aversion to taking 

 away life in any form, permit the increase of these 

 desolate creatures till in the hot season they become so 

 numerous as to be a nuisance ; and the only expedient 

 hitherto devised by the civil government to reduce 

 their numbers, is once in each year to offer a reward 

 for their destruction, when the Tamils and Malays 

 pursue them in the streets with clubs (guns being 

 forbidden by the police for fear of accidents),' and the 

 unresisting dogs are beaten to death on the side-paths 

 and door steps, where they had been taught to resort 



Paradoxurus typus, F. Cuv. I 3 EDRISI, G'eoc/r., sec. vii. Jau- 



Viverra Indica, Gcoffr., Hwlyson. \ Lert's translation, t. ii. p. 72. 



