CHAP. III.] 



LIZARDS. 



183 



spotted, formerly obtained amongst naturalists the 

 name of Monitor exanthemata, and it is curious that 

 the native appellation of this one, Kabra 1 , is suggestive 

 of the same idea. The Singhalese, on a strictly homoeo- 

 pathic principle, believe that its fat, externally applied, 

 is a cure for cutaneous disorders, but that taken in- 

 wardly it is poisonous. 2 It is one of the incidents that 

 seem to indicate that Ceylon belongs to a separate circle 

 of physical geography, that this lizard has not hitherto 

 been discovered on the continent of Hindustan, though it 

 is found to the eastward in Burmah. 3 



Blood-suckers. These, however, are but the stranger's 

 introduction to innumerable varieties of lizards, all most 

 attractive in their sudden movements, and some unsur- 

 passed in the brilliancy of their colouring, which bask on 

 banks, dart over rocks, and peer curiously out of the 



1 In the Mahawanso the hero, Tisso, 

 is said to have been " afflicted with 

 a cutaneous complaint which made 

 his skin scaly like that of the godho." 

 Ch. xxiv. p. 148. "Godho" is the 

 Pali name for the Kabra-goya. 



2 In the preparation of the mys- 

 terious poison, the Cobra-tel, which 

 is regarded with so much horror by the 

 Singhalese, the unfortunate Kabra- 

 goya is forced to take a painfully pro- 

 minent part. The receipt, as writ- 

 ten down by a Kandyan, was sent to 

 me from Kornegalle, by Mr. Morris, 

 in 1840; and in dramatic arrange- 

 ment it far outdoes the cauldron of 

 Macbettis witches. The ingredients 

 are extracted from venomous snakes, 

 the Cobra de Capello (from which 

 it takes its name), the Carawella, 

 and the Tic polonga, by making 

 an incision in the head and sus- 

 pending the reptiles over a chattie to 

 collect the poison. To this, arsenic 

 and other drugs are added, and the 

 whole is to be " boiled in a human 

 skull, with the aid of the three 

 Kabra-goyas, which are tied on three 

 sides of the fire, with their heads 

 directed towards it, and tormented 

 by whips to make them hiss, so that 

 the fire may blaze. The froth from 



their lips is then to be added to the 

 boiling mixture, and so soon as an 

 oily scum rises to the surface, the 

 cobra-tel is complete." 



Although it is obvious that the 

 arsenic is the main ingredient in the 

 poison, Mr. Morris reported to me 

 that this mode of preparing it was 

 actually practised in his district ; 

 and the above account was trans- 

 mitted by him apropos to the murder 

 of a Mohatal and his wife, which was 

 then under investigation, and which 

 had been committed with the cobra- 

 tel. Before commencing the ope- 

 ration of preparing the poison, a 

 cock is first sacrificed to the yakhos 

 or demons. 



3 In corroboration of the view pro- 

 pounded elsewhere (see pp. 7, 84, 

 &c.), and opposed to the popular 

 belief that Ceylon, at some remote 

 period, was detached from the conti- 

 nent of India by the interposition of 

 the sea, a list of reptiles will be found 

 at p. 203, including, not only indivi- 

 dual species, but whole genera pecu- 

 liar to the island, and not to be found 

 on the mainland. See a paper by 

 DR. A. GUNTHER on The Geog. Dis- 

 tribution of Reptiles, Magaz. Nat. Hist, 

 for March, 1859, p. 230. 



H 4 



