268 TWO YEARS IN THE JUNGLE. 



into my eyes and caused tliem to smart and inflame painfully. At 

 times we actually gasped for breath. I afterward learned that on 

 that very day my new friend, Mr. Leys, of the Jaffna bank, died of 

 sunstroke while hunting in just such jungle as that, on the other 

 side of the island from me, near Manaar. It " gave me quite a 

 turn," as the English say, when I heard the news and compared 

 the dates. 



Not more than a mile from the village, in a bit of the same low, 

 sandy jungle common all along the coast, I saw the bones of two 

 elephants, a cow, and a calf, which the villagers say wandered 

 thither from the interior and jDcrished for the want of water. It 

 may be true. 



My reward for the hot day's work mentioned above was two fine 

 monkeys, one, a pretty little rilawa, or bonneted macaque [Maca- 

 cus pileatus), and the other a big, fat, gray, wanderoo [Semnopithe- 

 ciis leucoprymus), and a black-naped hare [LepuH nigricoUis). In 

 my short jungle excursions round the village I shot specimens of 

 jackal [Ganis aureus), mungoos {Herpestes griseus), grizzly squirrel 

 {S. macrourus), and jungle strijDed squirrel (S. tristriatus). I once 

 encountered a large troop of wandei'oos within half a mile of the 

 village, two of which were added to my collection. 



As usual, I encouraged the natives to hunt and trap quadrupeds 

 for me, and they brought me a number of very desirable speci- 

 mens, among which was a very pretty little muntjac {Gervulus au- 

 reus), two civet cats ( Viverra malaccensis), and a live loris (Loris 

 gracilis), a most curious little animal. The most valuable and in- 

 teresting of all the specimens I obtained at Mullaitivu was a hve 

 manis or pengolin (Manis pi^ntadactyla), caught by a native thirty- 

 six miles away. By good luck its captor had heard of me, and that 

 I bought all kinds of animals, and, being an enterprising fellow, he 

 carried it in a bag all that distance to offer me. I gave him a 

 month's wages for the animal, five rupees, and enough coppers ad- 

 ditional to enable him to carry home his silver intact. He was 

 quite delighted with his sale, I equally so with my purchase, and 

 we parted with mutual blessings. 



My new pet evidently expected fair treatment at our hands, for 

 he soon uncoiled himself and stood up for examination. He was 

 just three feet long, including his tail — which by itself measured 

 seventeen inches — and his weight was eighteen pounds. This tail 

 was a most useful appendage, for it was very broad, measuring five 

 and a half inches across where it joined the body, slightly hoi- 



