ON" THE PANGOLIN', &ZC , 377 



vermine ; and in the ftomach of the animal before us 

 was found about a teacupful of fmall (tones, which 

 had probably been fwallowed for the purpofe of faci- 

 litating digeftion : but the name alludes, I believe, to 

 the hardnefs of the fcales ; for Vajraci'ta means, in San- 

 Jirit, the diamond or thunderbolt reptile ; and Vajra is a 

 common figure in the Indian poetry for any thing ex- 

 ceflively hard. The Vajraciia is believed by the Pandits 

 to be the animal which gnaws their facred /lone, -called 

 Sdlgrdma's'ild ; but the pangolin has apparently no teeth ; 

 and the Sdlgrdms, many of which look as if they had 

 beeu worm-eaten, are perhaps only decayed in part by 

 expofure to the air. 



This animal had a long tongue, fhaped like that of 

 a cameleon; and if it was nearly adult, as we may 

 conclude from the young one found in it, the dimenfions 

 of it were much lefs than thofe which Buffon alfigns 

 generally to his pa ngoli n; for he defcribes its length as 

 fix, feven, or eight feet, including the tail, which is 

 almoft, he fays, as long as the body, when it has at- 

 tained its full growth ; whereas ours is but thirty-four 

 inches long, from the extremity of the tail to the point 

 of the fnout, and the length of the tail is fourteen 

 inches; but, exclufively of the head, which is five inches 

 long, the tail and body are, indeed, nearly of the fame 

 length ; and the fmall difference between them may 

 (how, if Bvjfoii be correct in this point, that the animal 

 was young. The circumference of its body in the 

 thickeft partis twenty inches, and that of the tail only 

 twelve. 



We cannot venture to fay more of this extraordinary 

 creature, which feems to constitute the fidt ftep from 

 the quadruped to the reptile, until we have examined 

 it alive, and obfcrved its different inRincts ; but as wc 

 are affured that it is common in the country round 



Vol. I. D d Khan pur f 



