MISCELLANEOUS NOTES. 381 



iug being shelly, the inner Meat Carnous, its way of preserving its kind being 

 by Eggs as the Feathered Fowl do : To me it seems (though the Flesh be 

 highly extolled for the taste and colour of Veal) neither Fish, nor Flesh, nor 

 good Red Herring." 



In the winter of 1675 Fryer travelled down the coast visiting Goa, Karwar, 

 and other places. At a village called Mirja he had an adventure with a 

 Snake, evidently a King Cobra. " Being tired and lying to repose on the 

 Bank of the River, under a shady Tree, I was made at by an unsizable Snake 

 which hardly escaped, had it not hissed with an unheard-of Noise before me, 

 which, rouzing me, made me shift its speedy Course, as it angrily gathered up 

 its Body, and darted itself into the Flags on the Pdver Side ; these Creatures 

 are dreadful to the inhabitants, and when I related my hazard, they wondered 

 I came off so, there being of them big enough to master the largest Animals. 

 After my Danger was over, I was told she had a Nest in that place, it being 

 lately turned into a Burial-place ; here, by the by^ might be noted what Pliny 

 writes, to wit, that Snakes are generated out of Human Brains putrifying,'' 

 At Karwar meat apparently was scarce, no beef or mutton was obtainable 

 and if they required flesh or fowl they had to get it themselves. Water-fowls, 

 peacock, green pidgeons, spotted deer, sabre, wild hogs and sometimes wild 

 cows formed the bag on their shooting excursions, and a strange adventure 

 with a tiger is related. " One of our Soldiers, a youth, killed a Tigre-Royal ; 

 it was brought home by Thirty or Forty Combies, the Body tied to a long 

 Bamboo, the Tail extended ; so, they brought it to the House, where we saw 

 'twas wounded in Three places, one through the Head with Two Bullets, 

 another through the Body slanting up to the shoulders, a third in the leg ; it 

 was a Tiger of the Biggest and Noblest Kind, Five Feet in Length beside the 

 Tail, Three and-an-half in height, it was of a light yellow, streaked with 

 black, like a Tabby cat, the Ears short with a few Bristles about the Lips : the 

 Visage Fierce and Majestic, the Teeth gnashing, Two of which she broke 

 against the Stones for Anguish, the Shoulders and Forelegs thin and well-set, 

 the Paw as large as the biggest Fist stretched out, the Clavs thick and strong 



" The Boy shot it in the night from a Chouse or Estarzo, as it came to drink 

 supposing it to have been a Deer ; the first shot was that under the Shoulder, 

 which made her spring three times an incredible height, at the last of which 

 ^he fell into the Chouse, from whence she shaw the Flash, where with the Eng- 

 lish Boy were a Comby and a Comby Boy of eight Years old asleep a little on 

 one side ; she pawed the Stem with her Feet, while all but the Child asleep 

 fled ; but being wrung with her Pain, she soon left the place with an horrible 

 Noise, that made the Woods tremble, all which awaked not the Lad, nor had 

 it any Harm. 



" In this interval, the English youth charged again with a couple of Slugs, and 

 tracing the Blood, as she was making at him, discharged through the Brain- 

 pan, at which she was quiet ; but to make sure, he made another Shot at her 

 which he believed was that in the Leg ; all this time the Moon was obscured 

 H 



