THE ZOOLOaiST 



^V,,. 001^ — Jfdii 15th, 1916. 



HINDU ZOOLOGICAL BELIEFS. 

 By W. Eae Sherriffs, 



Professor of Zoology, Madras Christian College. 



To the British student of zoology the various animals dealt 

 •with in the college course have no meaning outside their value 

 in the science itself. On the other hand, the Indian student 

 •of zoology cannot but remember, many a time in the course 

 of his reading and of his work, stories of the part played by 

 animals in the annals of his native land. 



In the following pages we shall record some of the prevalent 

 beliefs concerning animals, their uses, and the role they play in 

 the mythology of South India. For this purpose, then, it will be 

 sufficient to take the animal kingdom as divided into the two main 

 groups, vertebrates and invertebrates, and to discuss under each 

 phylum those animals which have a special interest for us. 



Invertebrates. 



All the early phyla, the Protozoa, Porifera, Coelentera, and 

 the various groups of Worms, give us no animal of sufficient 

 importance to be recorded in any tale or used in any particular 

 way. That the first lot, the Protozoa, the smallest and earliest 

 of animals, should be omitted is not surprising, for most are 

 microscopic, and in the days when the great epics, the 

 Zool. 4th ser., vol. XX., July, 1916. v 



