78 BOMBAY NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 
poison gland in immediate connection with the perforated teeth. 
Nothing further was heard of the Heloderm until 1882, when a live 
specimen, 19 inches long, was presented to the Zoological Gardens 
by Sir John Lubbock. The arrival of this interesting stranger 
caused quite a little sensation at the time amongst the naturalists of 
Europe. Mr. Tegetmeier tells us that for some days it refused all 
kinds of food. A live frog, a guinea pig, and several rats, however 
fell victims to its bite. The frog died in convulsions immediately 
after it was bitten. The guinea pig (bitten in the hind leg) died 
convulsed in three minutes, while some young rats perished even 
more quickly. After a time it was found that eggs were the 
particular food which the Heloderm fancied, and these it disposed of 
very readily. It was expected that further systematic experiments 
would be made to test the poisonous character of this lizard, and 
that the results would be published. Whether such experiments 
have been made or not, and with what result I should be glad to 
know; for I have not been able to come across any record of them. 
Fortunately no “horrid” Heloderm has yet been found in India, 
nor any other lizard with similarly suspicious teeth, to justify the 
believers in the bis cobra. The origin of the belief in poisonous 
lizards in this country is not easy to trace. Dr. Shortt, writing of 
Southern India, thinks that a certain learned work in Tamil called 
? which can be had 
the Sittar Vedum, or work of the ‘‘ Seven Sages,’ 
in the bazaars for two or three annas, and which is a very popular 
book, is to a large extent responsible for the absurd beliefs of that 
part of the country. This book, he tells us, gives an account of all 
poisonous animals, including in the same category snakes, centipedes, 
spiders, beetles, lizards, dogs, cats, tigers, and monkeys. A similar 
work is said te exist in Ceylon. As regards Bombay, the Deccan, 
and the Konkan, I am inclined to think that Huropeans are quite as 
much, if not more responsible than, natives for the propagation of 
wild stories as to snakes and lizards. I have myself very seldom 
heard a native of these parts asserting the deadly character of any 
lizard, though they arevery ready to take away the character of the 
most innocent snakes. ‘The touch of a lizard is, I believe, generally 
considered a pollution by Hindus, but the bis cobra, according to” 
my experience, is a creature of Kuropean, quite as much as of native, 
imagination. Hindus, however, whether they believe any lizard to 
be venomous or not, have some wonderful superstitions concerning 
them, The omens portended by the various ways in which a lizard 
