Chap. IX.] TUETLES. 293 
of such a size as to measure between four and five 
feet in length ; and on one occasion, in riding along 
the sea-shore north of Putlam, I saw a man in charge 
of some sheep, resting under the shade of a turtle shell, 
which he had erected on sticks to protect him from the 
sun — almost verifying the statement of iElian, that in 
the seas off Ceylon there are tortoises so large that 
several persons may find ample shelter beneath a single 
shell. 1 
The hawksbill-turtle 2 , which supplies the tortoise-shell 
of commerce, was at former times taken in great num- 
bers in the vicinity of Hambangtotte during the season 
when they came to deposit their eggs. This gave rise 
to the trade in tortoise-shell at Point de G alle, where it 
is still manufactured into articles of ornament by the 
Moors; but the shell they employ is almost entirely 
imported from the Maldives. 
If taken from the animal after death and decomposi- 
tion, the colour of the shell becomes clouded and milky, 
and hence the cruel expedient is resorted to of seizing 
the turtles as they repair to the shore to deposit their 
eggs, and suspending them over fires till heat makes the 
plates on the dorsal shields start from the bone of the 
carapace, after which the creature is permitted to escape 
to the water. 3 In illustration of the resistless influence 
1 "TiKTovraL 8e &pa iv rctiry rrj referred to some tradition con- 
SaAaTTj?, fccti x eX&yal y-syurrai, nected with the gigantic fossilised 
Sivirep olv rh eXvrpa opotpoi yiuov- species discovered on the Sewalik 
raf Kai ydp iari koL irevreKaiSeKa Hills, the remains of which are now 
•jt7?x«v y x € ^vhov, ® s viroiKeiv ovk in the Museum at the East India 
dAiyovs, Kai robs f)\lovs nvpcaSe- House? 
o-tcitovs a-rroo-reyei, ical aKihv aa/Aevots 2 Caretta imbricata, Linn, 
irapexe'" — Lib. xvi. c. 17. iElian 3 At Celebes, whence the finest 
copied this statement literatim from tortoise-shell is exported to China, 
Megasthenes, Indica Frag. lix. the natives kill the turtle by blows 
31. May not Megasthenes have on the head, and immerse the shell 
u 3 
