THE PIMBERAH. 
87 
mon here. “ The body of this creature/’ says Knox, 
" is as big as a man’s middle, and the length propor- 
tionable. It is not swift, but by subtilty catches its 
prey. He lies in the path where the deer use to 
pass, and as they go, he claps hold of them by a kind 
of peg that grows on his tail, with which he strikes 
them. He will swallow a roebuck whole, horns and 
all, so that it happens sometimes the horns run 
through his belly, and kill him. A stag was caught 
by one of these pimberahs, which seized him by the 
buttock, and held him so fast that he could not get 
away, but ran a few steps this way and that way. 
An Indian seeing the stag run thus, supposed him in 
a snare, and having a gun, shot him ; at which he 
gave so strong a jerk, that it pulled the serpent’s head 
off, while his tail was encompassing a tree to hold the 
stag the better.” * 
In this account, the size of the animal, I should say, 
is somewhat exaggerated, as I believe the length sel- 
dom or never exceeds thirty feet, and the body ten 
inches in diameter, which however is not much below 
the size of the body of a small man. The boa con- 
strictor is much larger, and has been known to 
reach the extraordinary length of from eighty to one 
hundred feet, with a proportionate circumference. 
Our stay at Ceylon was very short, as we were 
anxious to proceed up that queen of streams the 
Ganges, in order that we might explore the country 
through which it passes, so rich in monuments of 
* In Cordiner’s History of Ceylon, this anecdote is quoted 
from Knox, who, though an inelegant writer, is allowed to have 
been an authentic historian. 
