90 
NATURE NOTES. 
of any medicine that may be famed for its restorative properties. 
The Chooras themselves appear to have little or no respect 
for religion ; they own, however, a sort of allegiance to a mytho- 
logical being, styled “ Googa Pir,” to whose worship there are 
several shrines up and down the country. 
These low caste Chooras are not an idle class by any means, 
but earn a livelihood by the weaving of a kind of coarse cloth 
and the manufacture of baskets. They make a great variety of 
these out of a reed grass called “ kannah” or “surpat,” known 
to botanists as Sacchamm procenim, and also from other 
grasses which Nature has so abundantly distributed through the 
tropical parts of the world. The largest basket they make is 
the “ thoung,” which is about two feet six inches in diameter, 
and is used by the farmers and others as a receptacle for clothes. 
It is provided with a lid. The next in size is the “kharrah,” 
used for farm purposes; then there are the “chujh,” and the 
smaller baskets for household use, as the parota, parotee and 
pirrie, which are ornamented with designs, executed rather 
prettily in different coloured threads. 
Just one word more in regard to these Punjabi lizard hunters, 
viz., as to their language. They speak Punjabi as a matter of 
course, but having no caste distinction, and being in a manner 
isolated, they have established among themselves a provincial 
form of speech which may be justly termed a debased Push- 
too. I give just one or two instances. In greeting one another 
for example, they say “ Tek muthay koon,” which answers to 
the “Salaam Alaikoom ” of the Moslems. They have also a 
peculiar slang; a policeman they call a “ mukhi ” or “fly,” for 
like the flies they say the police are a never ceasing tease and 
annoyance. When they see one of these officials they at once 
call out to their fellows, “ Ooret puret,” literally, here and there, 
or scatter yourselves and get out of the way. 
But enough, I must now pass on to describe briefly my other 
little lizard, the Draco volans, or “ flying dragon,” a won- 
derful little reptile with the general form and habits of its kind 
but possessed of a semi-circular membrane on either side of its 
body which it has the power to draw in or expand at pleasure. 
When seen crawling upon a tree it has all the appearance of an 
ordinary English lizard, but when desirous of making a spring 
to an adjoining tree, it extends this membrane so as to act as a 
sort of parachute. It does not use it as a bird does its wings, 
but merely to enable it to skim through the air, and so to sustain 
itself from falling to the earth when it makes its leap. 1 have 
often watched its movements where I have seen it in the Malay 
Peninsula, and have been always greatly interested — I might 
almost say impressed with wonder. This little creature rarely 
exceeds four inches in length without the tail, and is of a dark 
brown colour, shot witli a bluish grey. In the sunlight it has a 
sort of bright silky lustre, and when one is fortunate enough to 
catch it sailing in the air with its gossamer-like membrane, and 
