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characteristic often ascribed to the Indian serpents without foun- 
dation. 
There was also at Anjengo a small black species of the amphis- 
boena, or double-headed snake. The tail is shaped and marked so 
like the head, as not to be easily distinguished from it. The idea of 
the amphisbcena having two heads, with perfect organs, is erroneous; 
but as it proceeds, at pleasure, with either head or tail foremost, 
this opinion has been adopted. The bite of this snake is also re- 
puted mortal by the natives; but being, like the former, destitute 
of fangs, the usual conveyance of a serpent’s poison, I am doubt- 
ful of its malignity. 
The houses at Anjengo, being mostly thatched with the matted 
leaves of the cocoa-nut tree, afford shelter to snakes, scorpions, 
centipedes, lizards, and insects of all descriptions. 
1 mentioned the termites, or white ants of Bombay; these 
extraordinary insects are far more numerous and destructive at 
Anjengo, where it is difficult to guard against their depredations: 
in a few hours they will demolish a large chest of books, papers, 
silk, or clothes, perforating them with a thousand holes: we dare 
not leave a box on the floor without placing it on glass bottles, 
which, if kept free from dust, they cannot ascend: this is trifling, 
when compared with the serious mischief they sometimes occasion, 
by penetrating the beams of a house, or destroying the timbers in 
a ship; 
Where in some gallant ship, that long has bore 
Britain’s victorious cross from shore to shore. 
By chance, beneath her close sequester’d cells 
Some low-born worm a lurking mischief dwells; 
3 A 
