The beggar said, "I caused a Water Snake to come down the tusk
elephant's trunk into the water-pot, and thus cured him."
Then the King went with the beggar to look at the Snake. When he
saw it in the water-pot he ascertained that the man's statement was
true. After that he gave offices to the beggar.
Tom-tom Beater. North-western Province.
Dr. J. Pearson, Director of the Colombo Museum, has been good enough
to inform me that the water-snake termed diya naya in Sinhalese (lit.,
Water Cobra) is Tropidonotus asperrimus. Though neither large nor
venomous, snakes of this species sometimes attacked my men when they
were bathing at a pool in a river, or endeavoured to carry off fishes
which they had placed in the water after stringing them through the
gills on a creeper. They did this even when the man held the other
end of the creeper.