presence of man, never intruding on him voluntarily, and making a
hasty retreat when approached. Instances have, however, occurred of
individuals having been slain by them; and it is believed, that,
having once tasted human blood, they, like the tiger, acquire an
habitual relish for it. A peon, on duty by night at the court-house of
Anarajapoora, was some years ago carried off by a leopard from a table
in the verandah on which he had laid down his head to sleep. At
Batticaloa a "cheetah" in two instances in succession was known to
carry off men placed on a stage erected in a tree to drive away
elephants from rice-land: but such cases are rare, and, as compared
with their dread of the bear, the natives of Ceylon entertain but
slight apprehensions of the "cheetah." It is, however, the dread of
sportsmen, whose dogs when beating in the jungle are especially
exposed to its attacks: and I am aware of an instance in which a party
having tied their dogs to the tent-pole for security, and fallen
asleep round them, a leopard sprang into the tent and carried
off a dog from the midst of its slumbering masters. On one occasion
being in the mountains near Kandy, a messenger despatched to me
through the jungle excused his delay by stating that a "cheetah" had
seated itself in the only practicable path, and remained quietly
licking its fore paws and rubbing them over its face, till he was
forced to drive it, with stones, into the forest.
Leopards are strongly attracted by the peculiar odour which
accompanies small-pox. The reluctance of the natives to submit
themselves or their children to vaccination exposes the island to
frightful visitations of this disease; and in the villages in the
interior it is usual on such occasions to erect huts in the jungle to
serve as temporary hospitals. Towards these the leopards are certain
to be allured; and the medical officers are obliged to resort to
increased precautions in consequence. This fact is connected with a
curious native superstition. Amongst the avenging scourges sent direct
from the gods, the Singhalese regard both the ravages of the leopard,
and the visitation of the small-pox. The latter they call _par
excellence "maha ledda_," the great "sickness;" they look upon it
as a special manifestation of _devidosay_, "the displeasure of
the gods;" and the attraction of the cheetahs to the bed of the
sufferer they attribute to the same indignant agency. A few years ago,
the capua, or demon-priest of a "dewale," at Oggalbodda, a village
near Caltura, when suffering under small-pox, was devoured by a
cheetah, and his fate was regarded by those of an opposite faith as a
special judgment from heaven.
Such is the awe inspired by this belief in connection with the
small-pox, that a person afflicted with it is always approached as one
in immediate communication with the deity; his attendants, address him
as "my lord," and "your lordship," and exhaust on him the whole series
of honorific epithets in which their language abounds for approaching
personages of the most exalted rank. At evening and morning, a lamp is
lighted before him, and invoked with prayers to protect his family from
the dire calamity which has befallen himself. And after his recovery,
his former associates refrain from communication with him until a
ceremony shall have been performed by the capua, called
_awasara-pandema_, or "the offering of lights for permission," the
object of which is to entreat permission of the deity to regard him as
freed from the divine displeasure, with liberty to his friends to renew
their intercourse as before.
Major SKINNER, who for upwards of forty years has had occasionally to
live for long periods in the interior, occupied in the prosecution of
surveys and the construction of roads, is strongly of opinion that the
disposition of the leopard towards man is essentially pacific, and
that, when discovered, its natural impulse is to effect its escape. In
illustration of this I insert an extract from one of his letters,
which describes an adventure highly characteristic of this instinctive
timidity:--
"On the occasion of one of my visits to Adam's Peak, in the prosecution
of my military reconnoissances of the mountain zone, I fixed on a pretty
little patena (_i.e._, meadow) in the midst of an extensive and dense
forest in the southern segment of the Peak Range, as a favourable spot
for operations. It would have been difficult, after descending from the
cone of the peak, to have found one's way to this point, in the midst of
so vast a wilderness of trees, had not long experience assured me that
good game tracks would be found leading to it, and by one of them I
reached it. It was in the afternoon, just after one of those tropical
sunshowers that decorate every branch and blade with pendant brilliants,
and the little patena was covered with game, either driven to the open
space by the drippings from the leaves or tempted by the freshness of
the pasture: there were several pairs of elk, the bearded antlered male
contrasting finely with his mate; and other varieties of game in a
profusion not to be found in any place frequented by man. It was some
time before I would allow them to be disturbed by the rude fall of the
axe, in our necessity to establish our bivouac for the night, and they
were so unaccustomed to danger that it was long before they took alarm
at our noises.
"The following morning, anxious to gain a height for my observations
in time to avail myself of the clear atmosphere of sunrise, I started
off by myself through the jungle, leaving orders for my men, with my
surveying instruments, to follow my track by the notches which I cut
in the bark of the trees. On leaving the plain, I availed myself of a
fine wide game track which lay in my direction, and had gone, perhaps,
half a mile from the camp, when I was startled by a slight rustling in
the nilloo[1] to my right, and in another instant, by the spring of a
magnificent leopard, which, in a bound of full eight feet in height
over the lower brushwood, lighted at my feet within eighteen inches of
the spot whereon I stood, and lay in a crouching position, his fiery
gleaming eyes fixed on me.
[Footnote 1: A species of one of the suffruticose _Acanthaccæ_
(Strobilanthes), which grows, abundantly in the mountain ranges of
Ceylon.]
"The predicament was not a pleasant one. I had no weapon of defence, and
with one spring or blow of his paw the beast could have annihilated me.
To move I knew would only encourage his attack. It occurred to me at the
moment that I had heard of the power of man's eye over wild animals, and
accordingly I fixed my gaze as intently as the agitation of such a
moment enabled me on his eyes: we stared at each other for some seconds,
when, to my inexpressible joy, the beast turned and bounded down the
straight open path before me. This scene occurred just at that period of
the morning when the grazing animals retired from the open patena to the
cool shade of the forest: doubtless, the leopard had taken my approach
for that of a deer, or some such animal. And if his spring had been at a
quadruped instead of a biped, his distance was so well measured, that it
must have landed him on the neck of a deer, an elk, or a buffalo; as it
was, one pace more would have done for me. A bear would not have let his
victim off so easily."
Notwithstanding the unequalled agility of the monkey, it falls a prey,
and not unfrequently, to the leopard. The latter, on approaching a tree
on which a troop of monkeys have taken shelter, causes an instant and
fearful excitement, which they manifest by loud and continued screams,
and incessant restless leaps from branch to branch. The leopard
meanwhile walks round and round the tree, with his eyes firmly fixed
upon his victims, till at last exhausted by terror, and prostrated by
vain exertions to escape, one or more falls a prey to his voracity. So
rivetted is the attention of both during the struggle, that a sportsman,
on one occasion, attracted by the noise, was enabled to approach within
an uncomfortable distance of the leopard, before he discovered the cause
of the unusual dismay amongst the monkeys overhead.
It is said, but I have never been able personally to verify the fact,
that the leopard of Ceylon exhibits a peculiarity in being unable
entirely to retract its claws within their sheaths.
There is another piece of curious folk lore, in connexion with the
leopard. The natives assert that it devours the _kaolin_ clay
called by them _kiri-mattie_[1] in a very peculiar way. They say
that the cheetah places it in lumps beside him, and then gazes
intently on the sun, till on turning his eyes on the clay, every piece
appears of a red colour like flesh, when he instantly devours it.
[Footnote 1: See Sir J.E. TENNENT'S _Ceylon_, vol. i. p. 31.]
They likewise allege that the female cheetah never produces more than
one litter of whelps.
Of the _lesser feline species_, the number and variety in Ceylon
is inferior to those of India. The Palm-cat[1] lurks by day among the
fronds of the coco-nut palms, and by night makes destructive forays on
the fowls of the villagers; and, in order to suck the blood of its
victim, inflicts a wound so small as to be almost imperceptible. The
glossy genette[2], the "_Civet_" of Europeans, is common in the
northern province, where the Tamils confine it in cages for the sake
of its musk, which they collect from the wooden bars on which it rubs
itself. Edrisi, the Moorish geographer, writing in the twelfth
century, enumerates musk as one of the productions then exported from
Ceylon.[3]
[Footnote 1: Paradoxurus typus, _F. Cuv._]
[Footnote 2: Viverra Indica, _Geoffr., Hodgs._]
[Footnote 3: EDRISI, _Géogr._ sec. vii. Jauberts's translation,
t. ii. p. 72. In connexion with cats, a Singhalese gentleman has
described to me a plant in Ceylon, called _Cuppa-mayniya_ by the
natives; by which he says cats are so enchanted, that they play with
it as they would with, a captured mouse; throwing if into the air,
watching it till it falls, and crouching to see if it will move. It
would be worth inquiring into the truth of this; and the explanation
of the attraction.]
_Dogs_.--There is no native wild dog in Ceylon, but every village
and town is haunted by mongrels of European descent, that are known by
the generic description of _Pariahs_. They are a miserable race,
lean, wretched, and mangy, acknowledged by no owners, living on the
garbage of the streets and sewers, and if spoken to unexpectedly they
shrink with an almost involuntary cry. Yet in these persecuted
outcasts there survives that germ of instinctive affection which binds
the dog to the human race, and a gentle word, even a look of
compassionate kindness, is sufficient foundation for a lasting
attachment.
The Singhalese, from their religious aversion to taking away life in any
form, permit the increase of these desolate creatures till in the hot
season they become so numerous as to be a nuisance; and the only
expedient hitherto devised by the civil government to reduce their
numbers, is once in each year to offer a reward for their destruction,
when the Tamils and Malays pursue them in the streets with clubs (guns
being forbidden by the police for fear of accidents), and the
unresisting dogs are beaten to death on the side-paths and door-steps
where they had been taught to resort for food. Lord Torrington, during
his government of Ceylon, attempted the more civilised experiment of
putting some check on their numbers, by imposing a dog-tax, the effect
of which would have been to lead to the drowning of puppies; whereas
there is reason to believe that dogs are at present _bred_ by the
horse-keepers to be killed for sake of the reward.
The Pariahs of Colombo exhibit something of the same instinct, by
which the dogs in other eastern cities partition the towns into
districts, each apportioned to a separate pack, by whom it is
jealously guarded from the encroachments of all intruders. Travellers
at Cairo and Constantinople are often startled at night by the racket
occasioned by the demonstrations made by the rightful possessors of a
locality in repelling its invasion by some straggling wanderer. At
Alexandria, in 1844, the dogs had multiplied to such an inconvenient
extent, that Mehemet Ali, to abate the nuisance, caused them to be
shipped in boats and conveyed to one of the islands at the mouth of
the Nile. But the streets, thus deprived of their habitual patroles,
were speedily infested by dogs from the suburbs, in such numbers that
the evil became greater than before, and in the following year, the
legitimate denizens were recalled from their exile in the Delta, and
speedily drove back the intruders within their original boundary. May
not this disposition of the dog be referable to the impulse by which,
in a state of nature, each pack appropriates its own hunting-fields
within a particular area? and may not the impulse which, even in a
state of domestication, they still manifest to attack a passing dog
upon the road, be a remnant of this localised instinct, and a
concomitant dislike of intrusion?
_Jackal_.--The Jackal[1] in the low country of Ceylon hunts thus in
packs, headed by a leader, and these audacious prowlers have been seen
to assault and pull down a deer. The small number of hares in the
districts they infest is ascribed to their depredations. In the legends
of the natives, and in the literature of the Buddhists, the jackal in
Ceylon is as essentially the type of cunning as the fox is the emblem of
craft and adroitness in the traditions of Europe. In fact, it is more
than doubtful whether the jackal of the East be not the creature alluded
to, in the various passages of the Sacred Writings which make allusion
to the artfulness and subtlety of the "fox."
[Footnote 1: Canis Aureus, _Linn._]
These faculties they display in a high degree in their hunting
expeditions, especially in the northern portions of the island, where
they are found in the greatest numbers. In these districts, where the
wide sandy plains are thinly covered with brushwood, the face of the
country is diversified by patches of thick jungle and detached groups
of trees, that form insulated groves and topes. At dusk, or after
nightfall, a pack of jackals, having watched a hare or a small deer
take refuge in one of these retreats, immediately surround it on all
sides; and having stationed a few to watch the path by which the game
entered, the leader commences the attack by raising the unearthly cry
peculiar to their race, and which resembles the sound _okkay!_
loudly and rapidly repeated. The whole party then rush into the
jungle, and drive out the victim, which generally falls into the
ambush previously laid to entrap it.
A native gentleman[1], who had favourable opportunities of observing the
movements of these animals, informed me, that when a jackal has brought
down his game and killed it, his first impulse is to hide it in the
nearest jungle, whence he issues with an air of easy indifference to
observe whether anything more powerful than himself may be at hand, from
which he might encounter the risk of being despoiled of his capture. If
the coast be clear, he returns to the concealed carcase, and carries it
away, followed by his companions. But if a man be in sight, or any other
animal to be avoided, my informant has seen the jackal seize a coco-nut
husk in his mouth, or any similar substance, and fly at full speed, as
if eager to carry off his pretended prize, returning for the real booty
at some more convenient season.
[Footnote 1: Mr. D. de Silva Gooneratné.]
They are subject to hydrophobia, and instances are frequent in Ceylon
of cattle being bitten by them and dying in consequence.
[Illustration: JACKAL'S SKULL AND HORN]
An excrescence is sometimes found on the head of the jackal, consisting
of a small horny cone about half an inch in length, and concealed by a
tuft of hair. This the natives call _narrie-comboo_; and they aver that
this "Jackal's Horn" only grows on the head of the leader of the
pack.[1] Both the Singhalese and the Tamils regard it as a talisman, and
believe that its fortunate possessor can command by its instrumentality
the realisation of every wish, and that if stolen or lost by him, it
will invariably return of its own accord. Those who have jewels to
conceal rest in perfect security if along with them they can deposit a
narri-comboo, fully convinced that its presence is an effectual
safeguard against robbers.
[Footnote 1: In the Museum of the College of Surgeons, London (No.
4362 A), there is a cranium of a jackal which exhibits this strange
osseous process on the super-occipital; and I have placed along with
it a specimen of the horny sheath, which was presented to me by Mr.
Lavalliere, the late district judge of Kandy.]
One fabulous virtue ascribed to the _narrie-comboo_ by the Singhalese is
absurdly characteristic of their passion for litigation, as well as of
their perceptions of the "glorious uncertainty of the law." It is the
popular belief that the fortunate discoverer of a jackal's horn becomes
thereby invincible in every lawsuit, and must irresistibly triumph over
every opponent. A gentleman connected "with the Supreme Court of Colombo
has repeated to me a circumstance, within his own knowledge, of a
plaintiff who, after numerous defeats, eventually succeeded against his
opponent by the timely acquisition of this invaluable charm. Before the
final hearing of the cause, the mysterious horn was duly exhibited to
his friends; and the consequence was, that the adverse witnesses,
appalled by the belief that no one could possibly give judgment against
a person so endowed, suddenly modified their previous evidence, and
secured an unforeseen victory for the happy owner of the
_narrie-comboo!_
_The Mongoos_.--Of the Mongoos or Ichneumon four species have been
described; and one, that frequents the hills near Neuera-ellia[1], is so
remarkable from its bushy fur, that the invalid soldiers in the
sanatarium there, to whom it is familiar, have given it the name of the
"Ceylon Badger."
[Footnote 1: _Herpestes vitticollis_. Mr. W. ELLIOTT, in his _Catalogue
of Mammalia found in the Southern Maharata Country_, Madras, 1840, says,
that "One specimen of this Herpestes was procured by accident in the
Ghât forests in 1829, and is now deposited in the British Museum; it is
very rare, inhabiting only the thickest woods, and its habits are very
little known," p. 9. In Ceylon it is comparatively common.]
[Illustration: HERPESTES VITTICOLLIS.]
I have found universally that the natives of Ceylon attach no credit to
the European story of the Mongoos (_H. griseus_) resorting to some
plant, which no one has yet succeeded in identifying, as an antidote
against the bite of the venomous serpents on which it preys: There is no
doubt that, in its conflicts with the cobra de capello and other
poisonous snakes, which it attacks with as little hesitation as the
harmless ones, it may be seen occasionally to retreat, and even to
retire into the jungle, and, it is added, to eat some vegetable; but a
gentleman, who has been a frequent observer of its exploits, assures me
that most usually the herb it resorted to was grass; and if this were
not at hand, almost any other plant that grew near seemed equally
acceptable. Hence has probably arisen the long list of plants, such as
the _Ophioxylon serpentinum_ and _Ophiorhiza mungos_, the _Aristolochia
Indica_, the _Mimosa octandria_, and others, each of which has been
asserted to be the ichneumon's specific; whilst their multiplicity is
demonstrative of the non-existence of any one in particular on which the
animal relies as an antidote. Were there any truth in the tale as
regards the mongoos, it would be difficult to understand why creatures,
such as the secretary bird and the falcon, and others, which equally
destroy serpents, should be left defenceless, and the ichneumon alone
provided with a prophylactic. Besides, were the ichneumon inspired by
that courage which would result from the consciousness of security, it
would be so indifferent to the bite of the serpent that we might
conclude that, both in its approaches and its assault, it would be
utterly careless as to the precise mode of its attack. Such, however, is
far from being the case: and next to its audacity, nothing can be more
surprising than the adroitness with which it escapes the spring of the
snake under a due sense of danger, and the cunning with which it makes
its arrangements to leap upon the back and fasten its teeth in the head
of the cobra. It is this display of instinctive ingenuity that Lucan[1]
celebrates where he paints the ichneumon diverting the attention of the
asp, by the motion of his bushy tail, and then seizing it in the midst
of its confusion:--
"Aspidas ut Pharias caudâ solertior hostis
Ludit, et iratas incertâ provocat umbrâ:
* * * * *
[Footnote 1: The passage in Lucan is a versification of the same
narrative related by Pliny, lib. viii. ch. 53; and Ælian, lib. iii. ch.
22.]
Obliquusque caput vanas serpentis in auras
Effuse toto comprendit guttura morsu
Letiferam citra saniem; tunc irrita pestis
Exprimitur, faucesque fluunt pereunte veneno."
_Pharsalia_, lib. iv. v. 729.
The mystery of the mongoos and its antidote has been referred to the
supposition that there may be some peculiarity in its organisation which
renders it _proof against_ the poison of the serpent. It remains for
future investigation to determine how far this conjecture is founded in
truth; and whether in the blood of the mongoos there exists any element
or quality which acts as a prophylactic. Such exceptional provisions are
not without precedent in the animal oeconomy: the hornbill feeds with
impunity on the deadly fruit of the strychnos; the milky juice of some
species of euphorbia, which is harmless to oxen, is invariably fatal to
the zebra; and the tsetse fly, the pest of South Africa, whose bite is
mortal to the ox, the dog, and the horse, is harmless to man and the
untamed creatures of the forest.[1]
[Footnote 1: Dr. LIVINGSTONE, _Tour in S. Africa_, p. 80. Is it a fact
that, in America, pigs extirpate the rattlesnakes with impunity?]
The Singhalese distinguish one species of mongoos, which they designate
"_Hotambeya_" and which they assert never preys upon serpents. A writer
in the _Ceylon Miscellany_ mentions, that they are often to be seen
"crossing rivers and frequently mud-brooks near Chilaw; the adjacent
thickets affording them shelter, and their food consisting of aquatic
reptiles, crabs, and mollusca."[1]
[Footnote 1: This is possibly the "musbilai" or mouse-cat of Behar,
which preys upon birds and fish. Can it be the Urva of the Nepalese
(_Urva cancrivora_, Hodgson), which Mr. Hodgson describes as dwelling in
burrows, and being carnivorous and ranivorous?--Vide _Journ. As. Soc.
Beng._ vol. vi. p. 56.]
[Illustration: FLYING SQUIRREL.]
IV. RODENTIA. _Squirrels_.--Smaller animals in great numbers enliven the
forests and lowland plains with their graceful movements. Squirrels[1],
of which there are a great variety, make their shrill metallic call
heard at early morning in the woods; and when sounding their note of
warning on the approach of a civet or a tree-snake, the ears tingle with
the loud trill of defiance, which rings as clear and rapid as the
running down of an alarum, and is instantly caught up and re-echoed from
every side by their terrified playmates.
[Footnote 1: Of two kinds which frequent the mountains, one which is
peculiar to Ceylon was discovered by Mr. Edgar L. Layard, who has done
me the honour to call it the _Sciurus Tennentii_. Its dimensions are
large, measuring upwards of two feet from head to tail. It is
distinguished from the _S. macrurus_ by the predominant black colour of
the upper surface of the body, with the exception of a rusty spot at the
base of the ears.]