Singhalese believe in the transmigration of
souls; when a snake thus takes up its abode
within or near a house soon after the death of one
of its former inmates, the survivors believe that
their deceased relative has returned in this
form. In the case I have specially alluded
to, it was the belief of the family that the cobra
was their deceased grandfather, or great
grandfather.

Snakes evidently learn to know certain persons,
and probably nothing but strong provocation
would induce a snake to hurt those whom it
daily saw, and who left it unmolested.

In the natural order of things the snake
would, if a female, increase and multiply,
and the young snakes would undergo many
risks from cats, fowls, &c., and I therefore
see no reason to be much surprised at another
thing my informant told me: which was, that he
saw about the premises, parts of small cobras,
which had apparently been killed, and that he
made use of this fact in argument with the
people of the house, to show that the snake
could not be their deceased brother, the cobra
being a lady. My Negombo friend told me
that when stationed at the southernmost
extremity of the island, in the stronghold of
Buddhism, he frequently saw cobras emerge
from holes in the middle of the day, and walk
most unconcernedly among the washermen at
a particular spot. The washermen would on
these occasions address the snakes in most
respectful terms, and remind them that dirty
clothes were impure things, far too unclean for
them to walk on. The snakes would pass by,
in maiden meditation fancy free, and go into
some crab-hole or rat-hole; but they never
molested the people.

Snakes have many enemies. There is the
great sea eagle, which may be seen of an evening
sailing homeward to his nest high up in some
large tree by the tank side, with a snake in his
beak, which he has drawn from the sea most
likely; for there are snakes in the sea and the
lakes, as well as on the land. Then the fowls,
and other domestic animals of that kind, scratch
up their eggs now and then; and cats will, if
they do not actually attack large snakes, do
much towards keeping them away from a house.
But the greatest of all their enemies is the brave
little mungoos, as the name is generally written.
It is almost a pity to spoil so pretty a fable, and
one so generally believed, as that which tells
how there is a herb to which the mungoos
resorts from time to time during its encounters
with its foe, the virtues of which herb counteract
the snake's venom; but the unfortunate
fact is,— there is no such herb.

If a mungoos and a snake be allowed to fight
it out in a closed room, the result will, as a
rule, be that the snake is killed and the
mungoos comes off unscathed. The real truth is,
that through its wariness and agility the mungoos
does not get bitten. If a mungoos be tied up,
and the snake allowed to bite it, the mungoos
will die, in spite of all the herbs in the country.

I do not know what to say of snake-charming.
No doubt some of the snakes owned by
snake-charmers are venomous, and instances are
recorded of charmers inducing snakes to come out
of holes where it is difficult to believe they could
possibly have had the opportunity of secreting
tamed snakes. My own belief is, that for one
genuine snake-charmer there are a hundred
charlatans, who impose upon griffins with the
connivance of their servants.

Of all ugly animals, the alligator is the ugliest.
There is not a single redeeming feature in his
countenance. His eyes speak nothing but
selfishness and malignity; his jaws are suggestive
of rapacity and cruelty; from tail to snout,
he is loathsome and unclean. Let the lion or the
tiger claw me and tear me to pieces; let the
elephant knock me about like a football; let
the buffalo gore and pound me into a jelly; but
do not let the alligator carry me away alive,
deliberately drown me, keep me in a corner down
below the waters amidst the gnarled roots of
some overhanging tree, feast his eyes on my body
until it is in the state which suits his horrid taste,
and then feed on me at his leisure. I never have
any compunction about shooting at an alligator
wherever I meet him. Yet, no doubt, he has his
use, if we only knew it. The river near where
I live, is full of these creatures. No later than
Saturday last before this writing, while rowing
about with my children, the boatman pointed out
a " kimbula," as they call them, quite close by us
on the shore, in some swampy ground. My gun
was loaded with shot, which I proceeded to
exchange for ball, and I must do the alligator
the justice to say that he gave me quite time
enough; perhaps he was turning over in his own
mind what a delicious meal one of those fat
little creatures in the boat with me would make;
but the patience of even an alligator has its
limits, and by the time I was quite ready for
him, my friend had concluded it was time to be
off, so he quietly sunk under the waters, and I
saw him no more. Although there are many
alligators in this river, able and willing to
carry off a man, still there are places where
men, women, and children, bathe all day with
impunity, while there are unquestionably
alligators not far from them. I asked my horse-keeper
one day, as we were passing one of these
bathing-places, how it was that the people were
not carried off? He answered, because the
place had been charmed. It appears there
are alligator charmers, as well as snake and
shark charmers. I take the fact to be, that the
alligator is a most cowardly brute, and will not
come where several persons arc splashing about,
or where he knows they are in the habit of
congregating. What he likes, is, to catch a poor
fellow all alone, to make away with him. But
it sometimes happens that an alligator near a
ford will, when once he has acquired a taste for
human flesh, become very daring. There is a
place, some thirty or forty miles hence, where
an alligator recently killed a poor fellow; and a
few days after, as a man was standing in quite
shallow water, washing his face at the same