JUNE, 1873.]

NOTES ON NATURAL HISTORY.

decapitate the buffalo themselves. With the

Coorgs the Paruva is superintended by the

171

identical with Subrahmanya, is Iguttappa (Igutta-Appa), i.e. Father Igutta. He is prayed

Mukká tis, i. e. arrangers, who are either

to for rain, and invoked at the harvest-festival.

Coorgs or other Šádras.

Might this deity not be the same with the Tamila Vèg u t t u v a- a v at à ra, i.e. the Bud dha-avatāra of Vishnu" P Besides V & guttava the form V & gutta is also correct. It seems to be quite certain that many centu ries ago the Coorgs, and with them most pro bably others of the Dravidian tribes, were mere ghost and demon worshippers without any ray of light to alleviate their fear. Have Brahma nical innovations in any way ameliorated their spiritual condition, or has even the contrary taken place? The discussion of questions of such

Near the source of the Ká v ćr i river is the

temple, and within it the idol of Kā vēri A m ma, i. e. Mother Kāveri.

The service of this

deity is quite Brahmanical, and my opinion is that the deity is an importation from the plains. The Amma's Tantris, or owners, are Tulu Brahmans. I do not find that the Coorgs are water-worshippers, though they have adopted also something in this respect from the Brahmans; and besides they have no tangible profit from this river in their own country. Another deity with purely (Tulu) Brahma nical pújã, whom some people declare to be

a character is of much interest.

Merkara, 22nd April 1873.

NOTES ON NATURAL HISTORY. -

I.—SNARES,

BY W. F. SINCLAIR, Bo. C. S., KHANDESH. It is the common belief of Khāndesh, the hazy about dates and details.

Dekhan, and Central Provinces that the amphis boena or slow-worm, (mandūp) changes its head to its tail, and back, every year. Also that its bite causes leprosy. At Christmas 1870, I shot a short, thick, clouded snake known as Jogi (I suppose because it is lazy and venomous). My police orderly, a Marātha from Anjanvel in Ratnāgirī, said: “There are lots of these in my country. If they bite a man or a buffalo, he swells up to the shape of this snake, and spots like

those on the snake come all over his

Perhaps the creature was suffering from some furry fungous

disease, such as fish are liable to.

The little river Yel, on the high plateau,

known as the Pet Pathár, in Taluka Kher of the Punā District, is inhabited by great num bers of Dhā man s, the large water-snake with yellow netlike markings on his back. The belief of those parts is that the Dhāman is powerless to injure man or beast except the buffalo; but if a buffalo so much as sees a Dhāman he dies of it—the idea of the basilisk "

Further

body.” The beaters, Thäkurs of the Ghāţs, knew

east it is sometimes believed that the Dhāman

nothing of this belief, though they held the snake in so much dread that one man threw

drowns bathers by coiling round their limbs. It is really quite harmless to any creature above

away the stick with which he had crushed its

the size of a water-rat.

head.

The natives of the Ghâts hold a small snake called the Phursa in much dread; and the

I have often met with this snake in the

Dekhan and Khāndesh, and never found this

belief current anywhere above the Ghāt; but it is certainly poisonous. Compare the snake in Dante by whose bite a man was turned into a snake and vice versat. In the year 1865, or there abouts, a snake with fur or hair upon its body

is said to have appeared near Bhim a Shan

Bombay Government have honoured it by bracketing it with the cobra, and putting a price on its head. The Kolis, who ordinarily bury their dead, have so great an abhorrence for four sorts of death that they will not bury the victims of any of the proscribed means of exit

kar, the source of the B him a river in the Sahyādri hills. It is described as having been

from this world.

about four feetlong, and covered with a soft curly wool; and the people worshipped it for a season

fourth I have forgotten; but in these cases they make forks of saplings, pick up the deceased,

until it disappeared, My informant was very

and pitchfork him over the nearest cliff.

e

• Ziegenbalg, p. 8,

Three of the four are cholera,

small-pox, and the bite of the Phursa. The

+ Inferno, c. xxv.