it is amphibious, but perfectly harmless, subsisting upon
vegetables and insects. I tell you it is a great delicacy, ugly as it
looks. It is quite dead, so let us drag it out of the water, and send it
up to Mahomed by Omrah."

The animal, which was about four feet long, was dragged out of the water
by the tail, and Omrah took it to the camp.

"Well, I really thought it was a small alligator," said the Major; "but
now I perceive my mistake. What a variety of lizards there appears to be
in this country."

"A great many from the chameleon upward," replied Swinton. "By the by,
there is one which is said to be very venomous. I have heard many
well-authenticated stories of the bite being not only very dangerous,
but in some instances fatal. I have specimens of the animal in my
collection. It is called here the geitje."

"Well, it is rather remarkable, but we have in India a small lizard,
called the gecko by the natives, which is said to be equally venomous. I
presume it must be the same animal, and it is singular that the names
should vary so little. I have never seen an instance of its poisonous
powers, but I have seen a whole company of sepoys run out of their
quarters because they have heard the animal make its usual cry in the
thatch of the building; they say that it drops down upon people from the
roof."

"Probably the same animal; and a strong corroboration that the report of
its being venomous is with good foundation."

"And yet if we were to make the assertion in England, we should in all
probability not be believed."

"Not by many, I grant--not by those who only know a little; but by those
who are well informed, you probably would be. The fact is, from a too
ready credulity, we have now turned to almost a total skepticism, unless
we have ocular demonstration. In the times of Marco Polo, Sir John
Mandeville, and others,--say in the fifteenth century, when there were
but few travelers and but little education, a traveler might assert
almost any thing, and gain credence; latterly a traveler hardly dare
assert any thing. Le Vaillant and Bruce, who traveled in the South and
North of Africa, were both stigmatized as liars, when they published
their accounts of what they had seen, and yet every tittle has since
been proved to be correct. However, as people are now better informed,
they do not reject so positively; for they have certain rules to guide
them between the possible and the impossible."

"How do you mea