uity that Lucan[2] celebrates where he paints the
ichneumon diverting the attention of the asp, by the motion of his bushy
tale, and then seizing it in the midst of its confusion.

[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
Ghat 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.]

[Footnote 2: The passage in Lucan is a versification of the same
narrative related by Pliny, lib. viii. ch. 35; and AElian, lib. iii. ch.
22.]

"Aspidas ut Pharias cauda solertior hostis
Ludit, et iratas incerta provocat umbra:
Obliquusque caput vanas serpentis in auras
Effusae toto comprendit guttura morsu
Letiferam citra saniem; tune 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 frequenting 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