way from Point-de-Galle to Colombo, is a huge lizard of from four to
five feet in length, the Talla-goya of the Singhalese, and Iguana[1] of
the Europeans. It may be seen at noonday searching for ants and insects
in the middle of the highway and along the fences; when disturbed, but
by no means alarmed, by the approach of man, it moves off to a safe
distance; and, the intrusion being over, returns again to the occupation
in which it had been interrupted. Repulsive as it is in appearance, it
is perfectly harmless, and is hunted down by dogs in the maritime
provinces, where its delicate flesh is converted into curry, and its
skin into shoes. When seized, it has the power of inflicting a smart
blow with its tail. The Talla-goya lives in almost any convenient
hollow, such as a hole in the ground, or the deserted nest of the
termites; and home small ones which frequented my garden at Colombo,
made their retreat in the heart of a decayed tree. A still larger
species, the Kabragoya[2], which is partial to marshy ground, when
disturbed upon land, will take refuge in the nearest water. From the
somewhat eruptive appearance of the yellow blotches on its scales, a
closely allied species, similarly spotted, formerly obtained amongst
naturalists the name of _Monitor exanthemata_, and it is curious that
the native appellation of this one, Kabra[3], is suggestive of the same
idea. The Singhalese, on a strictly homoeopathic principle, believe that
its fat, externally applied, is a cure for cutaneous disorders, but that
inwardly taken it is poisonous.[4] It is one of the incidents which seem
to indicate that Ceylon belongs to a separate circle of physical
geography, this lizard has not hitherto been discovered on the continent
of Hindustan, though it is found to the eastward in Burmah.[5]

[Footnote 1: Monitor dracaena, _Linn_. Among the barbarous nostrums of
the uneducated natives both Singhalese and Tamil, is the tongue of the
iguana, which they regard as a specific for consumption, if plucked from
the living animal and swallowed whole.]

[Footnote 2: Hydrosaurus salvator, _Wagler_.]

[Footnote 3: In the _Mahawanso_ the hero, Tisso, is said to have been
"afflicted with a cutaneous complaint which, made his skin scaly like
that of the _godho_."--Ch. xxiv. p. 148. "Godho" is the Pali name for
the Kabra-goya.]

[Footnote 4: In the preparation of the mysterious poison, the
_Cobra-tel_, which is regarded with so much horror by the Sin