a flambeau, would attract all beholders. The
tales of the peasantry, in relation to it, all turn upon the devices of
those in search of the gem, and the vigilance and cunning of the cobra
by which they are baffled; the reptile itself being more enamoured of
the priceless jewel than even its most ardent pursuers.

In BENNETT'S account of "_Ceylon and its Capabilities_," there is
another curious piece of Singhalese folk-lore, to the effect, that the
cobra de capello every time it expends its poison _loses a joint of its
tail_, and eventually acquires a head resembling that of a toad. A
recent addition to zoological knowledge has thrown light on the origin
of this popular fallacy. The family of "false snakes" (_pseudo
typhlops_, as Schlegel names the group) have till lately consisted of
but three species, of which only one was known to inhabit Ceylon. They
belong to a family intermediate between the serpents and that Saurian
group-commonly called _Slow-worms_ or _Glass-snakes_; they in fact
represent the slow-worms of the temperate regions in Ceylon. They have
the body of a snake, but the cleft of their mouth is very narrow, and
they are unable to detach the lateral parts of the lower jaw from each
other, as the true snakes do when devouring a prey. The most striking
character of the group, however, is the size and form of the tail; this
is very short, and according to the observations of Professor Peters of
Berlin[1], shorter in the female than in the male. It does not terminate
in a point as in other snakes, but is truncated obliquely, the abrupt
surface of its extremity being either entirely flat, or more or less
convex, and always covered with rough keels. The reptile assists its own
movements by pressing the rough end to the ground, and from this
peculiar form of the tail, the family has received the name of
_Uropeltidae_, or "Shield-tails." Within a very recent period important
additions have been made to this family. which now consists of four
genera and eleven species. Those occurring in Ceylon are enumerated in
the List appended to this chapter. One of these, the _Uropeltis grandis_
of Kelaart[2], is distinguished by its dark brown colour, shot with a
bluish metallic lustre, closely approaching the ordinary shade of the
cobra; and the tail is abruptly and flatly compressed as though it had
been severed by a knife. The form of this singular reptile will be best
understood by a reference to the accompanying figure; a