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Before the final hearing of the cause, the mysterious horn was duly exhibited to his friends; and the consequence was, that the adverse witnesses, appalled by the belief that no one could possibly give judgment against a person so endowed, suddenly modified their previous evidence, and secured an unforeseen victory for the happy owner of the narrie-comboo! The Mongoos.
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.
The Garangan of Java is an ichneumon; and so also are the Mongoos and Nyula of Nepaul; while in the Malay peninsula is a species known as the Malacca ichneumon. The Paradoxure is usually classed with the civets, though it wants the perfumed pouch; and the Suricate or Meer-cat, of the Cape colonists, takes its station in this group.
If the resulting error is large, of course the mistake is detected immediately; a slight difference might pass unnoted with dangerous consequences. At Johanna, or possibly at St. Augustine's, some of our officers and men, moved by that queer propensity of mankind to acquire strange objects, however useless, had bought animals of the kind called mongoos.
Of the Mongoos or Ichneumon four species have been described; and one, that frequents the hills near Neuera-ellia , is so remarkable from its bushy fur, that the invalid soldiers in the sanatarium there, to whom it is familiar, have given it the name of the "Ceylon Badger." Mr.
Davis and the maid, and the trunks, spears, tents, bathtubs, carved idols, native mats, and a live mongoos were dropped into it, and we were paddled to the gangway. "If that's all, we might as well get under way," said Captain Hughes. The anchor chains creaked, from the bank the proprietor of the Splendide waved his hand, and the long voyage to Liverpool had begun.
Obliquusque caput vanas serpentis in auras Effuse toto comprendit guttura morsu Letiferam citra saniem; tunc 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.
Were there any truth in the tale as regards the mongoos, it would be difficult to understand why creatures, such as the secretary bird and the falcon, and others, which equally destroy serpents, should be left defenceless, and the ichneumon alone provided with a prophylactic.
LIVINGSTONE, Tour in S. Africa, p. 80. The Singhalese distinguish one species of mongoos, which they designate "Hotambeya" and which they assert never preys upon serpents.
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