palla-polonga

Updated: May 22, 2025

For these reasons the Singhalese, when obliged to leave their houses in the dark, carry a stick with a loose ring, the noise of which as they strike it on the ground is sufficient to warn the snakes to leave their path. I have heard of an eighth, the palla-polonga.

Sir James Emerson Tennent - Sketches of the Natural History of Ceylon