"There is a Creature here called Kobberaguion, resembling an Alligator. The biggest may be five or six feet long, speckled black and white. He lives most upon the Land, but will take the water and dive under it: hath a long blew forked tongue like a sting, which he puts forth and hisseth and gapeth, but doth not bite nor sting, tho the appearance of him would scare those that knew not what he was. He is not afraid of people, but will ly gaping and hissing at them in the way, and will scarce stir out of it. He will come and eat Carrion with the Dogs and Jackals, and will not be scared away by them, but if they come near to bark or snap at him, with his tayl, which is about an Ell long like a whip, he will so slash them, that they will run away and howl. This Creature is not eatable."
Robert Knox from - An Historical Relation of Ceylon
8 comments:
ah but he must have tried to munch on it to know that it "is not eatable" eh?
poor darn lizard...:-)
I'm sure he hisseth and hisseth but couldn't scare the Englishman with the fork and knife away (gah...what a bad joke:)
sorry to bust yer bubble but its them natives who do the worst attrocities. read this :
James Emerson Tennent writes in Ceylon (1859[1977]:I.151n): "In the preparation of the mysterious poison, the Cobra-tel, which is regarded with so much horror by the Singhalese, the unfortunate Kabra-goya is forced to take a painfully prominent part . . . The ingredients are extracted from venomous snakes, the Cobra de Capello, the Carawella, and the Ticpolonga, by making an incision in the head and suspending the reptiles over a chattie to collect the poison. To this, arsenic and other drugs are added, and the whole is to be 'boiled in a human skull, with the aid of three Kabragoyas, which are tied on three sides of the fire, with their heads directed towards it, and tormented by whips to make them hiss, so that the fire may blaze. The froth from their lips is then to be added to the boiling mixture, and so soon as an oily scum rises to the surface, the cobra-tel is complete."
sighhhhh..
What doth one do with Cobra tel?
well ....knowing the singhalese obsession with pulling down other Singhalese, it is probably soemthing immoral ,unethical and quite fattening :-)
ahh... deep fried mung kevum?
drop the G homie. sinhalese. u aint no G.
and u just got no sense of humor, have you? James Emerson Tennent referred to them as Singhalese so who am I to differ?
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