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THE TAPROBANIAN.
A DRAVIDIAN JOURNAL OF ORIENTAL STUDIES.
NOTES AND QUERIES.
/Elian’s account of the Dolphins of Taprobane.
IN his account of Taprobane, ZElian specially
notices the two species of dolphin found there.
I quote Mr. MacCrindle’s translation of Schwan-
beck’s edition.
“ The dolphins are reported to be of two sorts—
one fierce and armed with sharp pointed teeth, which
gives endless trouble to the fisherman, and is of a
remorselessly cruel disposition, while the other kind
is naturally mild and tame, swims about in the
friskiest way, and is quite like a fawning dog. It
does not run away when any one tries to stroke it,
and it takes with pleasure any food it is offered.”
In the Indian Antiquary for October 1885 Mr.
Ball suggests the former may have been Platanista
Indi, Blyth ; this species however has not been met
with at Ceylon, while his other notes indicate these
porpoises as specially sought after by certain tribes
of fishermen, and by no means “ an endless trouble”
or “ remorselessly cruel.” What really is intended,
I feel sure, must be the daeti-muwa, or toothed-beast
of the Sinhalese, and the velam of the Ceylon
Tamils, Pristis sp. At least two species of Pristis
abound in the sea and tidal waters of Ceylon, and
are a terror to fishermen. In the Batticaloa Lake
they occur at seasons in great numbers, often of vast
bulk, and they seem unusually fearless, frightening
the fishers by coming near their canoes, as if to
attack them. I have not heard of any fatal accident
of late years from these fish, but the terror they
inspire is great and unfeigned.
Small ones up to five feet long, are speared and
eaten. The old Sinhalese name daeti-muwa, now
means toothed-deer if literally translated. Muwa
is, however, a form of mriga, in its older sense of
“ beast.” Its use denotes that the Sinhalese regarded
them as mammals and not as fish, though daeti-mora
or toothed-shark is a newer name in general use
now. So too the Tamil velam means a saw-fish,
or an elephant. Velam must be closely connected
with our “whale,” the Old English “ hwael.”
Whether this name is also connected with that of
the bulan, which is given by Mr. Ball on Sir A.
Burnes’ authority as a name of the Platanista, seems
less certain.
The tame species of dolphin is probably a species
of Delphinus, found in a large shoal in the lagoon
in front of the ancient port of Kalputti, on the N. W.
coast of Ceylon, and in the bay in front of the rock
on which stood the ancient shrine at Trincomalai,
now occupied by our fort. Both these shoals occur
at very ancient ports, and both are exceedingly tame,
rolling and playing close to the beach, and showing
very little fear of canoes. The flesh was never
eaten either by Sinhalese or Tamils, but some of the
fishers from the coast of India, who have reached
Ceylon within the last century or so, not only eat
them, but have nets specially made for the capture
of sharks, porpoises, Ac. There can be little doubt
the dolphin was once sacred, and hence the flesh was
not eaten. It is also likely enough the shoals that
frequent the shore at Kalputti and Trincomalai,
may have in former years been so tame that they
might be handled, and may have even been regularly
fed by officers of the temples there.
In the Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1856, was a notice
of the tame dolphins of Morton Bay. These have
become accustomed to drive shoals of fish into the
shallows on the shore, on which the natives dash
into the water after the fish; and men, dolphins and
fish are all mixed up together, the two former
mutually harmonising, and recognizing each other’s
rights. It is quite possible some such practice existed
in Ceylon also, prior to the arrival of the later and
more skilful fishing races, in the first centuries of
our era.
While correcting this for the press, I recollect that
Pliny notices a similar understanding between the
Gauls and the porpoises, at a lagoon called Lates
near Nimes in France; the fishers, he says, were
assisted by the porpoises in stopping a rush of fish
through the nets, at the season when the mullet
migrated to the sea.
Editor.
Muran, white-toothed.
In the 27th verse of the “ Submersion of Ilanka”
in the Tamil Skanda Puranam, the Awanar are
poken of as “ muran-mukam al-uruvu,” or white-
tooth-faced night-bodied.” The word mural literally
A DRAVIDIAN JOURNAL OF ORIENTAL STUDIES.
NOTES AND QUERIES.
/Elian’s account of the Dolphins of Taprobane.
IN his account of Taprobane, ZElian specially
notices the two species of dolphin found there.
I quote Mr. MacCrindle’s translation of Schwan-
beck’s edition.
“ The dolphins are reported to be of two sorts—
one fierce and armed with sharp pointed teeth, which
gives endless trouble to the fisherman, and is of a
remorselessly cruel disposition, while the other kind
is naturally mild and tame, swims about in the
friskiest way, and is quite like a fawning dog. It
does not run away when any one tries to stroke it,
and it takes with pleasure any food it is offered.”
In the Indian Antiquary for October 1885 Mr.
Ball suggests the former may have been Platanista
Indi, Blyth ; this species however has not been met
with at Ceylon, while his other notes indicate these
porpoises as specially sought after by certain tribes
of fishermen, and by no means “ an endless trouble”
or “ remorselessly cruel.” What really is intended,
I feel sure, must be the daeti-muwa, or toothed-beast
of the Sinhalese, and the velam of the Ceylon
Tamils, Pristis sp. At least two species of Pristis
abound in the sea and tidal waters of Ceylon, and
are a terror to fishermen. In the Batticaloa Lake
they occur at seasons in great numbers, often of vast
bulk, and they seem unusually fearless, frightening
the fishers by coming near their canoes, as if to
attack them. I have not heard of any fatal accident
of late years from these fish, but the terror they
inspire is great and unfeigned.
Small ones up to five feet long, are speared and
eaten. The old Sinhalese name daeti-muwa, now
means toothed-deer if literally translated. Muwa
is, however, a form of mriga, in its older sense of
“ beast.” Its use denotes that the Sinhalese regarded
them as mammals and not as fish, though daeti-mora
or toothed-shark is a newer name in general use
now. So too the Tamil velam means a saw-fish,
or an elephant. Velam must be closely connected
with our “whale,” the Old English “ hwael.”
Whether this name is also connected with that of
the bulan, which is given by Mr. Ball on Sir A.
Burnes’ authority as a name of the Platanista, seems
less certain.
The tame species of dolphin is probably a species
of Delphinus, found in a large shoal in the lagoon
in front of the ancient port of Kalputti, on the N. W.
coast of Ceylon, and in the bay in front of the rock
on which stood the ancient shrine at Trincomalai,
now occupied by our fort. Both these shoals occur
at very ancient ports, and both are exceedingly tame,
rolling and playing close to the beach, and showing
very little fear of canoes. The flesh was never
eaten either by Sinhalese or Tamils, but some of the
fishers from the coast of India, who have reached
Ceylon within the last century or so, not only eat
them, but have nets specially made for the capture
of sharks, porpoises, Ac. There can be little doubt
the dolphin was once sacred, and hence the flesh was
not eaten. It is also likely enough the shoals that
frequent the shore at Kalputti and Trincomalai,
may have in former years been so tame that they
might be handled, and may have even been regularly
fed by officers of the temples there.
In the Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1856, was a notice
of the tame dolphins of Morton Bay. These have
become accustomed to drive shoals of fish into the
shallows on the shore, on which the natives dash
into the water after the fish; and men, dolphins and
fish are all mixed up together, the two former
mutually harmonising, and recognizing each other’s
rights. It is quite possible some such practice existed
in Ceylon also, prior to the arrival of the later and
more skilful fishing races, in the first centuries of
our era.
While correcting this for the press, I recollect that
Pliny notices a similar understanding between the
Gauls and the porpoises, at a lagoon called Lates
near Nimes in France; the fishers, he says, were
assisted by the porpoises in stopping a rush of fish
through the nets, at the season when the mullet
migrated to the sea.
Editor.
Muran, white-toothed.
In the 27th verse of the “ Submersion of Ilanka”
in the Tamil Skanda Puranam, the Awanar are
poken of as “ muran-mukam al-uruvu,” or white-
tooth-faced night-bodied.” The word mural literally