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70
THE TAPROBANIAN.
[June, 1887.
but we see the one sound is produced very similarly
to the other.
This race of Javanese, or Mudariyat, I believe,
early formed a colony at the Indus, and extended its
power to Multan. I regard, and without qualifica-
tion, the Mudariyat Arabs, as a race which once
held the lower Indus, much of the “Pirate” Coast
of West India, and at the present day, as Mukku-
vars, hold districts of Cochin, Travancore, and
Ceylon, and as Javanese or Malays, much of the
coast of the Malasian Archipelago. These formed
what the mediaeval Arabs termed the empire of
Zabedj, which I have treated as a corruption of
Chat-pati-raj, or the Satrap’s Kingdom.
The Arabian origin of the Mukkuvar, receives
much corroboration from the special study of the
race, reserved however for some future treatment.
The name is derived by the people themselves from
Muk-kukkan, a form of Mithra or Skanda; I believe
them to be a Japhetic race, the descendants of Elisa,
son of Javan, their eponymous ancestor in Genesis.
This Elisa, as El’isa, I believe to be the Chaldean
ferryman. Ur-hamsi, who ferried “ Izdubar,” and
this tradition is perhaps still preserved by the
Mukkuvars, who say their ancestor ferried Rama
over the water. Some such sense as “ solar fire ”
is evidently inherent both in El’isa, and Ur-samsi,
and both are distinctly mithraic compounds.
Besides the derivation given, there is a possible
connection with a rare word in Sinhalese, sawya,
reverse, backwards, left (hand). This word may well
have been an early antithesis of yamana, right hand,
or south, to a person who faces the East. From the
same base we may derive Ar-jawr, and Ar-hawan, a
mortar. Sinhalese, wan or wang, a mortar, and warn,
“ left ” (hand).
Editor.
Pyxicephalus breviceps, Schn.
The following note on the habits of this singular
and abnormal frog may be of special interest as the
genus Pyxicephalus has been suppressed by Dr.
Boulenger, though most naturalists will retain it.
This little frog has rather the appearance and habit
of a toad of the family Engystomatidse. It is found
burrowing in sand near the shore on the east coast of
Ceylon. My own specimens came from Batticaloa,
and Mr. Ferguson received it from Dr. Vayitilingam
at Mulativu. Its presence may be readily detected
by the peculiar piping cry it makes during the night.
This cry consists of a single shrill pipe, not unlike
that of a turkey chick, and repeated usually four
times, thus, pik, pik, pik, pik. It is however hard to
find the exact spot whence the cry ascends.
The peculiar form of the hind leg, enables this
frog to bury itself rapidly in the sand, the sand
being thrown off the legs as if from a miniature
shovel. As if this was not sufficient protection, it
possesses in a marked degree the powei- of changing
colour ; in my specimens this was nearly uniform
olive-brown when first caught, but rapidly became
pale green with olive-brown mottlings. It also
exudes through the skin, and especially from the
back of the shoulders, a tenacious fluid which causes
sand to adhere closely to the body and limbs.
I know nothing of its breeding habits, as I only
discovered it a short time before leaving the district.
It occurred in some numbers among the cocoanut
gardens of Batticaloa that cover the dry sandy soil
skirting the channel or outlet of the lagoon, but
I only succeeded in catching a few specimens.
Dr. Gunther records this species from Simla, but
it seems inconceivable it should have so extended a
range.
Editor.
On Preservation under Ordinary Circumstances
oe Bones of Mammalia.
It appearing to me that much light might be
gained as to the mode of life of extinct mammals,
and the proportion of the contemporaneous mamma-
lian fauna likely to be preserved in this or that
deposit, I have paid special attention to the accidents
befalling the remains of dead animals, left in natural
conditions, in Ceylon.
I have thus noted the remains of elephants, buffalos,
pigs, monkeys, sambur deer, and spotted deer, bears,
leopards, and porcupines, in Ceylon.
With regard to elephants. Strange to say the
bones of an elephant are rapidly scattered over a
wide extent of surface, and are found one by one,
often hundreds of yards apart. The bones of the
head are frequently broken up and lost, and in the
case of two young elephants, that had died two years
previously, scarcely a fragment of the skull could be
found. The largest piece traced was not greater
than a human skull. Sportsmen report that the
neighbourhood of an elephant’s skeleton is a sure find
for elk, and native hunters corroborate this. The
numerous tracks of elk and deer around the bones of
an elephant might at first be thought those of
animals attracted by curiosity. On examining the
bones however, experts pronounce them to have been
gnawed or champed by the deer, and in this manner
the dispersion of the smaller bones rapidly proceeds.
Deer appear to have great need of bone at some stage
of growth, and the soft bones of an elephant are
especially selected by them to supply this. It re-
mains to be studied out whether this craving for
phosphate of lime comes on only when the horns are
to be shed and replaced, and whether it exists only
among bucks and not amongst does. It is a fact
that the horns of elk and deer are, in Ceylon,
infinitely finest in the districts in which elephants,
THE TAPROBANIAN.
[June, 1887.
but we see the one sound is produced very similarly
to the other.
This race of Javanese, or Mudariyat, I believe,
early formed a colony at the Indus, and extended its
power to Multan. I regard, and without qualifica-
tion, the Mudariyat Arabs, as a race which once
held the lower Indus, much of the “Pirate” Coast
of West India, and at the present day, as Mukku-
vars, hold districts of Cochin, Travancore, and
Ceylon, and as Javanese or Malays, much of the
coast of the Malasian Archipelago. These formed
what the mediaeval Arabs termed the empire of
Zabedj, which I have treated as a corruption of
Chat-pati-raj, or the Satrap’s Kingdom.
The Arabian origin of the Mukkuvar, receives
much corroboration from the special study of the
race, reserved however for some future treatment.
The name is derived by the people themselves from
Muk-kukkan, a form of Mithra or Skanda; I believe
them to be a Japhetic race, the descendants of Elisa,
son of Javan, their eponymous ancestor in Genesis.
This Elisa, as El’isa, I believe to be the Chaldean
ferryman. Ur-hamsi, who ferried “ Izdubar,” and
this tradition is perhaps still preserved by the
Mukkuvars, who say their ancestor ferried Rama
over the water. Some such sense as “ solar fire ”
is evidently inherent both in El’isa, and Ur-samsi,
and both are distinctly mithraic compounds.
Besides the derivation given, there is a possible
connection with a rare word in Sinhalese, sawya,
reverse, backwards, left (hand). This word may well
have been an early antithesis of yamana, right hand,
or south, to a person who faces the East. From the
same base we may derive Ar-jawr, and Ar-hawan, a
mortar. Sinhalese, wan or wang, a mortar, and warn,
“ left ” (hand).
Editor.
Pyxicephalus breviceps, Schn.
The following note on the habits of this singular
and abnormal frog may be of special interest as the
genus Pyxicephalus has been suppressed by Dr.
Boulenger, though most naturalists will retain it.
This little frog has rather the appearance and habit
of a toad of the family Engystomatidse. It is found
burrowing in sand near the shore on the east coast of
Ceylon. My own specimens came from Batticaloa,
and Mr. Ferguson received it from Dr. Vayitilingam
at Mulativu. Its presence may be readily detected
by the peculiar piping cry it makes during the night.
This cry consists of a single shrill pipe, not unlike
that of a turkey chick, and repeated usually four
times, thus, pik, pik, pik, pik. It is however hard to
find the exact spot whence the cry ascends.
The peculiar form of the hind leg, enables this
frog to bury itself rapidly in the sand, the sand
being thrown off the legs as if from a miniature
shovel. As if this was not sufficient protection, it
possesses in a marked degree the powei- of changing
colour ; in my specimens this was nearly uniform
olive-brown when first caught, but rapidly became
pale green with olive-brown mottlings. It also
exudes through the skin, and especially from the
back of the shoulders, a tenacious fluid which causes
sand to adhere closely to the body and limbs.
I know nothing of its breeding habits, as I only
discovered it a short time before leaving the district.
It occurred in some numbers among the cocoanut
gardens of Batticaloa that cover the dry sandy soil
skirting the channel or outlet of the lagoon, but
I only succeeded in catching a few specimens.
Dr. Gunther records this species from Simla, but
it seems inconceivable it should have so extended a
range.
Editor.
On Preservation under Ordinary Circumstances
oe Bones of Mammalia.
It appearing to me that much light might be
gained as to the mode of life of extinct mammals,
and the proportion of the contemporaneous mamma-
lian fauna likely to be preserved in this or that
deposit, I have paid special attention to the accidents
befalling the remains of dead animals, left in natural
conditions, in Ceylon.
I have thus noted the remains of elephants, buffalos,
pigs, monkeys, sambur deer, and spotted deer, bears,
leopards, and porcupines, in Ceylon.
With regard to elephants. Strange to say the
bones of an elephant are rapidly scattered over a
wide extent of surface, and are found one by one,
often hundreds of yards apart. The bones of the
head are frequently broken up and lost, and in the
case of two young elephants, that had died two years
previously, scarcely a fragment of the skull could be
found. The largest piece traced was not greater
than a human skull. Sportsmen report that the
neighbourhood of an elephant’s skeleton is a sure find
for elk, and native hunters corroborate this. The
numerous tracks of elk and deer around the bones of
an elephant might at first be thought those of
animals attracted by curiosity. On examining the
bones however, experts pronounce them to have been
gnawed or champed by the deer, and in this manner
the dispersion of the smaller bones rapidly proceeds.
Deer appear to have great need of bone at some stage
of growth, and the soft bones of an elephant are
especially selected by them to supply this. It re-
mains to be studied out whether this craving for
phosphate of lime comes on only when the horns are
to be shed and replaced, and whether it exists only
among bucks and not amongst does. It is a fact
that the horns of elk and deer are, in Ceylon,
infinitely finest in the districts in which elephants,