Page:The Indian Antiquary Vol 2.djvu/196

 172 THE INDIAN ANTIQUARY. [June, 1873. With all this, I have never been able to find out satisfactorily what the Phursa is*. I have been shown at least a dozen different snakes j by that name, the most of them tree or water j snakes and as harmless as frogs. A long thin yellow snake called K o r a d is much dreaded in the open stony parts of the Puna district. The people say : “ He does not give a man time to drink water.” This is cer¬ tainly the most active ground-snake I have seen. legend of vellur. BY DINSHAH ARDESHIR TALEYABKAN, SECRET ARY, KATHlAwAR EKSAMPI RAJASTHANI SABHA. If a traveller in Southern India is induced to visit Yellur, it is specially because of its forts and its temple. We ascended one of its hills called “ Sajra,” on which there still exists an ancient fort. Thero is a sort of rough track which leads to the summit in about an hour. Surveying the town from this height, you find it lying close upon the base of tho Sajra, irregular, scattered, and closely surrounded by high hills except towards tho north. Thero you find tho broad bed of the river Pal&r stretching as far as the eye can reach. Over it runs a lengthy viaduct of about a hundred low arches. The river is dry, but here and there arc canals dug for cultivators, dhobis, and others. Tho expansive bed and the beautiful bridge lying amidst numerous glittering nal&s testify to the dimensions to which the river at¬ tains during tho rains. Before tho bridge was built intercourse with the surrounding places was very difficult: it took a whole day to cross the river, and four pairs of bullocks wero required to drag a laden cart through it. We have scarcely seen another town so picturesquely situated. It is pleasantly buried amid clumps of trees of various sorts. Interspersed here and thero about the outskirts of the town are paddy and sugar¬ cane fields. Abovo all is a fort, but nothing of it remains except the surrounding walls. Bro¬ ken cannon lie here and there half-buried. Largo balls are also found scattered and rusting. You sometimes alight on artificial caves. In tho very centre of tho peak there still exists a deep tank. The water iu it, though unused for years and ren¬ ami often give the first name that occurs to them for any of the less common plants or animals. The Phursa is a species of Lucodon, the ‘ Gajoo Tutta' (Kaju T a t &) of Kussell, who describes it as a Coluber, “ the head broader than the neck, ovate, depressed, obtuse. Tho first pair of lamina between tho nostrils, small, sub-orbicular; the next, pentagonal; the middlemost lamina of tho three be¬ tween the eyes, broad-lanceolate; the last pair, semi-cordate. Tho mouth small; tho lower jaw shorter than the upper. The teeth below, numerous, close, reflex ; two palatal rows above, close also and numerous, but the anterior in the marginal row^ longer than usual. The eyes lateral, small, orbicular. Nostrils close to tho rostrum, gaping. The trank round. The scales, broad-ovate, imbricate. Length 14 inches. Circumference near the head, li inch; the thickest part of the trunk about 2 inches, and diminishes inconsiderably till near the tail. The tail very small, Digitized by Google dered unwholesome by the growth of weeds and the rubbish which continually falls into it, would be drinkable in time of need. Thero aro lasting springs in it. Besides Sajra there are other hills close to it. On two of these are also ruined forts. The high¬ est of all is Gojra, whose peak is narrow and pointed. To ascend Gojra is much more difficult. A tunnol is built in it, which, it is said, leads to all the other mountains, but no one ventures to go in. These hills, forts, &c. wero one of the principal means by which the former rulers used to defend themselves. The height, the positions, and the number of the hills were sufficient to harass the most patient. Besides those forts, at the extremity of Sajra hill below, is another fort built of large black slabs, which is oblong, occupying about four miles; a very wide ditch surrounds it, full of pure water. Inside the fort are found the offices of tho Small Cause Court, Sub-Magistrate’s and Teh- sildar’s Kacheris, Pension, Post, and other Offices. In the middle is an open space where a building was erected by Government many years ago, in which to confine princes who fell pri¬ soners into their hands. As you enter the fort, opposite you stands a largo Hindu temple which in extent aud workmanship excels both the grand temples of Konjivaram. It has several gigantic " Mandaps” of superior carving. In them are many dark cells for gods. The gods of this temple were those who lived in water, hence taDei* suddenly, sharp-pointed; length 2 inches. The colour,—tho head very dark, obscure, green, without spot. The trunk (including the tail), almost black, with a dark-greenish cast. The ridge of the back variegated with about twenty narrow spots, composed of longitudinal, short, dusky-yellow, white and black lines. Along the sides, and half down the tail, aro interrupted rows of short, white lines; and from the head to the anua, on each side close to the scuta, there is a regular row of black dots. The scuta and squamro are of a bluish white colour.” In an observation, he remarks that the “colour resembles the Gedi Paragud” of the Coromandel Coast, which is the Manor or Msinyar (Bungarum candidum) of the Konkan; “but the variegating spots are very different,” and “ from the want of poisoning organs it may bo inferred that it is not so formidable as, by the natives, represented.”— (Account of Indian Serpents, p. 22).—Ed.
 * Natives are generally very ignorant of natural history,