the third the Bishop of Heliopolis,1
who arrived at Alexan-dretta as I was leaving it for Europe. The whole
of Siam abounds with rice and fruits, the principal of which are called
mangues, durions, and mangoustans.2 The forests are full of
deer, elephants, tigers, rhinoceros, and monkeys, and everywhere is to
be seen an abundance of bamboos, which are large and very tall canes,
hollow throughout, and as hard as iron.
At
the ends of these canes nests, of the size of a man's head, are
suspended ; they are made by ants from a fat earth which they carry up.
There is but a small hole at the base of these nests, by which the ants
enter, and in these nests each ant, like honey bees, has his separate
chamber. They build their nests on the canes, because if they made them
on the ground, during the rainy season, which lasts four or five
months, they would be exterminated, all the country being then
inundated. One must take precautions after night-fall against snakes.
There are some snakes which are 22 feet long and have two heads,3
but the head at the extremity which answers to the tail, and where the
snake ends, does not open the mouth and has no movement. There is also
in Siam a very venomous animal which is not more than a foot long. Its
tail is forked and has two points, and its form is somewhat like what
we picture the salamander.*
The rivers of this Kingdom are very beautiful, and the
1 Heliopolis or Bambyke, near Carchemish on the Euphrates. Le Blanc identified Hieropolis with Aleppo (Voyages, Paris Edition, 1648, p. 8).
% Mangoes, durians, and mangosteens.
3
This fable of two-headed snakes is common in India; sometimes it is
said of the Dhamin snake—Ptyas mucosus. The statement that the head, at
the tail end, has no movement, and that the mouth does not open, is a
charmingly ingenuous admjssion. See Mundy, 308 f., with an illustration
; Bombay Gazetteer, x. 48. Like the case of the Birds of Paradise, referred to on p. 13, the description illustrates the persistence of myths.
*
This poisonous, forked-tailed reptile was certainly mythical. A species
of Eublepharis ? is called bishkhapra by the natives of India, and
though unprovided with fangs is believed to be very poisonous. (Yule, Hobson-Jobson, 95 f.) A. Hamilton describes a dangerous animal, shaped like a lizard, and called Jackoa (Pinkerton, Voyages, viii. 453).
