This blog is devoted to exploring the 'NATURAL BEAUTY OF SRI LANKA. My interests are photography, archaeology and ancient history.
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philipv203@gmail.com
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' Kandyan dancerrs, Gampaha, Sri Lanka. Please BOOKMARK this page.
“…Thalagoya
(1681). Ever since Robert Knox, English writers have often described the
thalagoya in relation to the kabaragoya merely because these lizards are by far
the largest to be found on the island. As there are many references to the word
in English literature pertaining to Sri Lanka, I have passed them on to the OED
as historical evidence to enable the editors to determine whether the word
merits an entry in the third edition. My suggested definition (which should
conform to the revised definition of kabaragoya): "In Sri Lanka, the name
given to the land monitor, Varanus bengalensis bengalensis." The reference by Knox (1681:31) reads: "There is the Tolla
guion very much like the former, which is eaten, and reckoned excellent meat.
The Chingulays say it is the best sort of flesh; and for this reason, That if
you eat other flesh at the same time you eat of this, and have occasion to
vomit, you will never vomit out this tho you vomit all the other. This creature
eats not carrion, but only lives on herbs; is less of size than the kobbera
guion, and blackish, lives in hollow Trees and holes in the Humbosses: And I
suppose is the same with that which in the West Indies they call the
Guiana."