The animal, which was about four feet long, was dragged out of the water by the tail, and Omrah took it to the camp.

“Well, I really thought it was a small alligator,” said the Major; “but now I perceive my mistake.  What a variety of lizards there appears to be in this country.”

“A great many from the chameleon upward,” replied Swinton.  “By the by, there is one which is said to be very venomous.  I have heard many well-authenticated stories of the bite being not only very dangerous, but in some instances fatal.  I have specimens of the animal in my collection.  It is called here the geitje.”

“Well, it is rather remarkable, but we have in India a small lizard, called the gecko by the natives, which is said to be equally venomous.  I presume it must be the same animal, and it is singular that the names should vary so little.  I have never seen an instance of its poisonous powers, but I have seen a whole company of sepoys run out of their quarters because they have heard the animal make its usual cry in the thatch of the building; they say that it drops down upon people from the roof.”

“Probably the same animal; and a strong corroboration that the report of its being venomous is with good foundation.”

“And yet if we were to make the assertion in England, we should in all probability not be believed.”

“Not by many, I grant—­not by those who only know a little; but by those who are well informed, you probably would be.  The fact is, from a too ready credulity, we have now turned to almost a total skepticism, unless we have ocular demonstration.  In the times of Marco Polo, Sir John Mandeville, and others,—­say in the fifteenth century, when there were but few travelers and but little education, a traveler might assert almost any thing, and gain credence; latterly a traveler hardly dare assert any thing.  Le Vaillant and Bruce, who traveled in the South and North of Africa, were both stigmatized as liars, when they published their accounts of what they had seen, and yet every tittle has since been proved to be correct.  However, as people are now better informed, they do not reject so positively; for they have certain rules to guide them between the possible and the impossible.”

“How do you mean?”

“I mean, for instance, that if a person was to tell me that he had seen a mermaid, with the body of a woman and the scaly tail of a fish, I should at once say that I could not believe him.  And why? because it is contrary to the laws of nature.  The two component parts of the animal could not be combined, as the upper portion would belong to the mammalia, and be a hot-blooded animal, the lower to a cold-blooded class of natural history.  Such a junction would, therefore, be impossible.  But there are, I have no doubt, many animals still undiscovered, or rather still unknown to Europeans, the description of which may at first excite suspicion, if not doubt.  But as I have before observed, the account would,