A History of the Mahrattas v1.c9.83

v1.c9.83

³ [Ghodpadē (Ghorepuray) is also the family name of the Marāthā Rājās of Sandūr (Madras). The iguana (ghodpad) figures in Indian folklore, its flesh, when cooked and eaten, being held to be very invigorating. Regarding the story quoted by the author, Acworth (Ballads of the Mahrattas, 123) writes: ‘There is nothing in it which is in the least discordant with popular belief in the powers of the iguana. Every district officer must have had proof of this.’ It is probable that popular opinion seized upon the supposed prehensile power of the iguana to account for a feat of which no more prosaic explanation was at the time forthcoming. Note Fryer’s remark about ‘the Guiana, a creature like a Crocodile, which Robbers use to lay hold on by their Tails when they clamber Houses’ (Fryer’s Travels (Hakluyt), ed. Crooke, 1909, i. 291). See Yule, Hobson-Jobson, 397 f.)]