Zool. [According to Madras Manual of Administration, III. 154, ad. Sinhalese tit-polongā, f. tita, in comb. tit-, speck, freckle, spot, mark + polongā viper. The form with tic- is app. due to substituting tik ‘spot, freckle, mark, spot on tiger-deer,’ for tit-.] A venomous snake of India and Ceylon: the chain viper or necklace-snake, Daboia Russellii.
[1681. R. Knox, Hist. Ceylon, 29. There is another venomous Snake called Polonga, the most venomous of all.]
1825. Mrs. Heber, in H.’s Narr. Journ. (1828), II. xxvii. 258. The Cobra de Capello is the most common, but its bite is not so certainly fatal as that of the Tic Polonga.
1834. Caunter, Orient. Ann., vii. 80. A large dog, belonging to a Cingalese who accompanied us, was bitten by a snake, the ticpolonga.
1910. Times, 13 Sept., 7/4. Three of the most deadly snakes known in India—the cobra, the tic-polonga or Russell’s viper, and the banded krait.
