110 Professor Thomas B. Fraser [Marcli 20, 



was bitten by one of them, and shortly afterwards expired. In 

 connection with my subject, a special interest is attached to the 

 account given by Mr. Drummond Hay, and repeated in its main 

 features by Quedenfeldt in the ' Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologic ' of 1886, 

 of the origin of this Eisowy sect, and of the immunity which they 

 claim. The founder, Seedna Eiser, was being followed through the 

 desert of Soos by a great multitude, who, becoming hungry, cla- 

 moured for bread. On this, Seedna Eiser became enraged, and 

 turning upon them he uttered a common Arabic curse, " Kool sim," 

 which means " eat poison." So great was their faith in the teaching 

 of the saint, that they acted upon the literal interpretation of his 

 words, and thereafter ate venomous snakes and reptiles ; and from 

 that time they themselves and their descendants have been immune 

 against serpents' bites (p. 65). 



Dr. Honigberger, in his ' Thirty-five Tears in the East,' pub- 

 lished in 1852, relates the incident of a faqueer who was bitten by a 

 serpent, and to whom he at once sent medicines which he judged 

 likely to prevent the ill-effects of the venom. " On the same after- 

 noon," he writes, " I visited him and found him in good spirits. I 

 at first attributed the circumstance to the effect produced by the 

 remedies I had sent him, but was surprised on hearing that he had 

 not taken them, he being of opinion that the venom of the serpent 

 was incapable of affecting him, inasmuch as he had often been bitten 

 by serpents without having sustained any injury." On the sugges- 

 tion of the faqueer, the same serpent, which had been caught and 

 retained, was allowed to bite him again, and afterwards to bite a 

 fowl. This fowl was taken home by Dr. Honigberger, and he found 

 it dead on the following morning, " although the faqueer, who was 

 bitten first, was quite well " (p. 135). 



Nicholson, in his work on 'Indian Snakes' (1875), and Kichards, 

 in his 'Landmarks of Snake-poison Literature ' (1885), also narrate 

 instances, the latter with obvious disbelief in their reality, suggest- 

 ing that snake-charmers may possess some means for protecting 

 themselves against the bites of venomous serpents. 



Many other examples might be quoted in which this suggestion 

 is made. The attention which has been drawn to the subject during 

 the last twelve months has prompted the publication of other 

 instances, such as that related by Dr. Bawa, of a Tamil snake- 

 charmer who, in the course of his performances, was bitten by a 

 cobra without any effect, while an onlooker, foolishly repeating the 

 performance, was bitten by the same cobra, and died in three hours ; 

 and the description given by M. D'Abbadie, in a recent issue of the 

 Comptes rendus, of the custom, recently prevailing at Mozambique, of 

 inoculating with serpents' venom, under the firm conviction that pro- 

 tection is thereby produced against the effects of serpents' bites. 



It may be instructive to associate with these statements the 

 belief that venomous serpents are themselves protected against the 

 effects of bites inflicted upon them by individuals both of their own 

 and of other species. On mere anatomical grounds, it is difiicult to 



