512 Miscellaneous. 
Popular Impressions in India regarding the Natural History of 
certain Animals. By H. Torrens, Esq., B.A., &e. 
The singular impressions current among natives even of the highest 
rank, as to the habits and nature of certain animals, are not undeserving 
of record. It is rarely that the credence of the narrators in these 
things can be elicited, if even they go so far as to mention the existence 
of the belief; for they dread the ridicule as much as they anticipate 
the incredulity of a European : consequently these strange stories are 
but imperfectly known, even to the best-informed among us in such 
legends. I mention one or two, with the circumstances of my acquaint- 
ance with them. 
While out tiger-shooting with a party of Musalman gentlemen, I was 
asked, in a confidential way, whether I had ever seen the phnew: I 
spell the word with the almost indescribable nasal aspirate with which 
it was invariably pronounced to me. With an air of grave and serious 
interest, which is the best way of inspiring confidence, I replied that 
the nature of the thing or being was unknown to me, and I requested 
information on the subject. On this there was a little hesitation, 
when after a time it was explained, that as I had seen more of tigers 
than my companions, they fancied I might have also seen or heard 
something of the animal that always preceded the tiger, called phnew, 
from the ceaseless iteration of a sound similar to its name. I required 
further enlightenment as to this creature, when I found it was a 
‘something that preceded the tiger by six cubits, wherever he went, 
making the noise phnew without end, looking for things for it.” The 
old tales of ‘ the lion and his provider’ recurred to me at once; and 
T bethought me of the hospitality of some cat-like sound of Felis tigris 
having led, during his nightly search for prey, to the creation of the 
story. I have done all I could, but in vain, to discover whether there 
were real grounds for the belief, based on such a habit of the animal. 
I killed several tigers in company with my friends afterwards, but 
though we found no phnew with any of them, the silent faith of my 
believers in the marvellous has remained unshaken as to the existence 
of the mysterious animal. I subsequently learned that there is in 
Bengal a like belief respecting it among the Hindus, who term the 
creature ghég*. 
There are few Englishmen in India who have not perhaps heard 
some of the strange tales related by the natives regarding serpents. 
The most remarkable to me has always been the belief in the Ra 
Samp, or king snake, who is represented as belonging to a superior 
order of serpent, as exacting homage and obedience from his ophite 
subjects, and sometimes, as appearing with the semblance of a crown, 
the type of his authority. I was one day in company with a number 
of native gentlemen, when the conversation turned upon the nature 
of antidotes in the case of snake-bites, the belief as to the cure 
effected by applying to the wound the head of the identical reptile 
that had inflicted it, the charms powerful to compel the snake to ap- 
* According to Babu Rajendralal Mittra, the Hindus distinguish the Ghég 
as a different animal from the P’heu.—E. Blyth. 
