512 Miscellaneous . 



Popular Impressions in India regarding the Natural History of 

 certain Animals. By H. Torrens, Esq., B.A., &c. 



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 phnevj : 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 

 I 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 ghdg*. 



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 Raj 

 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 Ghog 

 as a diiFerent animal from the P'heu. — E. Blvth. 



