THIRTY-FIVE YEARS IN THE EAST. 14! 



at the tower called Shahburj, where he himself had pre- 

 viously resided ; which was accordingly done. I gave him 

 some remedies, and sent him away ; but scarcely was he 

 removed from the stable, when the payahs ( armed atten- 

 dants of the durbar ) appeared, summoning me to present 

 myself with the faqueer to the durbar. I stated, that he 

 had already received the reward of his insolence, and was 

 not expected to recover ; but Sheer Sing, who was pro- 

 bably much annoyed at the epithet, "son of a laundress," 

 despatched several messengers, ordering me to bring him 

 to the durbar on his bed ; and I was obliged to obey. 

 I arrived, however, too late, for the assembly had already 

 left the durbar, and Sheer Sing had departed from the 

 Hazooreebagh to the interior of the fortress. On the same 

 day, the faqueer had a swelling on his knee, and diarrhoea ; 

 but he soon recovered, and afterwards proved very useful 

 to me, when I began to make my experiments with the 

 serpents, which produced so many curious results, that I 

 sacrificed upwards of two hundred fowls in less than six 

 months. At that time poultry was remarkably cheap at 

 Lahore, the English not having yet occupied that country, 

 and four couple could be purchased for one rupee. The 

 faqueer really possessed the secret of preventing his blood 

 being affected by the bites of venomous reptiles ; and, 

 having at length succeeded iu obtaining his statement 

 of it, I now present it to the public. The faqueer was an 

 arsenic-eater, and to this reason he ascribed the cause 

 of his remaining unaffected by any serpent's venom. 

 Perhaps he was right, because in India arsenic is an in- 

 gredient in various compositions which are recommended 

 as remedies against the bite of serpents. He told me, that 

 during his stay under my control, he could not procure the 

 poison, and that that was the reason why the viper's bite 

 affected him, which might possibly have been the case. 



On my journey from Cabul to Bokhara, I met with an 

 Affghan physician and horse-dealer, travelling from Bokhara 

 who, it was stated, consumed every day one drachm of 

 arsenic, in order to maintain bis appetite, which he lost 



