120 HAUNTS AND HOBBIES 



the doors ; they flew at the servants. It was only 

 after much trouble and with the aid of long sticks 

 that they were driven out into the garden. 



Besides these permanent occupants of our Indian 

 houses, we are occasionally favoured with the presence 

 of mere temporary visitors. The most objectionable 

 of these are the snakes and the scorpions. Fortunately 

 the visits of both are extremely rare. In the whole 

 long course of my Indian experience I never but 

 once discovered a snake in my house, and that once 

 was in the Himalaya. The house, as is there usual, 

 had a boarded floor; below the flooring there was a 

 hollow space, and at its bottom was the uneven, rocky 

 surface of the mountain. Through a hole in one of the 

 boards I saw the head of a most singular animal appear; 

 it resembled the head of no creature that I had ever 

 seen or heard of. It rose higher, and the mystery was 

 solved. It was a snake, holding in his jaws a frog he 

 had just captured. Seeing a servant approach, the 

 snake retired, and to prevent his reappearance I had the 

 hole in the flooring securely stopped up. 



I never found a snake in any of the many houses 

 I occupied at different times in the plains, but 1 once 

 discovered one at an outhouse close adjoining. The 

 snake was not inside the building, but affixed in a 

 most extraordinary manner to the exterior of the 

 entrance door. The door, a very rough one, was 

 fastened by a chain and padlock, and hanging wrig- 

 gling from the padlock I saw, to my astonishment, 

 a small snake. The snake had somehow climbed to 

 the padlock, and had thrust his head through between 



