RELATING TO SNAKES. 189 



nation to sleep. My servants called in people 

 that were supposed to possess the power of charm- 

 ing ; and to please the servants, I allowed them to 

 remain and say what prayers they liked, but for- 

 bad their touching me. On inquiry, I was 

 vexed to find that they had not killed the snake. 

 They had an opportunity, and alleged as an 

 excuse for not having done it, that if they had, 

 there would have been no hopes of my recovery. 

 The pain after some hours went gradually off, 

 and I fell into a sound sleep, from which I 

 awoke quite well. 



From the experiments which I made in Cal- 

 cutta, it appeal's clear that snakes do not always 

 possess the same power of destroying life. It is, 

 how ever, a doubt with me, whether they expend 

 any of their venomous fluid in swallowing and 

 digesting their food, as they do in killing it ; if 

 they do, their bite soon after eating will not be 

 so mortal as after long fasting ; in fact, whatever 

 they do eat, I believe they first kill : at all events, 

 I conceive the longer it has been contained in 

 their bodies, the more venomous it is ; and the 

 hotter the weather, the thinner the venomous 

 fluid. 



