106 SIR JOSEPH PAYEEE, K.C.S.I., ETC., 



pigs and fowls, sheep and geese — and vegetables, besides which they 

 had representations of the serpent in various forms. There was 

 also a representation resembling the pictures of the brazen 

 uerpent of Scripture. A sort of ceremony of a strange and 

 weird nature then took place in the temple, and all sorts of noises 

 with dancing and the beating of tomtoms. On a given signal 

 there was a tremendous rush for the platform, and a detachment 

 of cavalry had to be called out to prevent the people stabbing one 

 another, so great was the excitement ; ultimately an athletic 

 fellow managed to throw himself up on the platform and then 

 there was a tremendous scrimmage all over the Temple Square. 

 This was supposed to be pure serpent worship ; it was entirely 

 confined to the Chinese — the Javanese took no part whatever in it. 



Allusion is made in the Paper to the mongoose. I have re- 

 peatedly seen fights between a snake and that animal. It was one 

 of the amusements in camp to get a snake entrapped and see it fight 

 with a mongoose. On such occasions I noticed that when the snake 

 was let out of the basket he seemed to divine that there was a 

 mongoose in the room. I used to take my mongoose — a pet 

 animal — under my arm and directly he was released he would 

 walk right round the mess-room without noticing the snake, 

 while the snake stood in the middle of the room (I use the word 

 stood advisedly, for it erected its head, spitting in all directions). 

 But the mongoose walked slowly round the room, and one could 

 hardly notice the difference in the radius of the circles he made, 

 but each turn brought him nearer and nearer to the snake ; when, in 

 an instant, before you could realise what it had done, the mongoose 

 had caught the snake by the back of the head and killed it or 

 stunned it ;* it was very rarely that it was killed outright, but it 

 was disabled and then the mongoose would begin to play with it 

 like a cat does with a mouse. In regard to the tradition about 

 its taking an antidote, I do not believe it for a moment. I have 

 always seen the mongoose return to the attack and have never 

 seen it take anything like an antidote such as I have heard 

 desci'ibed. 



Dr. J. S. Phene\ — Judging generally, the Paper gives one the 

 impression that there is very little evidence of Serpent Worship in 

 Europe. I take it that means at the present time. In times of 



* The American prairie dog acts in a somewhat similar manner. — Ed. 



