114 SIR JOSEPH FAYRER, K.C.S.I., ETC., 



temples, or rather mud-huts, with reed or leaf covered roofs, the 

 people resorted from time to time, and there, through the medium 

 of the " priests," presented their offerings to the snakes. The latter, 

 which were said to be kept in the temples in considerable numbers, 

 were of the python or boa tribe, and tame ; their ordinary resting 

 place the rafters of the hut. They appear to have been worshipped 

 as incarnations of evil, the object of the worshipper being the 

 aversion of misfortune or other evil with which he was threatened. 

 There were also certain incarnate beneficent spirits to which the 

 Fantees made their devotions and offerings, and certain inanimate 

 objects, more especially stones and isolated rocks, were declared 

 fetish, and as such had sacrifices and oblations offered to them.* 



Exceptional instances. Although the point has not been actually 

 demonstrated, yet analogy indicates the possibility that the effects 

 of snake poison may not be equally pronounced in all persons. 

 This question is unsuited for discussion in notes like the present, 

 but the mere allusion to it may perhaps lead elsewhere to its 

 elucidation. With regard to constitutional peculiarities, it is 

 admitted that in respect to certain animals they bear some relation 

 at least to colour ; thus while in some geographical regions those 

 that are white are injuriously affected by particular indigenous 

 plants, those that are black escape altogether. A similar peculi- 

 arity is said to exist in regard to the poison of the rattle snake 

 (Crotalus horridus) in pigs, the bite of the reptile being fatal to 

 those of one colour, but not so to those of another. 



This being the case, presumption is in favour of the account 

 given by Dr. Honigberger, for many years surgeon to the Maharajah 

 Runjeet Singh, " the Lion of the Punjab," to the effect that 

 instances of such immunity against snake-poison had come under 

 his personal observation. Dr. Honigberger's bookf is not now 

 accessible to me, but my recollection is that in it such cases of 

 exemption are related ; nay more, that the persons alluded to, not 

 only remained unaffected, at least for some time, but after an 

 interval, varying from weeks to months, experienced a desire to be 

 again bitten by the same species of snake, namely the cobra (Naja 

 tripudians) for which purpose they resorted to the jungle, there to 

 seek out the reptile. According to Dr. Honigberger, after a few 

 repetitions of this remarkable process, the subject of the idiosyn- 

 crasy would fall into general ill-health, and so die. And no wonder. 

 Perhaps further observation and inquiry in the Punjab may tend 

 to confirm, or to refute the correctness of the views thus quoted. 



Fictitious cases of snake-bite. That such cases may occur is in 

 accordance with analogy and with experience, though doubtless in 

 itself a circumstance of extremely rare occurrence. Of the affec- 



* Such was the case, at least in 1847-8, during which period I served 

 on the Coast. — C. A. G. 



f Thirty-fire )'c>/r-< in the East. 



