34 THE LAND-MARKS OF 



a^Xst kiir" There is a well-known superstition prevailing 

 snates. amongst the natives of India to the effect that, 

 when a person is bitten by a snake, the snake 

 should be protected from injury : it is believed 

 that if the reptile is killed, the bitten person will 

 surely die. I have reported such a case in Sir 

 Joseph Fayrer's "Thanatophidia." Again, samp- 

 wallahs will never kill a snake, for fear their power 

 over the creature should be destroyed. It is singu- 

 lar to find that such a belief exists also amongst 

 the Caribs. Captain Pim,in his entertaining book, 

 " Dottings on the Roadside," says — " On another 

 occasion I saw a smaller but no less deadly mem- 

 ber of the same species ; it was on the banks of 

 the San Juan, in the hands of my faithful Simon 

 (a Carib), who had just landed from my canoe 

 to make a fire and cook our breakfast. Simon 

 allowed the creature to coil round him, and com- 

 menced talking to it in his musical language, 

 holding the head close to his face. Presently he 

 put it gently on the ground, when it slowly made 

 its way into the adjacent undergrowth. I gave 

 Simon a good blowing up for letting the brute 

 escape, but he told me that he was a snake-doctor, 

 and that had he inflicted the slightest injury on it, 

 his influence would have been at an end for ever." 



