Meer Hassan Ali, B.: Observations on the Mussulmauns of India: descriptive of their manners, customs, habits, and religious opinions ; made during a twelve years residence in their immediate Society (Band 2) (London, 1832)

60 ANECDOTE OF THE

"As might have been anticipated, the very
same snake-catcher and his attendant returned
to the Moonshie's gateway a very few days
after their former success; Moonshie Sahib was
at home, and, concealing his real intentions, he
gave orders that the two men should be ad-
mitted ; on their entrance, he said to them,
' You say you can catch snakes; now, friends,
if any of the same family remain of which you
caught one the other day in this compound,
I beg you will have the civility to draw them
out from their hiding-places.' *

" The Moonshie watched the fellows nar-
rowly, that they might not have a chance of
escaping detection, if it was, as he had always
suspected, that the snakes are first let loose
by the men, who pretend to attract them from
their hiding-places. The two men being bare-
headed, and in a state of almost perfect nudity
(the common usage of the very lowest class of
Hindoo labourers), wearing only a small wrap-

* It is generally believed snakes do not live apart from
their species; if one is destroyed in a house, a second is
anticipated and generally discovered.