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2 inasmuch as he had often been bitten by serpents without having
3 sustained any injury. The serpent which wounded him on
4 this occasion was a viper, which he had caught and retained
5 in his possession, and he offered to allow himself to be bitten
6 on the tongue, if I would consent to witness it. At that time,
7 Dr. W. Jameson (now superintendent of the botanical garden
8 at Saharunpore) was on a visit to Lahore, and the maharajah
9 showed him great attention, which induced me to inform the
10 maharajah of the offer made by the faqueer, and I requested
11 him to relate the case to Dr. Jameson, as I felt sure he would be
12 interested in it.
13 As for myself, I doubted the truth of the faqueer’s assertion,
14 and was persuaded that no European physician would believe
15 it. Accordingly, I was directed to present the faqueer to the
16 doctor, who was at that time stopping at Anarkullee. To test
17 the experiment, I took a fowl with me. The doctor smiled, when
18 I related to him the particulars, and, as I expected, expressed
19 his disbelief of the faqueer’s statement. However, the faqueer
20 put his hand over the pot in which the viper was contained, and
21 he was immediately bitten ; he afterwards held the fowl near the
22 pot, which was also bitten ; but the doctor still appeared to
23 think there was some deception in the matter. I took the fowl
24 home, and placed it beneath a basket, where 1 found it dead on
25 the following morning; although the faqueer, who was bitten
26 first, was quite well. I then took him, and also the dead fowl,
27 with me, to present them to the maharajah; and having given
28 him a full account of what had been done, informed him that
29 both the faqueer and the fowl had since been under my surveil-
30 lance. At his request, the faqueer was presented to him. He
31 was accompanied by a mezur (workman), who had just caught
32 a viper, which the faqueer had put into the same pot in which
33 the former had been, and presented it for the inspection of the
34 assembly. Maharajah Sheer Sing asked him whether he would
35 really allow himself to be bitten by venomous serpents, and
36 whether it was true that he would not thereby sustain injury?
37 The faqueer answered in the affirmative, and offered to give