Observations on the Mussulmauns of India: Descriptive of Their Manners, Customs, Habits and Religious Opinions Made During a Twelve Years' Residence in Their Immediate SocietyMeer Hasan Ali, Mrs.
Islamic
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
Meer Hasan Ali, Mrs.
India -- Social life and customs; Muslims -- India
'The Moonshie says, he returned home soon after, and listened to his
wife's account of the event of the morning, and her warm commendation of
the skilful samp-wallahs; but although the servants confirmed all the lady
had told her husband of the snake-charmers' diligence, still he could not
but believe that these idle fellows had practised an imposition on his
unwary lady by their pretended powers in charming the snake. But here it
rested for the time; he could not decide without an opportunity of
witnessing the samp-wallahs at their employment, which he resolved to do
the next convenient opportunity.
'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 admitted; 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."[44]
'The Moonshie watched the fellows narrowly, 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 wrapper which could not contain, he
thought, the least of this class of reptiles, he felt certain there could
not now be any deception.
'The samp-wallah and his assistant, pretending to search every hole and
crevice of the compound, seemed busy and anxious in their employment,
which occupied them for a long time without success. Tired at last with
the labour, the men sat down on the ground to rest; the pipe was resorted
to, with which they pretend to attract the snake; this was, however,
sounded again and again, without the desired effect.
'From the apparent impossibility of any cheat being practised on him, the
Moonshie rather relaxed in his strict observance of the men: he had turned
his back but for an instant only, when the two fellows burst out in an
ecstasy of delight, exclaiming, "They are come! they are come!"--and on
the Moonshie turning quickly round, he was not a little staggered to find
three small snakes on the ground, at no great distance from the men, who,
he was convinced, had not moved from the place. They seemed to have no
dread of the reptiles, and accounted for it by saying they were
invulnerable to the snakes' venom; the creatures were then fearlessly
seized one by one by the men, and finally deposited in their basket.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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