"The worship of the snake is very common in the old Nágpúr Province where, especially among the lower class, the votaries of Siva or Nág Bhushan, 'he who wears snakes as his ornaments,' are numerous. It is likely enough that the city took its name from the Nág temple, still to be seen there, and that the river Nág, perhaps, took its name from the city or temple, and not the city from the river, as some think. Certain it is that many of the Kunbi or cultivating class worship the snake and the snake only, and that this worship is something more than the ordinary superstitious awe with which all Hindus regard the snake. I find from my notes that one Kunbi whom I questioned in old days, when I was a Settlement Officer in camp in the Nágpúr Division, stated that he worshipped the Nág and nothing else; that he worshipped clay images of the snake, and when he could afford to pay snake-catchers for a look at a live one, he worshipped the living snake; that if he saw a Nág on the road he would worship it, and that he believed no Hindu would kill a Nág or cobra if he knew it were a Nág. He then gave me the following list of articles he would use in worshipping the snake, when he could afford it; and I take it, the list is similar to what would be used in ordinary Siva Worship. 1--Water. 2--Gandh, pigment of sandal-wood for the forehead or body. 3--Cleaned rice. 4--Flowers. 5--Leaves of the Bail tree. 6--Milk. 7--Curds. 8--A thread or piece of cloth. 9--Red powder. 10--Saffron. 11--Abir, a powder composed of fragrant substances. 12--Garlands of flowers. 13--Buttemah or grain soaked and parched. 14--Jowarri. 15--Five lights. 16--Sweetmeats. 17--Betel leaves. 18--Cocoa nut. 19--A sum of money (according to means). 20--Flowers offered by the suppliant, the palms of the hands being joined. "All these articles, my informant assured me, were offered to the snake in regular succession, one after the other, the worshipper repeating the while certain _mantras_ or incantations. Having offered all these gifts, the worshipper prostrates himself before the snake, and, begging for pardon if he has ever offended against him, craves that the snake will continue his favour upon him and protect him from every danger." In the _Oriental Memoirs_ by Forbes, we are told of the gardeners of Guzerat who would never allow the snakes to be disturbed, calling them "father," "brother," and other familiar and endearing names. The head gardener paid them religious honours. As Deane says, "here we observe a mixture of the original Serpent Worship, with the more modern doctrine of transmigration." Still more striking is the information in Purchas's _Pilgrims_, that a king of Calicut built cottages for live serpents, whom he tended with peculiar care, and made it a capital crime for any person in his dominions to destroy a snake. "The natives," he says, "looked upon serpents as endued with divine spirits."