he will actually succumb to pure fright, not to the snake-bite at all.  My chief care when a case of this sort was brought me, was to assume a cheery demeanour, laugh to scorn the fears of the relatives, and tell them he would be all right in a few hours if they attended to my directions.  This not uncommonly worked by sympathetic influence on the patient himself.  I believe, so long as all round him thought he was going to die, and expected no other result, the same effect was produced on his own mind.  As soon as hope sprang up in the breasts of all around him, his spirit also caught the contagion.  As a rule, he would now make an effort to articulate.  I would then administer a good dose of sal volatile, brandy, eau-de-luce, or other strong stimulant, cut into the supposed bite, and apply strong nitric acid to the wound.  This generally made him wince, and I would hail it as a token of certain recovery.  By this time some confidence would return, and the supposed dying man would soon walk back sound and whole among his companions after profuse expressions of gratitude to his preserver.

I have treated dozens of cases in this way successfully, and only seen two deaths.  One was a young woman, my chowkeydar’s daughter; the other was an old man, who was already dead when they lifted him out of the basket in which they had slung him.  I do not wish to be misunderstood.  I believe that in all these cases of recovery it was pure fright working on the imagination, and not snake-bite at all.  My opinion is shared by most planters, that there is no cure yet known for a cobra bite, or for that of any other poisonous snake, where the poison has once been fairly injected and allowed to mix with the blood[2].

There is another curious instance of the effects of fear on the native mind in the common method taken by an Ojah or Brahmin to discover a suspected thief.  When a theft occurs, the Ojah is sent for, and the suspected parties are brought together.  After various muntras, i.e. charms or incantations, have been muttered, the Ojah, who has meanwhile narrowly scrutinized each countenance, gives each of the suspected individuals a small quantity of dry rice to chew.  If the thief be present, his superstitious fears are at work, and his conscience accuses him.  He sees some terrible retribution for him in all these muntras, and his heart becomes like water within him, his tongue gets dry, his salivary glands refuse to act; the innocent munch away at their rice contentedly, but the guilty wretch feels as if he had ashes in his mouth.  At a given signal all spit out their rice, and he whose rice comes out, chewed indeed, but dry as summer dust, is adjudged the thief.  This ordeal is called chowl chipao, and is rarely unsuccessful.  I have known several cases in my own experience in which a thief has been thus discovered.