[Footnote 1:  For an account of the encounter between the ichneumon and the venomous snakes of Ceylon, see Ch.  I. p. 39.]

[Footnote 2:  The following narrative of the operations of a snake-charmer in Ceylon is contained in a note from Mr. Reyne, of the department of public works:  “A snake-charmer came to my bungalow in 1851, requesting me to allow him to show me his snakes dancing.  As I had frequently seen them, I told him I would give him a rupee if he would accompany me to the jungle, and catch a cobra, that I knew frequented the place.  He was willing, and as I was anxious to test the truth of the charm, I counted his tame snakes, and put a watch over them until I returned with him.  Before going I examined the man, and satisfied myself he had no snake about his person.  When we arrived at the spot, he played on a small pipe, and after persevering for some time out came a large cobra from an ant hill, which I knew it occupied.  On seeing the man it tried to escape, but he caught it by the tail and kept swinging it round until we reached the bungalow.  He then made it dance, but before long it bit him above the knee.  He immediately bandaged the leg above the bite, and applied a snake-stone to the wound to extract the poison.  He was in great pain for a few minutes, but after that it gradually went away, the stone falling off just before he was relieved.  When he recovered he held a cloth up which the snake flew at, and caught its fangs in it; while in that position, the man passed his hand up its back, and having seized it by the throat, he extracted the fangs in my presence and gave them to me.  He then squeezed out the poison on to a leaf.  It was a clear oily substance, and when rubbed on the hand produced a fine lather.  I carefully watched the whole operation, which was also witnessed by my clerk and two or three other persons. Colombo, 13th January 1860.—­H.E.  REYNE.”]

[Footnote 3:  Hasselquist.]

As to the snake-stone itself, I submitted one, the application of which I have been describing, to Mr. Faraday, who has communicated to me, as the result of his analysis, his belief that it is “a piece of charred bone which has been filled with blood perhaps several times, and then carefully charred again.  Evidence of this is afforded, as well by the apertures of cells or tubes on its surface as by the fact that it yields and breaks, under pressure; and exhibits an organic structure within.  When heated slightly, water rises from it, and also a little ammonia; and, if heated still more highly in the air, carbon burns away, and a bulky white ash is left, retaining the shape and size of the stone.”  This ash, as is evident from inspection, cannot have belonged toany vegetable substance, for it is almost entirely composed of phosphate of lime.  Mr. Faraday adds that “if the piece of matter has ever been employed as a spongy absorbent, it seems hardly fit for that purpose in its present state:  but who can say to what treatment it has been subjected since it was fit for use, or to what treatment the natives may submit it when expecting to have occasion to use it?”