The Worthington advance. [volume] (Worthington, Minn.) 1874-1908, 1878-07-04
overcomes Ill small serpents is we'll

overcomes Ill small serpents is we'll
known.
Neither man moved.
Gradually the cobra turned it, head
and very slowly turned to the milk.
Neither man moved. When the cobra's
head was dipped in the milk, the Parsee
knew he might move.
A sudden dart of his aem--itself much
like a serpent--and the cobra was grip
ped, and being strangled.
Then suddenly there was cry, and the
Parsee began to laugh.
He had become q raging mailman. The
strain upon the brain had been too awful.
When relief came: that arrived which,
f.on an English point Of view, is worse
than death, insanity.
Nothing was ever clearly ascertained
about the matter beyond these facts. The
Indian found by the hotel servant in the
room was ascertaincd to be living in the
adjoining house, separated from the Par
see by mere wall. This Indian had &C.
cess to the roof, out upon which cropped
the stove-pipe from the parsee's room.
The inference was that he had visited
the room in order to remove the door of
the stove, that he might be able to pass
the cobra down the stovc-pipe, when it
would wriggle its way into the room.
That this was so appears to have been
proved by the fact that a strange bit of
mating was found on the root, and
which was similar to that of basket
kept in the Indians room, and in box
always locked, and which had holes
bored in the lid.
The explanation was now found for the
fact that the Indian bought many small
biros and fancy mice, of which nothing
was ever seen. They were to feed the
cobra.
But why this precaution2 Why was
not the serpent left in the bedroom, and
being introduced there, how would the
Indian know that it would be attracted
to the intended victim2
The certainty of this attraction Of the
cobra to the man appears to be made out
by the statement of waiter, who, walk
ing the previous afternoon in the public
gardens, saw the Indian squirt something
from what appeared to be flower on to
the short hair at the nape of the Parsee's
neck.
The waiter saw the Parsee turn, and
heard the Indian utter some WORDS Of
apology.
The inference is that this liquid was
the strange perfume which serpent charm.
ers use for overpowering scrpents.
But there rests the question of the
mode of Introducing the serpents.
The only explanation, if it is one, to
this inquiry, is to be sought in the
strange words uttered by the Indian
during the fever from which he suffered
Immediately after the Parsee had become
mad.
"If he had died asleep, his soul would
have been lost NOW the prophet has taken
his soul, and he is safe-safe."
These words, however, are to be doubt
ed, for the Indian could speak no French
and depended in the hotel upon an Irist
waiter who had served in India, and who
translated the mutterings of the Indian
whom he nursed, into very bad French
for the benetit Of his fellow servants.
All put together, the inference may b.
that a fanatic Indian Mussulman endeav
ored to destroy all Indian Parsee, who wa
opposed to Moslemism in India; that thi
attempt at murder was made in the hep
OF killing the Parsee in his sleep whel
death arriving without moment in whicl
to appeal for mercy, his soul would be lost
and finally according to Eastern belief, tn
intended victims life being saved, and hi
mind lost, he was under the protection q
Heaven.
The Indian would therefore look upo
his attempt at assassination as resultin
in immortal benefit to the man whose sou
he had desired to send to perf1ition.
There has been no chance of judicia
inquiry, for the Parsee has never recovere
his senses, and the Indian died after endu1
ing three weeks agony of exhausting feve