"This particular man has the dark eyes, hair, and beard of a Hindu, but wears ordinary clothes. He is slender and tall. He comes in frequently. He always takes a great interest in the hooded cobras, the yellow ones, and others, but he reserves his adoration for the king cobra. I have made an investigation and find that the belief of one sect of serpent worshipers is that the king cobra is inhabited by the soul of a prince, while the humbler cobras contain the souls of common men. All kinds are treated with respect, but the obeisance is made only to the king cobra, regarded as a superior.
"It appears extremely likely to me that this man is the perpetrator of this attempted burglary, to me the most mysterious and fascinating crime on record.
"The man I mention seems to be the leader of the serpent worshipers, but there are others of his race who come here and are simply absorbed in gazing at the cobras.
"A few white men have also shown an abnormal interest in the king cobras, and a recent investigation we have made indicates that there are a great many more reptile worshipers in this part of the world than anyone seems to have suspected."
There are nearly 200,000 serpent worshipers in India, according to the estimate of W. Crooks, author of "The Religion and Folk-Lore of Northern India." He computed the votaries of the snake-god Guga at 123,000. Twenty-five thousand others worshiped Naga, another Siwike-god, and more than 30,000 adored Jester, spake deities. 