The deaths from snakes and wild animals in all India averages
annually twenty-two thousand. About a thousand are killed by tigers. Of a
hundred and fifty kinds of snakes, only about twenty are poisonous. The
deaths from snakes is one in 13,070; and the chance of being bitten is very
small."
"I am afraid your figures lie, Sir Modava," said Captain Ringgold, with a
pleasant laugh. "Millions of the people live in cities and large towns
where there isn't a snake of any kind."
"Quite true, and, to some extent, the figures do lie; but there are plenty
of cobras and other snakes in parts of Bombay, and the figures are not so
false as you think, Captain," replied Sir Modava. "But I forget that I was
sent here for a purpose by Lord Tremlyn. I am to tell you something about
the Mahrattas, which is the name of the people who inhabited the region
north of us. They have a long history which I have not time to review, but
they have been prominent in the earlier affairs of India. They have always
been a warlike people, and wrested the country from the Mogul emperor,
sometimes called the Grand Mogul, and made themselves a powerful people.
"The present maharajah rules over the most extensive kingdom of any native
prince. He is a Rajput, which is the aristocracy of the Mahrattas. He is
the most powerful of the Indian rulers, and one of the most hospitable.
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