Storia do Mogor 265.8.3

265.8.3

[186] A fearful thing once happened. A well-born damsel married a youth of her own rank. At night, after they had withdrawn to their room, the people of the house heard great cries from the young lady calling for help. The people pretended not to hear, it being the general custom in India that young women on such occasions, be it veritable or pretence, should show that they are hurt. In the morning, when the bridegroom did not appear, they opened the door, and they beheld him pacing restlessly up and down the place, his eyes staring unnaturally; he was foaming at the mouth and mad. He fell upon the people, and they were obliged to secure him. They sought the bride, and found her in the room cut to pieces, her breasts gnawed, her eyes plucked out, her face and her whole body bitten. Within twenty-four hours the bridegroom died in agony, barking like an angry dog. The cause of this disaster was that nearly three months before the marriage a mad dog had bitten him on the leg. He did not have this attended to properly, and the night he was with his wife the poison overcame him, and he acted as described. From what I have experienced in India many times, to heal a man who has been bitten by a mad dog it is necessary to apply at once the actual cautery to the bite, and without any other treatment he recovers. Equally I have seen and tested that anyone bitten by such an animal, if he goes on a sea voyage is not affected by the poison.