[Pramāṇa](https://indike.org/pramana/) › [Indian literature](https://indike.org/pramana/in) › [Dark Ages](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages) › [Travellers (1500–1858)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel) › [Les six voyages de Jean-Baptiste Tavernier](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier) › [Travels in India (Ball)](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball) › 11.6 # Travels in India (Tavernier) 11.6 Travels in India (Ball) 11.6 - **Language:** English ### [11.6](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball.11.6) Gate is a pass in the mountains, which is half a quarter of a league long, and which you descend when going from Surat to Agra. You can still see at the entrance the ruins of two or three castles, and the road is so narrow that chariots can only pass one another with the greatest difficulty. Those who come from the south, en route to Agra, as from Surat, Goa, Bijapur, Golconda, and Masulipatam, and other places, cannot avoid traversing this pass, not having any other road except by taking that through Ahmadabad. There were formerly gates at each end of the pass, and at that which was on the Agra side there are five or six shops of Banians, who sell flour, butter, rice, herbs, and vegetables. On my last journey I halted at one of these shops while awaiting the coaches and carts, all having descended from them for this transit. Close by them was a large store full of sacks of rice and corn, and behind these sacks there was concealed a snake of thirteen or fourteen feet in length, and of proportionate girth. A woman while taking some grain from the sacks was bitten on the arm by this snake, and, feeling herself wounded, left the shop, crying “Ram, Ram!” that is to say, “Oh God! Oh God!” Immediately several Banians, both men and women, ran to her aid, and they tied the arm above the wound, thinking that that would prevent the poison from ascending higher. But it was unavailing, for immediately her face swelled, and then became blue, and she died in less than an hour. - [Previous: 11.5](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball.11.5) - [Next: 11.7](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball.11.7) - [Up: 11](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball.11) --- Source: [https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball.11.6](https://indike.org/pramana/in.darkages.travel.tavernier~en-ball.11.6) · Pramāṇa