Note 35 — Chapter VII · TREE AND SERPENT WORSHIP.
Reading edition
It is a general belief among the Hindus that snakes guard treasures. It is said that there are certain places guarded by snakes in Goa territory. Persons who were compelled to abandon Portuguese territory owing to religious persecutions at the hands of the Portuguese buried their treasures beneath the ground. Those who died during exile are said to have become bhuts or ghosts, and it is believed that they guard their buried treasures in the form of snakes.35