Note 92 — Chapter II · TREE AND SERPENT WORSHIP.

Bhekal Nâg is perhaps the Sanskrit bheka, “frog.” It has been suggested that the gypsy Beng or Devil is connected with Bheka, and thus allied to serpent-worship (Groome, “Encyclopædia Britannica,” Art. “Gypsies”). Sir G. Cox (“Introduction,” 87, note) makes out Bheki, or “the squatting frog,” to be an old name for the sun. For the Himâlayan snake shrines see Atkinson, loc. cit., ii. 374 sq.