70 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Fig. 2. 



-Head of the Cobra, showing Gape of 

 THE Mouth. 



and instantly reassumes his erect position, and thus he continues 

 to act as long as danger menaces or a safe avenue of escape does 

 not present itself. This turning to the left and right after one's 

 movements and striking downward is the so-called "dancing/' 

 which superficial observers have attributed to the power of 



music. Even after a slight 

 acquaintance with snake 

 dancing I began to suspect 

 that music had nothing to 

 do with it. Before long I 

 was convinced on the sub- 

 ject. 



It happened, I believe, in 

 1877, that Sir Bartle Frere, 

 Governor of the British do- 

 minions in South Africa, 

 when on his way eastward 

 to settle some troubles pre- 

 ceding the outbreak of the 

 war with the southern Ka- 

 firs, paid a visit to my col- 

 lection at Grahamstown. 

 He arrived unexpectedly 

 and found me on my knees with my sleeves rolled up, washing 

 out my floor, for it was impossible to get a servant to enter the 

 room. Seeing there all the snakes of the country living before 

 him, he was intensely interested, and at once singled out the cobra 

 as an old acquaintance, for he had spent much of his life in India. 

 Many things he told me of Indian snake-charming ; but when I 

 made the cobras dance, faint away as if dead, and by a touch 

 return them to life again, he asked in some astonishment how it 

 happened that I did so without the aid of music. I explained the 

 " dancing " as the natural tactics of the cobra in defense and at- 

 tack, and the fainting and recovery as consequences of an ex- 

 tremely nervous and overexcitable temperament. But my visitor 

 clung to his old opinion, saying that my belief that they never 

 really danced to the music was opposed to the teachings of natural 

 historj^ and to the experience of every one who had lived in India. 

 Next day, when the astute Sir Bartle was on his way to the 

 frontier to charm the turbulent chiefs with diplomacy, I invited 

 a fl.ute-player to charm my snakes. I myself went into the 

 room to note results and sat down in my usual place among 

 my pets, leaving the musician outside in the hall, so placed that 

 the snakes could not see him. He played his sweetest tunes. 

 The " Last Rose of Summer," " Annie Laurie," and " Home, Sweet 

 home " had no effect, so I called to him to play something quick 



