140 INTRODUCTION 



to the more commonplace European snake-catcher, 

 who boasts of his immunity, and of his art of attract- 

 ing snakes by devices of which he has the secret. 

 The Libyan Psillii of the ancient Romans have 

 handed down their art to the present day, and their 

 performances are to be witnessed in most of the 

 towns of Egypt and Tunisia. But India above all 

 lands is reputed for its snake-charmers, and the 

 favourite species used by them is the Cobra, which, 

 by the way in which it raises the anterior part of the 

 body and expands the region behind the head, lends 

 itself better than any other to the display. Con- 

 stantly facing the man before him, and swaying the 

 raised anterior part of the body, it seems to dance 

 to the music performed by the snake-man, people 

 believing it to be charmed by the sounds of the 

 instrument. However, anyone sitting on the ground 

 in front of a Cobra, and swaying the body from side 

 to side as does the man, can obtain the same result 

 without the aid of any sort of music. 



The most puzzling thing about these performances 

 is how the man can thus play with impunity with so 

 deadly a snake. It is a mistake to think that the 

 snake is rendered harmless through the poison fangs 

 having been extracted, although this subterfuge is 

 frequently resorted to by the less accomplished 

 jugglers. The immunity of the snake-charmer is to 

 be explained by the fact that the man has submitted 

 himself to a series of successive and graduated in- 



