CHAPTER XII. 
SNAKE-CHARMERS. 
In all the countries of the globe where poisonous snakes are 
formidable to man, there are certain individuals who profess to be 
secure from all ill-effects from the bites of these reptiles, whether 
because they are immune to venom, or because they possess 
secrets which enable them to cure themselves when they happen 
to have been bitten. Not unnaturally these secrets are sometimes 
turned to profitable account, and the possessors of them generally 
enjoy considerable popular influence, and are very highly venerated. 
Intimate relations with the divinities are freely attributed to them. 
Among the Romans the jugglers who carried on the profession 
of snake-charmers and healers of snake-bites were known as Psylli. 
Plutarch tells us that Cato, who loved not doctors because they 
were Greeks, attached a certain number of them to the army of 
Libya. They were accustomed to expose their children to serpents 
as soon as they were born, and the mothers, if they had failed in 
conjugal fidelity, were infallibly punished by the death of their 
offspring. If, on the contrary, the children were lawful, they had 
nothing to fear from the bites of the reptiles. ‘‘ Recens etiam editos 
serpentibus offerebant ; si essent partus adulteri, matrum crimina 
plectabantur interitu parvulorum ; si pudici, probos ortus a morte 
paterni privilegium tuebatur’’ (Solinus). 
The Libyian Psylh of antiquity still have their representatives 
in Tunis and in Egypt. Clot Bey writes as follows with 
reference to the Egyptian Psylli :— 
“The Ophiogeni, or Snake-charmers, have been renowned from 
