74 



OPHIDIAN EEPTILES. 



curious spectacle ; being the Serpent "chiefly used by snake- 

 charmers in these covmtries, terrible as it seems to us. 



The action of the snake-charmer is as follows : he takes in his 

 hand a root, the virtue of which is supposed to preserve him from 

 the venemous effects of the bite of the Cobra. Drawing the 

 reptile from the cage in which he keeps it confined, he irritates 

 it by presenting a stick to it ; the animal immediately erects 

 the fore part of its body, swells its neck, opens its jaws, ex- 

 tends its forked tongue, its eyes glitter, and it begins to hiss. 

 Then a sort of battle commences between the Serpent and the 



Fig. 18.— Hooded Snake. 



charmer; the latter, striking up a monotonous sort of song, 

 opposes his closed fist to his enemy, sometimes using his righ' 

 hand and sometimes his left. The animal fixes its eyes upon 

 the fist which threatens it, follows all its movements, balances 

 its head and body, and thus simulates a kind of dance. Other 

 charmers obtain from the Cobra an alternating and cadenced 

 movement of the neck by the help of sounds which are drawn 



