55 



i 

 AN EGYPTIAN SNAKE CHARMER 



Every one has heard of snake charmers. There are 

 many of them in India, and not a few in Egypt too. 

 They walked about the streets of Cairo — or used to do 

 so, for I am speaking of a good many years ago — with 

 boxes and baskets, which contained every imaginable kind 

 of reptile. Whenever they came to what seemed a con- 

 venient spot for a performance of their art, they would 

 sit down on the ground, and whilst two or three of them 

 beat on tambourines, a couple more would fill their 

 mouths with a herb, smelling rather like mint, and puff 

 out perfumed clouds of smoke on every side. 



When these preparations had been duly made, the 

 sacks, boxes, or baskets were opened ; the snakes shook 

 themselves, hissing and wriggling, and began to dance a 

 kind of jig, balancing themselves on the lower part of 

 their bodies, in a way which delighted the spectators. 



Besides giving these exhibitions, the snake charmers 

 often go to houses, and after poking all round, at last tell the 

 owners that they feel sure there are snakes hiding there. 

 This is quite enough to cause alarm, for, naturally, no one 

 likes to have such fellow-lodgers, and the snake charmer 

 is paid a certain sum for each reptile he may catch, 

 besides being given the snake itself. He pops it into a 

 bag, and in due time it forms part of his corps de ballet. 



Now the chief snake charmer in Cairo, whose name 

 was Abd-el-Kerim, had for some time been prowling 

 about the French Consulate, peering in at the doors and 



