58 AN EGYPTIAN SNAKE CHARMER 



anyone shudder. But wherever they might come from, 

 the scorpions all gathered round Abd-el Kerim, as sheep 

 round a shepherd, and he picked them up by handfuls, 

 and popped them in a goatskin sack. 



'You see ? ' he asked Delaporte. 



' Certainly, I see ! — I see scorpions, and a great many 

 scorpions, too ; but I don't see any snakes.' 



' You will see some,' replied Abd-el- Kerim. 



And he began whistling in another key, whilst his 

 companions re-doubled their clouds of smoke and their 

 cries of ' Allah ! ' 



And, true enough, to the extreme surprise of the Con- 

 sul, in a little time a hissing sound, very much like the one 

 Abd-el- Kerim was making, was heard from the sleeping 

 alcove, and from under his bed M. Delaporte beheld a 

 serpent more than four feet long advancing towards 

 the snake charmer, head erect and unrolling his green 

 coils as he glided along. 



Delaporte had no difficulty in recognising the species. 

 It was one of those deadly reptiles which the Arabs 

 call taboric, and Europeans Cobra Capella. 



Abd-el-Kerim seized the snake without ceremony by 

 the throat, and was about to stuff it into his bag, when 

 Delaporte stopped him. 



' One moment,' he cried. 



' What is it? ' asked Abd-el-Kerim. 



' That serpent was really in my room ? ' 



' You saw it yourself.' 



' Very good. Then, as whatever is found in my room 

 belongs to me, be so good, instead of putting the serpent 

 into your goatskin bag, to place it in this bottle.' 



And he held out to Abd-el-Kerim a large, wide-necked 

 glass jar filled with spirits of wine, of which he kept a 

 supply in a cupboard ready for the preservation of some 

 of the curious Nile fish sometimes brought him by the 

 fishermen. 



'But ,' began Abd-el-Kerim. 



