SNAKE CATCHERS. 181 



As some gentlemen were sitting with me in a 

 bungalow at Calwar ghaut, smoking our hookahs 

 behind a check, (screen,) we observed a man 

 tumbling over some logs of wood that lay on the 

 plain ; at last, we noticed that he made a stand 

 at one of them, and appeared to deposit some- 

 thing ; just at that time we were called to dinner. 

 After dinner, it was proposed by some of the 

 party, (I believe the master of the house) to 

 take a walk aud see the snake catchers charm the 

 snakes out of their holes ; we were led by the 

 men in the direction of the wood, and after sing- 

 ing and playing before several holes, they came 

 to the log of wood at which we had before re- 

 marked the man to make a stand ; from under it 

 there soon came a large cobra de capello : whether 

 we enjoyed the fun to ourselves, or mentioned it 

 to the whole party, I do not recollect. 



Not many days after this, at the same place, 

 and at the house of Mr. T. Brooke, who was 

 then making a collection of drawings of snakes, 

 a man exhibited one of his dancing cobra de 

 capelloes before a large party. A boy about 

 sixteen years old was teazing the animal to make 

 it bite him, which it actually did, and to some 

 purpose, for in an hour after, he died of the bite. 



