318 SNAKES 



fangs had been extracted ; but P'orbes, the author of " Oriental 

 Memoirs," had nearly been taught at his cost that this is not 

 always practised. Not doubting but that a cobra, which 

 danced for an hour on the table while he painted it, had been 

 disarmed of its fatal weapons, he frequently handled it to ob- 

 serve the beauty of the spots, and especially the spectacles on 

 the hood. But the next morning his upper servant, who was a 

 zealous Mussulman, came to him in great haste and desired 

 he would instantly retire and praise the Almighty for his good 

 fortune. Not understanding his meaning, Forbes told him 

 that he had already performed his devotions, and had not so 

 many stated prayers as the followers of his prophet. Mahomet 

 then informed him that while purchasing some fruit in the 

 bazaar, he observed the man who had been with him on the 

 preceding evening entertaining the country people with the 

 dancing snakes ; they, according to their usual custom, sat on the 

 ground around him, when, either from the music stopping too 

 suddenly or from some other cause irritating the snake, which 

 he had so often handled, it darted at the throat of a young 

 woman, and inflicted a wound of which she died in about half 

 an hour. Mahomet once more advised him to thank Allah, 

 and recorded his master in his calendar as a lucky man. That 

 the snake-charmers control the cobra not by extracting its 

 fangs, but by courageously availing themselves of its timidity 

 and reluctance to use them, was also proved during Sir 

 E. Tennent's residence in Ceylon by the death of one of these 

 performers, whom his audience had provoked to attempt some 

 unaccustomed familiarity with the cobra ; it bit him on the 

 wrist, and he expired the same evening. 



There are many varieties and several species of the Cobra di 

 Capello, among \fhich the minelle, though the smallest of all 

 the Indian serpents, is the most dangerous, its bite occasioning 

 a speedy and painful death. Well may it be called 



" The small, close-lurking minister of fate, 

 "Whose high concocted venom through the veins 

 A rapid lightning darts, arresting sw'ift 

 The vital current." 



The deserted nests of the termites are the favourite retreat 

 of the sluggish and spiritless cobra, which watches from their 



