208 SNAKE 



that lay on the plain ; at last,, \ve observed 

 that he made a stand at one of them, and ap- 

 peared to deposit something; just at that 

 time we were called to dinner. After din- 

 ner it was proposed by some of the party, 

 [I believe the master of the house] to take a 

 walk and 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 

 singing and playing before several holes, 

 they came to the log of wood at which we 

 had before remarked 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 draw- 

 ings of snakes, a man exhibited one of his dan- 

 cing cobra de capellos, before a large party. 

 A boy about sixteen years old was teizing the 

 animal to make it bite him, which it actu- 



