ROUGHING IT IN SOUTHERN INDIA 65 



mere slits of green light, were dreamy, and the hood lay level. 

 I could not take my eyes from the sight, and to this day 

 I never hear those verses in the 58th Psalm, which speak 

 of the deaf adder ' which refuseth to hear the voice of the 

 charmer, charm he never so wisely,' but that scene rises up 

 before me. The East knows no change, and as snake- 

 charmers are to-day, with their fascinating and weird 

 chants, so must they have been those long-dead centuries 

 ago. 



Without for an instant stopping his drumming, the man 

 asked for milk in the same monotone as he used in his 

 chant. It was brought, and put down in front of the 

 cobra ; that was not done by any of our servants, however, 

 but by the young boy attendant of the charmer in waiting 

 to carry away the show ' properties,' who squatted fear- 

 lessly alongside as the snake lowered its head to the saucer 

 and drank greedily. All the time the droning chant, never 

 varying by a semitone, and the hollow, resonant drumming 

 too, went on till the milk was nearly but not quite lapped 

 up, still engaging the attention of the cobra ; then — I 

 hardly saw, so swift was he — the man had the creature 

 by the tail end in one hand, not by the head as you 

 would imagine — and lightning-quick swept his other hand 

 along its body, deftly catching it by the throat. For one 

 instant it dangled, impotent now, in the grip of the long 

 lean fingers ; the next the man had hooked out the two 

 poison fangs with a clumsy knife which had lain close to 

 hand. 



I was horrified at such rough surgery, the bleeding 

 mouth, and the helplessness of the creature hanging limply 

 enough now — after we had fed it, too, for this very pur- 

 pose, doubtless ; but no sentient thing should be so mal- 

 treated and cast aside to suffer, cobra or what not ; being 

 now disarmed, the victim claimed our pity. 



' Sentiment ! ' some one sneers ; others, again, will 



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