142 



SNAKE CHARMING. 



take the same Serpent — or apparently the same — make it bite a fowl, which soon dies from 

 the poison, and will then renew his performances. 



Some persons say that the whole affair is but an exhibition of that jugglery in which the 

 Indians are such wondrous adepts; that the Serpents with which the man plays are harmless, 

 having been deprived of their fangs, and that a really venomous sijecimen is adroitly substi- 

 tuted for the purpose of killing the fowl. It is moreover said, and truly, that a Snake, thought 

 to have been rendered innocuous by the deprivation of its fangs, has bitten one of its masters 

 and killed him, thus proving the imposture. 



Still, neither of these explanations will entirely disprove the mastery of man over a 

 venomous Serpent. In the first instance, it is surely as perilous an action to substitute a 

 venomous Serpent as to play with it. Where was it hidden, why did it not bite the man 



SERPENT-EATING HAMADKTAS.— flamodJV'ZS ^<m- (Sie page 140.) 



instead of the fowl, and how did the juggler prevent it from using its teeth, while he was 

 conveying it away ^ And, in the second instance, the detection of an impostor is by no means 

 a proof that all who pretend to the same powers are likewise impostors. 



The following narrative of Mr. H. E. Reyne, quoted by Sir J. E. Tennent in his "Natural 

 History of Ceylon," seems to be a sufficient proof that the man did possess sufficient power to 

 induce a truly poisonous Serpent to leave its hole and to perform certain antics at his com- 

 mand : "A Snake-charmer came to my bungalow, requesting me to allow him to show me his 

 Snake dancing. As I had frequently seen them, I told him I would give him a rui)ee if he 

 would acconq^any me to the jungle and catch a Cobra that I knew frequented the place. 



" He was willing, and as I was anxious to test the truth of the charm, I counted his tame 

 Snakes, and put a watch over them until I returned with him. Before going I examined the 



