INOCULATION AGAINST THE VENOM OF SNAKES. 517 



is to catch and sell snakes, but who do not perform jugglery with 

 them. The charaiers or Psylles are recruited from another caste, that 

 ef the Sangis or Tubriwallahs of Bengal. 



These Psylles handle the cobra capello with a really marvellous 

 dexterity. All travellers who have had occasion to put into an Indian 

 port have witnessed scenes similar to that described by Natalis 

 Rondot: — 



"Towards six o'clock in the evening a Hindu juggler comes on 

 board. He is poorly clothed, wears a turban ornamented with three 

 feathers, and has several necklaces of those amulet bags called in 

 Senegal grls-grls. He has a spectacled cobra capello in a flat basket* 



" This man settles himself on the deck; we seat ourselves on the 

 bench, the sailors form a circle round. 



" The basket is placed on the deck and uncovered. The cobra is 

 lying flat at the bottom. The juggler squats a few paces off and 

 begins to play a slow, plaintive, monotonous air on a sort of little 

 clarionet, the sounds of which recall those of the Breton biniou. Little 

 by little the snake moves, stretches itself, then sits up. It does not 

 leave the basket. At first it appears uneasy, tries to examine its 

 surroundings, becomes agitated, distends its hood, becomes irritated, 

 blows rather than hisses loudly, and shoots out its slender forked 

 tongue often and quickly; it darts forwards several times, as if to 

 strike the juggler; it trembles frequently or rather makes sudden 

 starts. The juggler all the time has his eyes upon the cobra and 

 regards it with a singular fixity. At the end of some time, about ten 

 or twelve minutes, the cobra becomes less animated, grow3 calm, then 

 balances itself as if sensible of the slow and monotonous cadence of 

 the musician; it darts out its tongue incessantly with extreme vivacity;. 

 by degrees it is brought to a certain state of somnolence. The eyes, 

 which at first watched the juggler as if to take him by surprise, are 

 in a manner immobilized and fascinated by the look of the latter* 

 The Hindu takes advantage of this moment of stupefaction on the. 

 part of the snake to approach him slowly without ceasing to play, and 

 upon the head of the cobra he places first his nose and then his tongue. 

 Although this takes but an instant the cobra is roused with a start and 

 the juggler has barely the time to throw himself back to avoid the 

 snake which darts furiously upon him. 



