CH. II. SERPENT CHAEMEES. 31 



his abnormal nervous condition by rolling his head and 

 eyes, buUied one of them into biting his arm, and then 

 his hand between the thumb and forefinger, and drawing 

 blood. He next vainly tried to make a snake strike at 

 his forehead, and then prevailed on it to seize on his nose, 

 and lastly on his protruded tongue, where it held on, 

 probably attracted by the noioisture, for some seconds, 

 leaving two bleeding wounds on the upper surface of the 

 organ, and as many on the under. With the snakes still 

 hanging about him, the hero concluded the performance 

 by laboriously thrusting a skewer through his cheek, 

 which had no doubt been previously perforated for the 

 purpose ; after this the serpents were allowed to retire 

 into the basket, which they were nothing loth to do. 

 In these performances, which have been seen by most 

 travellers in Egypt and India, there is little doubt that 

 the poison-fangs have been previously extracted. What- 

 ever may be said of the effect produced by music on 

 serpents, there is no reason to suppose that it can modify 

 the poisonous effect of their bite, and the real object in 

 these cases is to act on the nervous system of the snake 

 charmer himself. We were glad when the disgusting 

 exhibition was over, and we left the performers well 

 pleased with a gratuity of about eighteen pence — quite 

 as much as five shillings would be to a poor man in 

 England. When once the secret had been learned, many 

 an English bumpkin could be got to undergo the operation 

 for a pot of beer. 



As we began to ascend the rugged track that winds 

 up the hills the aspect of the country soon changed. 

 Amidst the brushwood that covered the slopes, old gnarled 

 trunks of wild olive, carob, and lentisk stood here and 

 there — survivors of the forests that must once have 

 covered the country — whose charred stems and maimed 

 branches told a tale of the way in which man's reckless 

 greed has marred the face of nature here, as in so many 

 other parts of the earth. Our last halt for botanising was 



