REPTILES IN CAPTIVITY 193 
ness and an exceedingly bad temper. In this respect I draw 
no distinction between the different species of snakes ; they 
all seem to me pretty much alike. 
Snake-charmers cannot do nearly as much as they pretend 
and are popularly supposed to do. The common belief that 
they work with the cobra or Indian spectacled snake is en- 
tirely erroneous. It may be true in the case of some of the 
native Indian snake-charmers, but their European confréres 
work almost exclusively with the young of the giant serpents, 
sometirnes the Indian python and sometimes the South 
American boa. The 
public are so little 
acquainted with the 
differences between 
different kinds of 
snakes, that they often 
think that the snake- 
charmer is handling a 
very poisonous crea- 
ture, when in reality 
the animal belongs to 
a perfectly harmless 
species. The charmer 
does all that he can 
to encourage this idea, 
but at the same time 
he takes very good 
care never to have 
anything to do with 
any poisonous snake, 
unless or until its Indian snake-charmer. 
poison fangs have been removed. But even then he has 
to be pretty careful, for the poison fangs grow again, and 
unless he watches them closely he will run considerable risk. 
A poison snake from which the fangs have been removed 
is much more harmless than an ordinary giant snake, even 
13 
