no THE INDIAN SNAKE-CHARMER 



of the Grand Mogul, who uses it with a definition 

 appended, " ut spectet Thamasham, id est pugnas 

 elephantorum, leonum, buffalorum et aliarum 

 ferarum." "Show" comes nearest it in English, 

 but falls far short of it. 



The tamasha which the snake-charmer promises 

 the sahib will include serpent dances, a fight 

 between a cobra and a mungoose, the inevitable 

 mango tree, and other tricks of juggling. But to a 

 stranger the snake-charmer himself is a better 

 tamasha than anything he can show. He is indeed 

 a most extraordinary animal. His hair and beard 

 are long and unkempt, his general aspect wild, his 

 clothing a mixture of savagery and the wreckage 

 of civilisation. He wears a turban, of course, and 

 generally a large one ; but it is put on without art, 

 just wound about his head anyhow, and hanging 

 lopsidedly over one ear. It and the loose cloth 

 wrapped about the middle of him are as dirty as 

 may be and truly Oriental, though erratic. But, 

 besides these, he wears a jacket of coloured calico, 

 or any other material, with one button fastened, 

 probably on the wrong buttonhole, and under 

 this, if the weather is cold, he may have a shirt 

 seemingly obtained from some Indian representa- 

 tive of Moses & Co. 



On his shoulder he carries a long bamboo, from 

 the ends of which hang villainously shabby baskets, 

 some flat and round, occupied by snakes, others 

 large and oblong, filled with apparatus of jugglery. 



