H4 THE INDIAN SNAKE-CHARMER 



occult potencies of herbs and trees so well as he ? 

 So, as he wanders from village to village, he is wel- 

 comed as well as feared. But one wealthy tourist 

 is worth more to him than a whole village of ryots, 

 so he keeps his eye on every town in which he is 

 likely to fall in with the travelling white man. And 

 the travelling white man would be sorry to miss him, 

 for he is one of the few relics of an ancient state of 

 things which railways and telegraphs and the 

 Educational Department have left unchanged. 



The itinerant jeweller and the Sin d- work-box- walla 

 are unmistakably being left behind as the East hurries 

 after the West, and we shall soon know them no 

 more. Showy shops, where the inexperienced 

 traveller may see all the products of Sind and 

 Benares, and Cutch and Cashmere, spread before 

 him at fixed prices, are multiplying rapidly and 

 taking the bread from the mouth of the poor hawker. 

 But the snake-charmer seems safe from that kind 

 of competition. It is difficult to forecast a time 

 when a broad signboard in Rampart Row will 

 invite the passer-by to visit Mr. Nagshett's world- 

 renowned Serpent Tamasha, Mungoose and Cobra 

 Fight, Mango-tree Illusion, etc. Entrance, one 

 rupee. 



