1869-71 SERPENT-CHARMING 213 



corned — on entering the second room I noticed 

 that a doorway led from it to a darkened apart- 

 ment without other entry or exit. The charmer 

 stood at this doorway, his legs apart, his arms on 

 the lintel, his turbaned visage poked forward, and 

 the incantation and whistling becoming more 

 emphatic. I tried to get into the place, but there 

 was no passing without shoving the fellow aside, 

 and the boy loudly protested against my proximity 

 and disturbance. The charmer next stretched 

 forward the hand carrying his stick and tapped 

 the wall of the darkened room ; then, suddenly 

 turning round to us, exclaimed, according to my 

 interpreter, " The snake, my cousin, there he is ! " 

 and stepped down into the room. We followed, 

 and a small specimen of the common harmless 

 house-snake of Egypt {Coluber atrovirens), half 

 coiled in seemingly a semi-torpid or sluggish 

 state, lay on the floor. On the supposition that 

 it had been coaxed out of a chink in the wall, I 

 should have expected to see some movement of 

 the reptile or endeavour to escape ; but we were 

 given to understand that it was charmed. The 

 boy seized it behind the head, and, after I had 

 inspected it, popped it into his bag, which I ob- 

 served to contain others, apparently of the same 

 kind. 



' We visited four or five other houses, in two 

 of which a serpent on the floor was the result of 

 the incantations and movements exhibited by the 



