NOTES. 
177 
a few of them it happened to look up and saw me, and immediately 
made off as fast as it could, leaving the tail of the snake still wriggling 
on the ground. 
What I have said above in connection with the effect of noise on 
snakes reminds me of an incident connected with snake-charming, 
which I shall put down here, as I believe it will be found interesting. 
On a Sunday morning in February, 1892, two Indian snake 
charmers came to my small bungalow at Hanwella. They had 
three snakes with them, and proceeded to make them dance as usual. 
I stopped them and told them that I had seen all that before, and 
asked them whether they could compel a wild snake to dance, and 
if so, whether they could catcli one for the purpose. One of them 
expressed his willingness to do so. Ten days previously I had 
chased a cobra of the species called by the natives “ Tom-tom beater,” 
that is, the black cobra with a red spectacle mark on its hood. The 
Sinhalese I believe think that they are re-incarnations of low-caste 
natives; hence its name. It is certainly fiercer and more active than 
the common brown cobra. I had noticed at the time that it had 
taken refuge in an ant-hill near the edge of the paddy field which 
formed one boundary of the new clearing upon which my bungalow 
stood, and situated about 200 ft. from it. I led the charmer to this 
ant-hill, as the black cobras are comparatively scarce, and this was 
only the second specimen of the species that I had seen up to that 
time, in order to make certain that he had not previously hidden 
one of his own snakes in the ground. When I had assured him that 
a snake almost certainly occupied the hole, he squatted down oppo¬ 
site to it and started blowing into a reed pipe, which gave a sound 
similar to that of a bagpipe. After a long time, and when I had 
almost given up the idea of the snake being there still, the cobra 
protruded its head about an inch out of the hole in order presumably 
to see what was going on ; the charmer pounced upon it, and seizing 
the head of the snake between his thumb and two fingers so that it 
could not open its mouth he pulled it out of the white ants’ nest and 
brought it to the bungalow. He then tried to make it dance by 
holding a small piece of white root above its head. The snake tried 
to escape several times, but was brought back again, and ultimately 
was induced to dance with its hood extended ; so far as I could judge 
it was the same snake that I had noticed before. I then asked the 
charmer what he would do if he happened to get bitten by a wild 
snake. He told me that he did not mind it, as he had a certain medi¬ 
cine which would prevent any ill-effects. I then, more as a joke than 
anything else, promised him five rupees if he would allow himself to 
be stung by the snake he had just caught, fully believing that he 
would never attempt the trial. But before I could stop him he had 
seized the snake by the neck and had thrust the forefinger of his 
right hand deep into its mouth, and when he withdrew it there were 
two punctures on each side of the second joint. Both punctures 
2 c 6(8)10 
