Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1873-01-16

| jurer's feet deadly cobra de capella
coiled as if for spring, and will
its glittering eyes fixed ON the bird, tina
seemed spell bound to the spot, either toe
| frightened or fascinated to move. The
man waited till the snake was in the very
act of springing, and then, with few
words spoken in low, musical tones and
| gentle drOning movement of his hand, hi
| seemed to throw the cobra into the same
trance-like state that the bird had evinc
| ed, while the latter reused up and flew
eagerly into the juggler's bosom, which
had been opened for its reception From
this same capacious receptacle, apparent
ly eXhaustless in its resources, was drawn
out another cobra, and after allowing
them time to make each others acquaint
ance, sometimes melting them to anger
and again soothing to quietude by his
soft words and droning motions, the jug
! gler wrapped them both about his neck
and arms, and stood with eXuitant pride
allowing them to touch his nose, the ti[
or his tongue, and in one instance even
the pupil of his eye, with their vibrating
| tongues. But all this while he held 8
small Lutte in his hand, and when words
seemed to fail he played a few notes Oh
the instrument, which soon reduced the
After performing various daring feats
with them, to show the audience that the
| snakes had been in no way mutilated, he
threw a large chicken between them.
Both struck at it, and it died in about five
minutes.
/ afterward saw more of this snake
charming in Bangkok, and in this partic-
ular branch of jugglery the Siamese are
said to excel all other Orientals. / have
seen them hang half a dozen kinds of SER
pents-cobras, hooded SUE snakes, and
vipers-about their necks at once, placing
whole coil of them in their bosom, and
then taking the reptiles head in their
mouths. Then they will place some ten
or fifteen Of as many different species in
q deep basket with long, narrow neck,
and without looking IN, thrust down their
hands, draw up one or more, toy with it
for a while, and then throw it back and
take up another, and 50 on as long as
they can obtain paying spectators. These
jugglers devote themselves exclusively
to the study and practice of their profess
sion, and each company tries to Guido all
others in dexterity and daring. They are
highly esteemed, exert large influence in
the community, and are accredited by
their credulous compatriots with authority
over all diseases which they profess to
summon Or drive off at will, as we'll as
evil spirits, ghosts and genii Despite
the palpable absurdity of these preten-
sions, the reality of the power
they claim over the venomous rep
tiles admits Of not the shadow of a
doubt, though how this power is
maintained is not SO easily shown. 1t
is doubtless to some extent the effect of
music, which is always employed by jug
glers to throw the reptiles into sort of
spell during their performances, aided
also by monotonous waving to and fro
of the charmer's body-a motion that
seems to hull the snakes into a dreamy,
mesmeric trance, in which they can be
kept for days together In addition to
this the snakes are very carefully tended,
never suffered to become hungry, nor yet
fed to such repetition as to occasion either
torpor or hankering after blood. The
jugglers also keep their own bodies
smeared with some oily substance, the
nature of which they will not divulge,
but we may infer that it IS something for
which the snake has a natural antipathy,
or eXerts q narcotic influence on its
nerves. These combined influences seem
quite sufficient to produce the marvellous
power exercised by Oriental ake-charm-
ers. 1t is absolutely certain that the
poisonous fangs are not extracted, as
some assert, but the reptiles are brought
wholly unmutilated into the arena I
have myself seen them perform with
snakes they had never touched, and which
have been returned to me perfect as I
handed them over. Some of these are
now bottled in my cabinet