St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1879-12-26
The Humbug of Snake Charming.

had not been many years in India
when had an excellent opportunity of
seeing the so-called snake charming,
and of satisfying myself that it was on
ly clever legerdemain. Two snake
charmers appeared in the compound
and offered to purge it of all the snakes
it contained. l embraced the opportu-
nifty with alacrity, but insisted on die
tating my own terms, which, after some
demur, were agreed to. | selected one
man (the other remaining with the bas-
ket,) and offered him the choice of ac-
companying me, either in his dhotee
only, and bare head; or with his pu-
gree and langOotee. He chose the
latter costume, soon made his toilet,
and stood before me all but naked.
satisfied myself that the lagootee could
not possibly conceal a snake, and | had
yet to find whence the reptile could oil
would be produced. So we proceeded
to business, accompanied by crowd
of gaping servants. l led the way to a
great PROSTATE trunk, beneath which a
cobra Imaginary was said to lodge
and here he started his music, and be,
gan his incantations anu gesticulations
But the snake refused to be charmed
for the very good reason that it was
not there, and the charmer could not
evade my searching gaze. He now
took the lead, and drew up before a
tempting looking hole i'll bank, where
he felt sure he could seduce a snake
every well," said l, and we formed a
semi-circle, in the middle of which he
stood, and resumed his incantations.
Suddenly, to divert my gaze, he point
ed to the hole, and exclaimed, "Deko,
sahib," (''LOok mastery and, in Il mo-
ment extracted (apparently) a cobra
from it. But he did not see that in
that moment had observed his hand,
like lightning flash, extract snake
from the folds of his Ougree and stimuli
taneously appear to extract it from the
hole. The modus operandi was clever
legerdemain, but unmistakable cheat
ing. One of my servants saw the trick,
too, and was about to eXclaim, but |
silenced him with a gesture, and ap-
peared convinced at the marvel.
''NOw," said 1, ''as you have found the
snake, you must prove to me that it is
poisonous" and so poor chicken was
sent for and placed under a coop with
the snake; but here again the snake
charmer overdid his performance, for,
dislocating the chickens neck with his
finger and thumb as he placed it un-
der the coop, he Immediately raised it,,
and exhibited the poor animal. If it
had been struck by the snake, 10 or Is
minutes would have elapsed before
death. L still seemed convinced, and
on his cOolly asking for the chicken for
his dinner, said could not think of
allowing him to eat IL poisoned animal,
and so ordered it to be buried. Hav-
ing received their baksheesh, both men
asked me for some brandy as, at the
moment, there was none in the house,
and telling them so, one pointed to Il
large bottle of saturated tincture of gin
ger, which was standing in the sun, and
asked what it was. On my telling him,
both asked for some, so l babe them
sit down, and poured mouthful down
each gullet. The unexpected pungen-
cy of the shrub astOnished them, but
one of them, pressing his stomach with
both hands, and with his eyes stream
ing with tears, gasped out, ''aur do"
(more give.) The other man said he
had had enough. Both then rose, and
shouldering their baskets, salaamed and
left the ompound.-Ndture.