Morning journal and courier., 1882-04-08
Snake Charmers.

Some years ago, wher Cairo was the Cairo
of the Arabian Nights, and not the disrep-
utable looking second-rste French country
town it is now, we inquired for any possible
successor to the old snake charmsr whom old
Anglo-Indisns may remember to have seen
play wing with the cobras before Shepherds
Hotel. (Was he not at the Zoo In ths won
derful year 1851, and did he not promptly de-
cline, without thanks, our offer of two or
three lively capellos then in the collection =
After some trouble we lighted on a furfive
Arab caitiff, in the Usual long blue shirt,
girded round the waist, to form the upper
part into species of spleuehan or sporran-
In this he seemed to keep his dirty pipe, his
packet of frousty tobacco, and whatever
small portable property he hal acquired,
more or less honestly With him We resorted
TO divers ancient stables and outbuIldIngs IN
the suburbs, and conjured him to- End
snake. Placing small wooden pipe between
his lips he footed quantity an Old Arab air,
now low, but hardly soft, and nov high and
loud. Thus he wandered, tootiiDg and fur
tive, and we following and expectAnt. At
last, arriving at an old, half dark, evil smell
ing stable, he appeared to get excited, gave
vent to still wider squeaks and squeals, cir
cled round and round under q big palm tree
beam, and at last, with an ear-spIittlIg note,
he squatted suddenly down, dashed his hand
apparently upward, and ciutehed
big cobra, which he evidently intend
ed US to believe had been charmed
from above. 1 say apparently, for am GER
tain that he lost the brute out of the
bosom" of his blouse. Now this was pretty,
but hardly satisfactory so, instead OF giving
our charmer ''backsheesh" (haying man Ii
authority among us) we promised MIN basti-
nado if he did not capture snake IN the
open Very limp about the loins and very
yellow did that Arab caitld show through
his brown skin, but we were relentless
Cobra or Toxic ~ and so he searched With
the greatest care-not to find what, In fact,
he did not want to find At last one
of us spied the tail of q good sized
snake protruding from some unnama-
Bile rubbish. Now, my friend, catch
us that snake, or" He tootled not the
s'or" had taksn the music out of him, and,
overcoming with 8 visible effort his shudder-
ing horror, he caught the tail IN one hand
and rapidly ran the other up the body until
he reached the neck Pnnlng tnis between
his finger and thumb, he caught up the tail Of
his blouse, and forcing the brute to close his
Jaws upon it, tore il out rapidly, again and
again, evidently with the intention OF tearing
out the poison fangs, which be did at last. to
q certain extent, to his own satisfaction; but
he was wary to the end, and, instead OF pat
ting it into his pouch with his old friend, he
knotted it up in Q rag. And so he went bus
way and we went ours, with gentle feeling
that If We had been done" We we're to q
certain extent aware of the fact. By the
way, unless my memory has utterly given
way to my imagination distinctly remember
seeing in 1851 the cobras striking and draw
ing blood from the arms of tins old Arab
snake-charmer and his clever boy Many
wonderful things he did, such as producing
cataIeptic rigidiTy in the snake, as easily re-
moved as produced-things should like TO
see again.