The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-03-01
SNAKE-CHARNIING.
The Methods of OrieDtaIs Who Handle Dan
gerOus Reptiles.

The Methods of OrieDtals Who Handle Dam
gerOus Reptiles.
Phil Robinson, in Harper's Weekly
The Eastern snake-charmer of day is only
half fraud Among the Egyptians, Chaldeans,
and Persians the secret of snake-charmng by
music has been held for ages in superstitious
reverence as a power only to be acquired by
enormous study, backed by supernatural favor.
In India instances of music attracting snakes
are very numerous, and the ordinary serpent
charmer relies upon the widespread belief in
the power of melody TO obtain some cPedence
for the feats he affects to perform. As a general
rule, it does not matter to the charmer that upon
the premises where he operates a snake has
never been seen, for he sits down to pipe, and
in five minutes has captured, in various corners
Of your room dozen reptiles; indeed, if he could
only have carried more concealed about him,
he would have caught more. The sleight of hand
with which the trick is performed constitutes its
only claim to admiration. So notorious is the
deception that the snakes, when caught, are
never killed. as being the private property of the
charmer.
The favorite snake for exhibition is the cobra,
partly because Of its more striking appearance,
and partly because its deadly character being so
well known, any tritling with it appears to the
uninitiated public the more wonderful In most
cases the charmer. however, has rendered the
reptiles perfectly harmless by drawing their poi
son-fangs, and the exhibition then becomes
merely one of the snakes highly trained condi-
ton. On the other hand, however, it often hap
pens that the basket contains the veritable
death-deaer and cobra with his fangs undrawn
is nearly always forthcoming if the temptation
in money be sufficiently strong. Then. in the
handling of the creature when once exposed,
there is no hesitation, for hesitation means
death. and in the swift seizure sudden release
there Is daring of exceptional kind. A cobra
strikes, when it has really made up it mind to
strike with lightning rapidity, and to dodge
lightning successfully requires cOnsid-
cradle agility The snake-charmers how
ever, when put upon their mettle, will
| aal,,,a
solely to the superior speed of their movements,
for by feint they provoke the reptile to strike,
and, before it can recover IFS attitude seize it
| below the jaws. 1t is the same thing with the
| ichneumon or mungoose. For a long time it
was believed that poison could not hurt mum
goose, until one was held while cobra bit it;
then the mungoose died in about four minutes,
and it is only by superior agility that he can
overcome the cobra in fair fight And as in
the case of the mungoose the snake charmer,
when actually bitten, dies rapidly any
other creature, and in spite of all the power of
! his charms, roots and snake-stones There can
| be no remedy except instant amputation, and
the snake-charmer himself knows this well. AS
a means of general security he confdes in his
! dexterous sleight of hand, but in case of acct
! dent he carries broad laded knife.
! The Oriental has an ineXhaustible appetite for
| entertainment, and provided it can be seen for
nothing, and sitting, he will squat all day before
| a puppetshow That the exhibition in question
| is stale matters nothing and the same
| d
| often as he chooses to come. This partially eX-
plains the extraordinary popularity of the snake
! charmer's entertainment for, though judged on
its merits it has little in it either to arrest
attention or to evoke admiration, the tubri-
| walahS performance commands at all times an
interested audience; for, of all the many castles
or tribes which pretend to power oyer the ser
pent world, the Sanyis, or tubri wallahs, cOnsti-
! tute the chief Indian snakecharning guild. He
| is, as a rule, Withholding creature-the snake
| charmer-with his yellow cloths all huttering
about him. and his hair arranged in strange
! confusion of coils and wiSps, under and among
! rags Of the same color-the professional hue-as
he struts into village, piping on a reed stuck
into q gourd- while his assistant a small, IN
! kempt morsel of humanity, labors in his wake,
I with box of mysteries and basketful Of Won
| ders.
Arrived at the well, the couple seat them
selves and the villagers collect to see the show.
! But first the performer has to insure some pay
ment-a meal and nights lodging, at least
and this arranged satisfactorily, the proceedings
begin. The same stupid old toothless cobra is
hustled out of its basket, picked up and dropped
! hundred times as if it were a dangerous thing,
! and then, with boisterous ostentation Of pluck
! and dexterity, finally seized by his neck, half
| throttled and thrust back into his bag. This
wonderful feat, enacted over and over again,
with precisely the same business and panto-
mime, constitutes the first part of the entertain
ment, and then the wonder worker proceeds to
charm" The old cobra, sick to death of what
it has TO consider i'll timed foOlery, is once
more jerked out from the bag and while the ma
| gician plays on his eXecrable pipe the poor bat
| tered reptile lifts a foot of its length off the
ground, and, diStending its hood, swayS grace
fully to and fro in time with the music
| The master requires no stick to
keep his pupil at work, for it is evi-
dent that the cobra enjoys the melody, and
| that its motions are voluntarily and naturally
! sympathetic. But, except as an illustration Of
| the power of music over the dreadful thing, the
second part of the entertainment is as dull as the
! first.
| There can be no doubt, however that the ter
! rife power given by nature to venomous snakes
invests them, even for the most intelligent, with
! extraordinary interest; and any performance
| that requires the handling of them must have
| corresponding excitement for others besides ma
| tive villagers In his fearless manipulation of
| the deadliest Species the tubri-wallah has GER
| tain claim to respectable same claim as have all
! exhibitors who, for the entertainment of their au
! dience trife with sudden death. Yet, as regards
the supernatural power they profess to have
| over the creatures which they torment and play
with, there is hardly another imposture-even in
| the East, the home of impostures-so made
quatey supported by performance The parade
OF fangless worms is absurd enough, and in the
never failing crop of reptiles to be gathered by
the pipe player from among the furniture of a
room or the shrubs in a garden there is only
food for laughte"
THE WALTERS GALLERY.