The Washington bee., 1892-11-19
TRICK OF A .SNAKE-CIAEMFR-
no" the y IS !Iin,ioo ;'::iy. it ON the u
susp. ting Villagers.

h"" TIE - .iS IindOO Plays it ON the Tn.
snsp ting Villagers.
Il can tell You something interesting.
ahont sha keS in India" said Can't W.
Iotienha'n, of the British indian army,
to San Francisco call reporter at the
American Exchange Hotel. Il have
, made special study of snakes in that
country. As a result got at The bot
tom OF tie great snake charmer frauds,
. and also, l think, male All important
discovery III connection with the euro
of yenomous snake bites. At least,
never failed in my experiments.
"N len | was stationed at kurmaul,
III the northwest provinces Of india, I
occupie the usual officers bungalow,
with large garden around the build
, ing. One day my servants complained
of The snakes in the garden and asked
ii they might send for snake charmer.
F OF course ! agreed.
The usual professional charmer ap-
pcarcd AMI [ consented to the usual
tcrnls-50 cents a head for each snake
caught. Tlen he set to work, and
ioj!onej ana watched him closely.
".ic Nclt into the stable first and
co!nNenco,! blowing horn. Pres
entity = s:la',e came crawling out Of a
Eo!c ana made towards him. He sud-
denly grab, it by the neck and put
il into hi@ basGet. This was repeated
thee times. Once he got a bite on
tie !.nUckie. They were all cobras,
from three to four feet long, and [
watched for results.
lie pulled pebble from his pocket,
muabIcd some incantLtions over it and
then iouud it over his wound, which
he showed me. Ionly chuckled. Two
thing hid struck me forcibly. One
wa til:it cobras do not climb of their
own accord. They are ground snakes.
Again it struck me that lie seemed to
know where 10 81 for his snake each
tine. l ordered him to catch some
,npre. Lat he declared that WAS all. 1
insisted Oh his trying round the COM
porI!J, ;tnd SO he marched round blow
iD;s his horn, but 40 more snakes came.
Then l thought it time TO turn the
tah."s. 1 paid him over the three ru-
c2s and seized the basket with the
three makes. lie looked alarmed. L
sent ;uG nv sword amd bloc. Of wood.
lie ;s.,I,,,, lac what | was going to do.
I told INN the snakes were mine by
right of purchase and was going to
cut oil their heals.
..,' ~, !. i.,,,,. o,,l ,,.1.it ho.1 ~
nay Geet, is only Il Ilindoo can, implor-
ing me to lnyc ILercye upon him. L
consented to give linn lack his snakes
i. he would l1:!;: = c:ean and open con-
fc.sia3l to me. lie did 50.
~, Lat Go you suppose The rascal told
me? He sail it WIS their custom in
tie trade 10 20 ol.t II the proper season
AMI hunt Il nut. yoi.ra with her
brood. They kill the mother anI cap
ture the fifteen CT twenty little five
inch snakes which constitute the brood
Ihese are too young 10 be halMful.
They then pull out the two eye teeth,
which are the f2ags that Kill.
Then they. sci TO work to train the
snakes They feed them On basin Of
milk and blow this horn when feeding
;ime arrives. After three or four
months the snakes get to understand
the signal and come from all part of
the room to feed at the basin. BY this
time they are grown up to decent size
and all ready for business.
The charmcr goes round the night be-
fore and plants his snakes in different
places.
Next day he approaches the premises
casually and offers to rid the place Of
snakes at so cents head. Invariably
his offer is accepted, as you can under
stand. Then he goes and blows his
horn.
"The snakes, which are all starving
with hunger, promptly come to the we'll
known call for food and then he catches
and pouches them.
No one wants snakes, particularly,
and his humble supplications to take
away snakes for tanning purposes IS in
variably aasented to by the COOL
natured Anglo-Indian. In the course
Of Il week he makes good deal of
money"