The Dalles daily chronicle. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1890-1948, 1894-04-06

L ~--O--~J 80 AA------e~ t-AO 1AcPtA-S.
81 had been in India a number OF
times and had visited all the principai
Cities" says Magician Kellar, sswhen
in 1888 found myself in the pretty
city of Lucknow. I had been in the
city long enough to have acquired The
ennui of the people and was falling
easily into their 1istless, luxurious
ways, when one morning this adven-
ture befell me and caused me to all at
once lose all that sense of serene and
peaceful quiet that / had before pos
sessed. In India in the summer season
it is too hot to sleep upon mattresses or
under much bed clothing. .Inmy room
in the neat little bungalow where |
was stopping 1 had bamboo couch
without mattress, and my only Gov
ering was a linen sheet. / had rested
there in comfort for many nights, and
was just about to arise one morning
when Hindoo fakir entered the door.
He was a tall, 1anlS, solemn-viSaged in
dividual, and salaamed profoundly as
he entered. I sat up on the edge of
my cot to get good look at him and
asked what he wanted. He looked at
me an instant and then slowly drew
from his breech cloth asmall reed pipe.
Heap big snake in sahib's bed he
calculated in the same calm, unrufiied
manner.
g Snakes in my bed!' 1 yelled, as 1
bounded to the floor with visions of
writhing, kissing cobras in my mind
Snake. Where?
In sahib's bed--heap snake the
rogue replied, as he slowly released a
small earthenware pot or jar from his
girdle. Then he placed the reed pipe
to his lips and proceeded to extract
from it the most painful music L ever
listened to. Serpents galore would
have been welcome if that music could
have been -banished, thought, but as
1 watched the bed my sentiments
underwent a rapid change.
I'm the middle of the couch, under
meath the sheet, saw something NOV
ing. The sheet became elevated in
conical form and there was a kissing
and splitting underneath it that made
my blood run cold. Then there emerged
from the edge of the covering the
Shiny, horrible head of monster cobra
that wasn't an inch less than eight
feet long, and slowly slid from the bed
and coiled himself upon the floor 1
stood looking at him with my eyes
bulging with terror.
strain of the pipe continued and the,
head of the monster slowly arose to
level with the cot. His hood began to
swell and he showed every sign of in
tense anger. The weird music grew
faster and faster and the osci1lating
motion of the serpent's head kept time
to it. The little pipe shrieked and the
fakir was perspiring from every pore
His eyes were bulgfng. from his head
and his foot was keeping double time
to his piping. Shriller and more pene-
trating grew the notes, until of sud-
den they became again plaintive and
sad; the time was slower, the tune
sweet and harmonious. The motions
of the monsters head were slower and
slower, and then the fakir's hand stole
quickly to his side. A sword leaped
out, there was a flash, CLINT of steel,
and the cobra's head rolled upon the
floor, while the dismembered BODY
thrashed itself about the apartment
l staggered to the door, almost over
come by nervous strain, and the ordeal
was over. The muttered -backsheesh
of the fal1ir was generously responded
to, you may be sure, and he left my
bungalow, leaving only the severed
head and body of the cobra as remind
ers of the scene through which had
passed.
How was it done? I don't know 1
never knew whether that scoundrel
brought the snake in with him or not,
but while he was playing saw him
crowding another cobra, as big as the
first, into that little earthen pot which