Year: 1876

An incident Of the quiet day" Of the
Prince Of Wales stay at Bombay, was
one which is de riaueur With sll visitors
to India-namely, an hour or so with the
Hindoo conJurers and snake charmers.
Of whom Bombay possesses many skillful
and extraordinary specimens, aud no
doubt the Prince saw something to as
tonish him, even after the the puzzling
performance Of the Houdins and Maske.
lynes of Europe. The men themselves.
always OF low caste, possess an amazing
command Of the deadly varieties Of rep
tiles, which they bring in fat wicker
baskets to the door Of any one who will
pay trifle for the exhibition. They lift
the lid and cut glides the dreaded cobra
but at pluck of his tail or a light touch
with stick the living death" rears his
head and neck, puffs out his hood and
dances time to the sound OF bis tumbi, a
rude instrument which the sampwal-
lab blows upon, being gOurd stuck
over with the red and black seeds OF the
abrus precatorious and fitted with a
double reed. The gray, horrid eyes of
the serpent fix themselves steadfasily
upon the mans gourd or turbin, the
creature mods backward or forward,
this way or that, with an obe-
dent movement which follows ev-
cry bend of the charmer The
majority OF cobras carried about by
these men will be found not only fang.
less, but with the fang gum csuterized,
SO that the poison teeth cannot grow
again. Mr.. Nicholson in his excellent
book on Indian ophiology, has very truly
pointed out that even the deadliest
snakes may be taken up with impunity
by those who have nerve and quickness
OF touch. Unless frightened or hurt they
are remarkably slow to exercise their
power The great thing is, in fact, not
to terrify the terrible naga; and half the
mystery of the business stands explain.
ed when this odd aIhiability in the deadly
cobra is understood and the perfectly
collected manner Of the charmer is also
observed 1t is considered rather lucky
TO have cobra in the cbuppur Of the
hut, and the children put out milk and
eggs every night for their uncle" who
keeps down the rats and will live a whole
season about the place without doisg any
kind of harm. Religion aud legend
combine to protect these reptiles in In
dla, and, besides all the mythology which
clusters round the great serpent OF
Vishnu and its antique worship, Hindoos
believe that cobras guard all kind Of un-
derground treasures.


The juggler having, no other garment
on him than the liugouti, chooses a ser.
pent of harmless species and places it
in basket, which be covers with lid.
He then rises and filings his arms about,
the while muttering some cabalistic
words which his companion accompanies
on tambourine. Suddenly he arms
himself with flexible wand, which he
whirls for some minutes above his head.
and then suddenly throws down at our
feet, where it arrives in the form of
serpent. In spite Of the closest atten-
ton on two repititions OF this feat |
could not detect the moment when the
wand was exchanged for the serpent.


That is an example of the marvellous
adroitness Of these Mats and Madari, or
snake people, who are thought by some
authorities to be identical with the gyp.
sizes Of Europe, Mr.. Nicholson, for ex.
ample. peints to the word Safpengro in
the RoRany Language, which meaus
the same thing, and is almost identical
in spelling with Sarpendren, one name
Of the great serpent Vssuki, in the In
dian mythology. 1t may, therefore, be
that IN the Bombay snake charmers the
Prince saw the relic Of nation and Of
practices infinitely more antique than
Agha Khan's ancestor, and certainly it
is curious how religious myths have made
The serpent as little dreaded by the Hin
doc people as be is detested and feared
by the European races, who believe that
in Eden, Rs Burns puts 1t, "he gave the
infant world shog maist ruined all"