SNAKE CHARMING AND SNAKE CHARMER.
On the subject of snake charming, a wide diversity of opinion seems to
exist. While it is vouched for by many apparently creditable and honest
citizens, that the exhibitions of the East Indian snake charmers show
that they really do possess some mysterious power over the reptiles to
which they owe their safety in freely handling the most venomous
serpents, on the other hand, persons apparently qualified to express an
opinion, declare the whole system of snake charming to be but some
clever impositions. There is said to exist a species of snake of large
size, and so closely resembling the deadly cobra, as to be easily
mistaken for it by ordinary observers, but which is perfectly harmless.
May not this be used in some of these performances? Again, snakes of
really poisonous species appear, on good authority, in many instances,
to have been tampered with by the charmers by having their fangs
removed, or by being made to strike them into cloth or other substances
until the present supply of poison was exhausted. Where this has been
done, and new fangs have grown, or more poison secreted, numerous
charmers have lost their lives by their ignorance or carelessness of the
fact. An officer in a French regiment stationed in Africa, relates that
what were represented by an Arab juggler to be scorpions, were actually
nothing but harmless lizards, and that the man’s feat of thrusting his
naked hand into the bag containing them was no feat at all. Upon the
officer offering to do the same act, the juggler slunk away.
Music is often referred to as a probable secret of snake charming. This
may be, in a small measure, the case, as snakes appear to like music. A
story is told by the Gipps Land (Australia) Guardian, which may be
entirely true, or, probably, _founded_ on truth:
“We have all heard of the charms of music,” says the paper, “and many
have, no doubt, been treated to stories which described its influence
when brought to bear upon snakes; but we are informed of an occurrence
during the past season which surpasses all that we heard before. When
Mr. S—— was one day coming from Traralgon towards Rosedale, he was
indulging himself in whistling a melodious air, while his horse was
taking it easy at a walk. At no great distance in front he espied a good
sized snake, with its head elevated about twelve inches from the ground,
as if listening to the tune of the equestrian. Upon seeing it Mr. S——
was about to dismount to arm himself with a weapon to dispatch it, but
presently he bethought himself that it might be under the influence of
his sweet notes, and accordingly resolved to discover. He, keeping in
his saddle, continued as before, and when he neared the admiring reptile
it set its sinuous form in motion, and moved along rapidly till it got a
considerable way ahead of the pipes. Then it halted, and again raised
the region of its intellect to sip in the strains of the harmony in its
rear. After a repetition of this scene for several times Mr. S——
determined on pushing his experiment further, and for this purpose set
out in a slow trot, when, to his astonishment, the snake went double
quick, still keeping ahead of the music, and regulating its pace by Mr.
S——’s pace, ‘pulled up’ whenever he pulled up. At length Mr. S—— ceased
his melody, and the snake, finding that the strain was ended, wound its
way off into the forest. We may as well add that the tune which is
reported to have thus charmed was no other than ‘Patrick’s Day,’
whistled by a son of the sod.”
[Illustration: SNAKE CHARMER PERFORMING.]
The fact that many spectators of the exhibitions of the snake charmer
failed to detect any deception does not prove that there _was_ no
deception. While the detection of imposition by others, in similar
performances, would seem to argue the _probable_ existence of it in the
other cases. Even poisonous snakes can, by kindness and ample food,
undoubtedly be rendered sufficiently tame to permit handling, and where
charmers pretend to operate on strange serpents, it is suspected that
the reptiles used are really tame ones, surreptitiously introduced
beforehand into the places whence the charmer proposes to bring them
forth by his charms. One case is recorded where a strange snake happened
to be in the place so chosen; he destroyed the tame snake, and, on
emerging, being mistaken by the charmer for his own snake, struck his
fangs into the man when he attempted his usual jugglery with it, causing
his speedy death.
That dexterity and coolness enable men who, in eastern countries, make a
profession of capturing dangerous snakes, which often intrude into
dwellings, to capture these reptiles seems unquestionable; but the
_familiarities_ described by travelers, we believe to be attempted only
with snakes which the performer has tamed and trained, or else rendered
harmless, for the purpose. We will, however, give the opponents of this
theory a chance to be heard, and so present a splendid account, which is
given by an English officer in India, of the capture, by one of their
professional snake catchers, of a cobra which had found its way into the
room of a sick fellow-officer, and was discovered by the narrator on
paying his friend a visit. After the alarm had been given, the usual
confusion outside the door, and the various expedients proposed for
expelling the unwelcome “squatter,” the narrative goes on to describe
the arrival and doings of the snake catcher:
“He came, a tall, muscular native, a slip of cloth around the waist, his
hair long and matted, except on the centre of his head, which was shaved
close in a circle, and a turban covering it, bearing over his shoulders
two baskets and a musical instrument made out of a gourd, with a single
bamboo pipe coming from its upper end, and two smaller ones from its
lower, like a flute, whilst the breath is blown through the upper and
single one. Before he was allowed to enter the room he was searched, and
his baskets and instruments taken from him. Nothing could have been
concealed, for his clothing was reduced to its minimum, and he carried a
short iron rod.
“He was shown a hole in which we supposed the snake to be, for the
reptile had disappeared. He lay down on the floor, and placing his face
close to the hole, exclaimed, ‘Burra sap; sabit babut burra.’ (Big
snake, your honor, very big.) Without any more preparation, he commenced
digging around the hole, and removed some of the brickwork. In a few
minutes he showed the tail of the reptile, and with sundry incantations
in Hindostanee and curious contortions of his body, seized hold of the
tail, and gradually drew forth the snake. It proved to be a fine
specimen of the cobra—a black, shining, wriggling, hissing, deadly
cobra, about five feet long, at the thickest part eight inches round,
with a hood measuring, when extended, five inches across. The reptile he
handled freely, whilst it was hissing and darting its tongue out every
second. Taking it in the yard or ‘compound,’ he released it. The brute
wriggled itself toward him, and when within a foot or so reared itself
up, spread out the enormous hood, and prepared itself to strike at its
captor. But the charmer was not to be wounded. He seized his primitive
instrument, and commenced very slowly to produce low and soft tones,
very harmonious, but unconnected. The snake seemed astonished; his hood
gradually collapsed, his head and about a foot of his body that was
raised from the ground commenced to sway from side to side in perfect
harmony with the music, and slower and quicker as the time was decreased
or increased. As the man played louder, the snake got more excited,
until the rapid and unusual movements had quite exhausted it, and it
subsided.
“Again the charmer seized it, and quick as lightning ran his hand up its
body, holding it firmly by the throat. By pressing on its back the
cobra’s mouth opened, and he disclosed the fangs, poison bags, and
apparatus complete, thus proving beyond a doubt that it was not a
trained or tame reptile he had been treating like a plaything. Doubts
still arose in my mind, however, about the genuineness of the
performance, for I could not bring myself to believe that a man would
willingly place himself in such close proximity to certain death.
“A fowl was obtained and placed about a foot from the reptile, which was
again set free. With the same movements it raised itself a foot from the
ground, spread out its hood, and with a loud hiss, apparently of
satisfaction, darted upon and seized the fowl by the back of the neck.
Hanging there for a few seconds it let go its hold, and the man at the
same instant seized it, as he had formerly done, by the head. The fowl
almost instantaneously became drowsy, its head falling forward, and the
beak striking with considerable force into the ground. The convulsive
movement lasted ten seconds, and then the bird lay down as if completely
comatose and powerless. In fifteen seconds it gave a sudden start and
fell back quite dead.
“As no deception could have been practised in this instance, I was most
anxious to see the reptile killed; but the charmer said he would not
have it destroyed; that if it were injured the power he had over snakes
would be interfered with, and the next one would no doubt bite and kill
him. He accounted for his easy capture by saying this was a great
holiday for the snakes, and that they had been enjoying themselves.
‘This one,’ said he, ‘is not living in this house. He has come from his
home visiting, and has lost his way. On this account he got down a wrong
hole, and I was enabled to pull him out. Nasty neighbors, and abominable
visitors, these cobras! I will take this snake home, and feed him and
make him tame.’
“However, we insisted upon having the animal made harmless, or
comparatively so, and directed the man to remove the fangs. This he
agreed to do, and performed it in this manner—a piece of wood was cut an
inch square, and held by the charmer to the head of the snake. The
reptile seized it as he had done the fowl, and with a dexterous twist of
the hand, the most primitive performance of dentistry was accomplished.
The four fangs sticking into the wood were extracted by the roots and
given to me. I have them now, and look upon them as more suicidally
pleasant than a pint of prussic acid or a cask of white arsenic.
“Another fowl was brought and attacked by the snake as before, but
without any effect; it shook itself, rustled its feathers, and walked
away consequentially. It is alive still, unless some enterprising
culinary agent has converted it into curry or devil. So it was proved
beyond any doubt that an Indian snake charmer was not a humbug and a
swindler, as many suppose, but a strong-minded, quick-eyed, active,
courageous man. The cool determination and heroism of the charmer in the
present instance was rewarded by the sum of two rupees (two shillings,
sterling), and he left the compound with an extra snake in his basket,
thankful to the preservers of his children, as he styled us, and to
whom, he said, he owed his life and existence.”
The snakes used in performances at circus or “side shows” in this
country are not poisonous, though their bite causes a painful wound,
which it is very difficult to heal. The snakes are fed to satiety, and
the only thing necessary to constitute a “snake charmer” of this kind is
the overcoming of the natural repugnance to these reptiles. What was
exhibited as a wonderful example of affection between a child and a
snake some years ago, was a hideous humbug. The story told by the
exhibitors of the little girl meeting the snake, sharing her bread and
milk with it, and becoming violently attached to it (which attachment
was claimed to be returned), before the child’s parents knew of it at
all, and how these strong friends refused to be parted, was a tissue of
lies. The snake had been caught and tamed, and the little girl then
compelled by her unnatural parents to fondle the repulsive thing, from
which she instinctively shrunk, and these stories were started in the
papers about this wonderful “love.” When curiosity had been aroused,
public exhibitions were given, but we believe the enterprises proved a
deserved failure, as few persons could endure to witness this outrage on
nature, though many, doubtless, believed the story told.
[Illustration: THE END.]
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TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
1. Moved advertisements on the cover p. 2 to just before the cover p. 3
2. Table of Contents added by transcriber.
3. Silently corrected typographical errors and variations in spelling.
4. Anachronistic, non-standard, and uncertain spellings retained as
printed.
5. Footnotes have been re-indexed using numbers.
6. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.
7. Enclosed bold font in =equals=.
End of Project Gutenberg's Haney's Art of Training Animals, by Anonymous