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. 206Upon 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.”
 
SNAKE CHARMER PERFORMING.
207The 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.
208“He was shown a hole in which we supposed the snake to be, for the ............