The Kentucky Gazette

THE SECRET OF SNAKE-CHARMING.
How the Gentle Hindoo Manipulates the Deadly Cobra.
London Telegraph.
In India the favorite snake for exhibition is the cobra, partly because of its more striking appearance, and partly because, its deadly character being so well known, any trifling with it appears to the uninitiated public the more wonderful. Nor, indeed do the performances of the Hindoo snake-charmer lose, on better acquaintance, all their marvelousness, for courage of a high order, arising partly from the confidence acquired by long practice, is manifested in seizing and bagging the dreadful ophidian. In most cases the charmer renders the reptiles harmless by drawing their poison fangs, and the exhibition becomes then merely one which exhibit the snake's highly trained condition. On the other hand, it often happens that the basket contains the veritable death-dealer, and a cobra with his fangs undrawn is nearly always forthcoming if the temptation in money be sufficiently strong. But in the handling of the creatures when once exposed there is no hesitation, for hesitation means death, and in the swift seizure and sudden release there is a daring of an exceptional kind. The cobra strikes, when it has made up its mind to strike, with lightning rapidity, and to dodge lightning successfully it requires considerable agility.
The snake-charmers, however, when put on their mettle, will grasp the erect cobra with impunity, owing solely to the superior speed of their movements, for by a feint they provoke the reptile to strike, and before it can recover its attitude, seize it below the jaw. In the same way the ichneumon or mongoose secures in contests with venomous snakes a comparative immunity. It was for a long time an article of faith with writers of popular works on natural history that this animal enjoyed a complete immunity, but scientific experiment has corrected this fallacy. A mongoose and cobra confined together fought freely, and though the latter seemed to the eye to strike his antagonist repeatedly, the mongoose, on being examined after it had killed the snake, was found to be untouched. Another cobra was then brought on to the scene, and being made to close its fangs on the mongoose's leg, the animal confessed its susceptibility to the poison by dying in about four minutes. It was, therefore, by its superior activity alone that in a fair fight with the reptile it had escaped unhurt, and to the same cause the snake-charmer owes the immunity that attends his exhibition. But, as in the case of the mongoose, the snake-charmer, when actually bitten, dies as rapidly as any other creature, in spite of all the powers of his charms, roots and snake stone. The Hindoo spectator refuses to believe this, and enjoys, therefore, by his credulity, a pleasure denied to more intelligent audiences, for if we could only accept as truth the charmer's statement that he has really been bitten and the red drops on the bitten spot were actually blood exuding from the fatal puncture, and could then believe that the root he smelt, the stone he applied to the wound and the charms he muttered of the cobra's poison, the spectacle would be of surpassing interest, since it would be a miracle.