“Gentlemen, like dine here?” inquired the interpreter—“soon make dinner ready, but no ab tent.”
“Thanks to you, doctor, they won’t trust us with another. I vote we dine here; for I am hungry enough to eat a buffalo, without anchovy sauce—eh, Mr Prose? Let us dine under yon acacia, on the little mount. There is a fine breeze blowing, and plenty of shade from the tree.”
Courtenay’s proposal was agreed to, and the interpreter gave the directions. He then told the doctor, that if Saib wished to see snake-man, he come now, and bring very fine snake.
The man made his appearance, holding in his hand a small earthen chatty, or pot, in which he had confined the snake, covered over with a linen rag. He exchanged a few sentences with the interpreter, who explained that “man not afraid of bite of snake, and if gentleman give him rupee, he let snake bite him—man eat herb, same as little beast that kill snake.”
“Oh, that plant that the ichneumon resorts to when bitten,” exclaimed Macallan. “This will be a most curious fact, and I must witness it. Interpreter, tell him that I will reward him handsomely.”
“How does he catch the snakes?” inquired Seymour.
“Blow little pipe, sar,” replied the interpreter, pointing to a small reed, perforated with five or six holes, suspended by a string to the man’s neck; “snake like music.”
He then proceeded to explain the manner of taking the snakes, which was effected by lying down close to the hole where the snake was, and by playing a few soft notes with the pipe. The snake, attracted by the sound, puts his head out of the hole, and is immediately firmly grasped by the neck, by which he is held until his fangs are extracted, by jerking them out with a piece of rag, held for him to bite at.
“Strange,” observed Courtenay, “that snakes should be fond of music, and still stranger that people should have discovered it.”
“And yet it has long been known—perhaps, from time immemorial,” answered Macallan. “The comparisons of Scripture are all derived from eastern scenery and eastern customs. Do you not recollect the words of the Psalmist, who compareth the wicked to the deaf adder, who ‘will not harken to the voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely’?”