As to reptiles, the cobra seems to be as unlikely a creature to be tamed as any on the face of the earth. Yet even this terrible serpent, whose bite is nearly certain death, is tamed by the Indians, and taught to go through certain performances. For example, a couple of serpent charmers will come, with their flat baskets and their musical instruments, and begin to give a performance. One of them plays on a rude native pipe, while the other removes the cover of one of the baskets. Out comes the hooded head of the cobra, which seems as if it were about to glide among the spectators, when a gesture and a few notes from the piper check its progress, and it begins to rise and fall, and sway its head from side to side, as if in time to the music. The men will then take up the venomous reptile, allow it to crawl over their bodies, tie it round their necks, and take all kinds of liberties with it, the serpent appearing to labor under some strange fascination, and to be unable or unwilling to use its fangs.
Some persons think that the serpents are innocuous, their poison fangs having been extracted. This may be the case in some instances, but in them the performers are not the genuine snake charmers. Moreover, there are several sets of fangs, one behind the other, so that when one pair is broken or extracted, another pair speedily comes forward.
That the genuine charmers do not depend upon such imposture for their success is evident from many cases in which the serpents have been carefully examined before and after the performance, and their fangs found to be perfect in every respect. One such instance is narrated by General Campbell in his “Indian Journal.” He had previously been under the impression that the fangs were always removed from the serpents, but the following circumstance convinced him that the charmers could perform their tricks with snakes whose fangs were perfect:—
“When I was on General Dalrymple’s staff at Trichinopoly, there was a dry well in the garden which was the favorite haunt of snakes, and in which I shot several. One morning I discovered a large cobra-capella at the bottom of this well, basking in the sun; but while I ran to fetch my gun some of the native servants began to pelt him with stones, and drove him into his hole among the brickwork. I therefore sent for the snake charmers to get him out. Two of these worthies having arrived, we lowered them into the well by means of a rope. One of them, after performing sundry incantations, and sprinkling himself and his companion with ashes prepared from the dung of a sacred cow, began to play a shrill, monotonous ditty upon a pipe ornamented with shells, brass rings, and beads, while the other stood on one side of the snake’s hole, holding a rod furnished at one end with a slip-noose.
“At first the snake, who had been considerably bullied before he took refuge in his hole, was deaf to the notes of the charmer, but after half an hour’s constant playing the spell began to operate, and the snake was heard to move. In a few minutes more he thrust out his head, the horse-hair noose was dexterously slipped over it and drawn tight, and we hoisted up the men dangling their snake in triumph.
“Having carried him to an open space of ground, they released him from the noose. The enraged snake immediately made a rush at the by-standers, putting to flight a crowd of native servants who had assembled to witness the sport. The snake charmer, tapping him on the tail with a switch, induced him to turn upon himself, and at the same moment sounding his pipe. The snake coiled himself up, raised his head, expanded his hood, and appeared about to strike, but, instead of doing so, he remained in the same position as if fascinated by the music, darting out his slender forked tongue, and following with his head the motion of the man’s knee, which he kept moving from side to side within a few inches of him, as if tempting him to bite.
“No sooner did the music cease, than the snake darted forward with such fury that it required great agility on the part of the man to avoid him, and immediately made off as fast as he could go. The sound of the pipe, however, invariably made him stop, and obliged him to remain in an upright position as long as the man continued to play.
“After repeating this experiment several times, he placed a fowl within his reach, which he instantly darted at and bit. The fowl screamed out the moment he was struck, but ran off, and began picking among his companions as if nothing had happened. I pulled out my watch to see how long the venom took to operate.
“In about half a minute the comb and wattles of the fowl began to change from a red to a livid hue, and were soon nearly black, but no other symptom was apparent. In two minutes it began to stagger, was seized with strong convulsions, fell to the ground, and continued to struggle violently till it expired, exactly three minutes and a half after it had been bitten. On plucking the fowl, we found that he had merely been touched on the extreme point of the pinion. The wound, not larger than the puncture of a needle, was surrounded by a livid spot, but the remainder of the body, with the exception of the comb and wattles (which were of a dark livid hue), was of the natural color, and I afterward learned that the coachman, a half-caste, had eaten it.
“The charmer now offered to show us his method of catching snakes, and seizing the reptile (about five feet long) by the point of the tail with his left hand, he slipped the right hand along the body with the swiftness of lightning, and grasping him by the throat with his finger and thumb, held him fast, and forced him to open his jaws and display his poisonous fangs.