SNAKE CHARMERS AND THEIR METHODS. An Extraordinary Occurrence in India.

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 286, 1 August 1888, Page 4

SNAKE CHARMERS AND THEIR METHODS. An Extraordinary Occurrence in India.

Some strange disclosures as to the beliefs entertained by the illiterate classes regarding the people who are known in India as 1 snake charmers,' and the power they are supposed to possees of neutralising the eflectb of snake poison by incantations and other means, were made at an inquest recently held at Mazagon. It appears that the Hindoo boy, aged six years, whose death was the subject of inquiry ot the coroner, left his hut about six a.m., and going towards a high stack of boards which were only about 30 oi 40 yards ftoin the hut, squatted himself down on some open groundabouttwoorthrec feetfrom the planks. It is only reasonable fco suppose that when the child went to the spot the cobra was not visible, and it appears probable that the snake emerged from its hiding place among the boards to attack the child as an intruder. Be this as it m<<y, tho snake seized the ohild by the great toe of the left foot, when the child at once rose to its feet and made strong ellorts to shake off the viper, and only succeeded in doing bo after a .short interval, during which the child's elder brother, who was about 20 yards oil', ran to his help. The cobra when | shaken ofl at once made it& way back to its hiding place among the boards. The bitten child shook the bitten leg vigorously for a few seconds, but was not able at once to shake off the *>nake, the long and curved teeth of the cobra probably preventing its immediate lotting go of its \iclim. Tho-e aie the only considerations, connected with the bite itself. We no^ Hays the ' Times of India') come to the extraordinary proceedings connected with the tieatmont of the bitten child. The mother, a\ ho was in her hut close by, hearing her child .scream, ran out to its help. Before she could reach the spot the snake had escaped. The child pointed to the bite and told how it had happened The boy was taken home, when the neighbour at once assembled. An antidote, consisting of won loaves, salt and chillies, was at once giound up into a paste and the child was got to swallow it. This appear*, to have produced \ omiting ; the child thereupon immediately sank into unconsciousness, and died in about 20 or 30 minutes after being bitten. When tho alarm was first given that a child had been bitten by a snake, a neighbour was despatched for a snake charmer, and succeeded in finding one in the person of a coal labourer in J)ongri. This man leadily declared hi& ability to ti eat successfully any kind of snake bite, and he was at once brought to the child, but sometime before he arrived- -probably an hour — the child had died. It might be expected that the death of the child would put an end to efforts at treatment, but it was not so ; the charmer at once proceeded with the use of incantations o\er the body of the child, which weie persisted in for some time. Finding the incantations, or muiifraa, useless, the charmer demanded to be shown the hiding-place of the snake, informing the ciowd that if he succeeded, in securing the snake he would cause it again to bite the dead child, and that the second bite would remove the poison and re-tore the life which the first bite had destioyed. A rush was immediately made to the great pile of boards and several hundred of these were removed as quickly as possible, when the cobra, about 3ft. in length, and in all probability the same cobra that had bitten the child, was di&co\ered. With considerable dexterity and no little courage the snake ch.irmer fei/.ed the cobra by the tail with one hand and giasped it round the neck with the other, and carried it off in triumph to the hut in which the dead body of the child was lying. Having entered tho hut, he placed the head of the cobra against various q parts of the child's body, and .slightly loosened his lio'd round the neck of the snake to induce it again to bite the child. But the cobra would not bite, although the coaxing process was continued for an hour and more, and the head of the Miake was placed against \arious parts of the child's body. When this operation had been long continued — about an hour and a half, and the hand of the chaimer had probably become somewhat benumbed by vigoiou^ly holding the snake round the neck, thcieptile suddenly inflicted a bite in tho indev finger of his hand. This bite bi ought the resuscitation treatment to an end, the charmer declaring to the crowd that he was about to set the cobra' at liberty. This was strenuously objected to, and d copper ohattie was at once pioduced, and the channel was requested to place the snake in it for safe custody. He did so, and the chattlc containing the living cobra was brought up at the inquest. The cobra was subsequently destroyed after the conclusion of the proceedings before the coroner. After being bitten, the snake charmer went to the house of a friend close by, whence lie was taken in a rockla to his own house, and died as he was being carried in. The cobra had thus caused the death of two persons. The most remarkable featuie connected with this lamentable occurrence is the childlike simplicity of tho people, who crowded round the bitten boy, seriously expecting that he would be rc&toied to htc, first, by the simple and unmeaning process* of incantations, or the use of munlm*, and, failing that, by the removal of the cobra poison by a second bite from a snake. Indian ciowds, who are hereditarily superstitious', are not much qualified to ujc the power of reason, even it they possess that attribute. Hence the blind faith exhibited in the professions of the snake charmer that the occurrence of the death after a cobra bite was no hindrance to a restoration of life if a second dose of the fatal poison could only be admini&teied to neutiali&e or overcome tho efTocts of tho first dose, or, as expressed by the snake charmer the romo\ al of the poison by a second bite from the snake. The doctrine ot like curing like is heie as strongly contended for as it can be by ti.o most thorough-going homeopath. In tho present instance the impiisoned cobia was able instinctively to distinguish betweon a dead body and a Jiving person, for while it refusod to expend its poison upon dead matter, it was vigorously disposed to attack its li\ ing tormentor.