A SNAKE-CHARMER STORY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 135, 16 September 1910, Page 6

A SNAKE-CHARMER STORY.

For the average Englishman the snakecharmer comes in the same category I with the'cpnjurej. The Times of India, however, extracts from a Ceylon publication several stories of which certainly <lo not lack corroborative detail, One in particular may be quoted. The author was conducting some scientific investigations with a oharmer. At his request the.man had charmed an undoubtedly wild snake. I "I then, more as a joke than any tiling else, promised him Rs.s if he would al-' low himself to be stung by the snake he had,just caught, fully believing that he would never attempt the trial. But before I could stop him he had seized the, snake <by the neck, and had thrust the forefinger of his right hand deep into its mouth, and when* he withdrew it there were two punctures on each side of the second joint. Both punctures were ( bleedjfag slightly. He at once handed! over the cobra to his companion, who immediately shut him up into the snake basket. I "The charmer presently took out from hia wast-elobh a piece of charred bone,j well known as the'snake-stone, which he applied at once to the two punctures. He then waited for some minutes, and I could see the veins on the back of his hands standing out like knotted strings. After a couple of minutes or so the stone dropped down, and he then told me that he had extracted all the poison; and, calling for a small cocoanut-l shell full of milk, he dropped the stone into it; in a moment, after a considerable amount of bubbling, there came to the surface a certain amount of oilylooking liquid, pale straw in color. "In order to test whether the wounds on his knuckle had been produced by the fanga, or whether they were due to scratching by the back teeth, I called for a small chicken, of which I had a, certain number in my fowl-run, and, • making a small incision on its leg, Ii dipped a feather into the oily liquid and rubbed it into trie incision. The chicken died within ten minutes, with all the symptoms of snake-bite. I then paid the man the amount agreed upon, and obtained»in return from him a snakestone, the piece of white root which he had used to charm the snake, and a small disc of brown material, which hel said was a talisman against the action of snake poison. He asked me as a favor! to be allowed to take his new capture away with ihim, permission which I very gladly gave him."