SERPENT-CHARMING, an art which has been practiced in Egypt and throughout the east from remote antiquity, and which forms the profession of persons who employ it for their own gain, and for the amusement of others. In India, and partly if not .entirely in other countries, this profession is hereditary.
There are several allusions to serpent-charming in,-the Old Testament: see Psalm Mil, 4, 5; Eccles. x. 11; Jer. viii. 17. It is mentioned also by some of the ancient classics, as Pliny and Lucan.
Serpent-charmers usually ascribe their power over serpents to some constitutional peculiarity, and represent themselves as perfectly safe from injury even if bitten by them. To confirm this, they are accustomed, in their exhibitions, to exasperate the ser pents, and allow themselves to be bitten, so that blood flows freely. But it has been fully ascertained that the serpents which they carry with them, and produce on these occasions, although of the most venomous kinds, have been at least deprived of their poison-fangs, and to prevent new ones from growing, a portion of the maxillary bone is often if not always taken out; in some eases, it appears that the poison-glands themselves are removed by excision and cautery.
So much, however, being set aside as of the nature of a mere juggler's trick, much still remains which is interesting, and in which there is unquestionable reality. The serpent-charmers of the east have a power beyond other men of knowing when a serpent is concealed anywhere, long practice having probably enabled them to distinguish the musky smell which serpents very generally emit, even when it is t a) faint to attract the attention of others. They are therefore sometimes employed to remove serpents from
gardens and the vicinity of houses. In this, as in their exhibitions, they pretend to use spells. What power the tones of their voice may exert is Of course uncertain; but they accompany their words with whistling, and make use also of various musical instru ments, the sound of which certainly,has great power over serpents. When they issue from their holes, the serpent-charmer fearlessly catches them, by pinning them to the ground by means of a forked stick: But one of the first things he does afterward is to knock out or extract the poison-fangs.
In the exhibitions of serpent-charmers, the creatures are often made to twine round the bodies of the performers. They also erect themselves partially from the ground, and in this posture they perform strange movements to the sound of a pipe, on which the serpent-charmer plays. It appears also that he exerts a very remarkable influence over them by his eye, for even before any musical sound has been employed, lie governs and commands them by merely fixing his gaze upon them.
In 1850, a party of Arab serpent-charmers visited London, where exhibitions took place similar to those which are common in the east.