Serpent charming has from remote times been practiced among Oriental nations. While there is doubtless imposture often associated with the exhibitions of serpent charmers, yet there are many carefully observing travelers who give it as their opinion, from their own observation, that there are men who, in some way, can detect the presence of serpents in houses and old walls, and can draw them out and keep them from doing mischief by the power of shrill musical notes. Since none of the serpent tribe have any external ear, and consequently can only hear very sharp sounds, it is hardly necessary to explain the deafness of the adder as willful, occasioned, as some old travelers have gravely asserted, by putting one ear to the dust and stopping the other with its tail.
Some travelers give it as their opinion that all the serpents exhibited by the charmers have previously had their fangs extracted, while others assert that some of the serpents thus sported with have afterward given unmistakable evidence of still possessing the death-dealing power. Forbes gives a curious illustration of this. He once painted the picture of a cobra de capello, which a Hindu snake charmer kept dancing on the table for a whole hour, while the artist was at his work. During this time he “frequently handled it to observe the beauty of the spots and especially the spectaclos on the hood, not doubting but that its venomous fangs had been previously extracted.” The next morning his servant informed him, very much to his astonishment, that “while purchasing some fruit in the bazar he had observed the man who had been with me on the preceding evening entertaining the country people with his dancing snakes. They, according to their usual custom, sat on the ground around him, when, either from the music stopping too suddenly, or from some other cause irritating the vicious reptile which I had so often handled, it darted at the throat of a young woman, and inflicted a wound of which she died in about half an hour” (Oriental Memoirs, vol.1, p. 44).
Besides the text, reference is made to serpent charming in several other passages. Solomon refers to it in Ecclesiastes 10:1111Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment; and a babbler is no better. (Ecclesiastes 10:11): “Surely the serpent will bite without enchantment; and a babbler is no better.” In the prophecy of Jeremiah, there is allusion made to the same custom: “For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the Lord” (Jer. 8:1717For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you, which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, saith the Lord. (Jeremiah 8:17)).