Читать книгу The Circle of Knowledge: A Classified, Simplified, Visualized Book of Answers - Various - Страница 285

This art has been practised from very ancient times in Africa and the East, and often remains from generation to generation the profession of a family. It is sometimes practised for alleged useful purposes, since the “charmers” are often employed to clear a house of its unwelcome snake visitors. For the most part, however, it is, like conjuring, a form of popular amusement. In India it is practised by several distinct classes of men, who vary in the methods and success of their art. The charmers usually take good care to play with snakes whose fangs or even poison-glands have been carefully removed, or even to use those which are not venomous at all. The frequent use of a musical pipe, and the way in which the snakes seem to respond to the sounds, are facts interesting to naturalists, who believe that at least many snakes are very deaf. The charmers sometimes manifest a fearlessly confident dexterity in handling intact venomous snakes.