India, Pictorial, Descriptive, and Historical; From the Earliest Times to the Present (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1854 Excerpt: ...The Cobra de Capello, or hooded-snake, is a beautiful serpent in appearance, but one of the most venomous of all the coluber class, its bite generally proving mortal in less than an hour. It is called the hooded-snake from having a curious hood near the head, which it contracts or enlarges at pleasure. The centre of this hood is marked in black and white like a pair of spectacles, whence the creature is frequently called the spectacle-snake. Of this genus are the dancing-snakes, which are carried in baskets throughout Hindustan, and procure a maintenance for a set of people, who play a few simple notes on a sort of flute or flageolet, with which the snakes seem much delighted, keeping time by a graceful motion of the head, erecting about half their length from the ground, and following the music with gentle, graceful curves, not unlike the undulating lines of a swans neck. At times twenty of these dangerous reptiles may be seen at their dance, with many hundreds of natives looking on with as much interest as we take in the performance of a first-rate opera-dancer. It has been conjectured, and it may be said to be almost certain, that these musical snakes were well known in Palestine. Every one remembers the figure in the Psalms, where the ungodly are compared to the deaf-adder, which stoppeth her ears, and refuseth to hear the voice of the charmer, charm he never so wisely. It is a well-attested fact that when a house is infested with snakes, the musicians or charmers are sent for, who, by playing their simple slow tunes, find out their hiding-places, and charm them to destruction; for no sooner do the snakes hear the music than they come softly from their retreats, and are easily captured. ' Oriental Memoirs. DANCING SNAKES. 245 When the music ceases the d...