dence this highly amusing and
instructive establishment is so well conducted, would not have permitted
the exhibition to take place, if there had been the least danger.
Besides this, I observed that the charmers only used their own serpents,
which they had, I presume, brought with them; and I confess that the
impression upon my mind was, that they had been rendered innoxious by
mechanical means."[200]

This last assumption the narrator subsequently found to be indubitably
true. What is said of the _Cerastes_, however, looks more like the
effect of something detrimental to the snake in the lad's odour, or in
his spittle. Of course no confidence can be placed in their statements,
but it is noteworthy that they both claimed to belong to a race over
whom snakes have no morbific power,--Psylli, in fact, of many
generations.

Dr Davy asserts that in India, however, the poison fangs are _not_
extracted. He tells us that he has himself examined the snakes exhibited
(which are always Cobras) and have found the fangs uninjured. He
attributes the power of the charmers to their agility and courage,
founded on an intimate acquaintance with the habits and disposition of
the reptiles. The learned Doctor acting on this persuasion, says that he
has himself repeatedly irritated these serpents with impunity. They can
be readily appeased when irritated, by the voice and by gentle movements
of the hand in a circle, and by stroking them on the body.

A very curious subject, closely connected with serpent-charming, is the
power of extracting venom from a wound inflicted by reptiles, attributed
to the "snake-stone," which the Hindoos and Cingalese usually carry with
them. Captain Napier thus describes it:--

"These people generally have for sale numbers of _snake-stones_, which
are said to be equally an antidote against the bite of the serpent and
the sting of the scorpion. For the former I have never seen it tried:
and to prove its efficacy with the latter, the samp-wallah generally
carries about in small earthen vessels a number of these animals, one of
which he allows to wound him with his sting. The snake-stone, which is a
dark, shining, smooth pebble, about the size and shape of a French bean,
on being applied to the wound, instantly adheres to it, and by a power
of suction appears to draw out the poison, which is supposed to be
contained in the small bubbles which, on the immersion of the stone into
a glass of water are seen in great