“The Psylli go from house to house, calling forth and charming the snakes that they may happen to contain. They claim to attract them by means of a particular power. Armed with a short wand, they enter the chamber to be purged from these venomous guests, make a smacking noise with their tongue, spit upon the ground, and pronounce the following incantation: ‘_I adjure you, by God, if you are without or within, to appear_; _I adjure you, by the greatest of names; if you are obedient, appear! If you disobey, die! die!_’ The snake, submissive to this command, departs forthwith, issuing from a crack in the wall or floor.”[86] India is pre-eminently the country of snake-charmers. There exists an entire caste of Hindus, called _Mal_, who are professional catchers and vendors of snakes, but do not perform tricks with them. The snake-charmers are recruited from among another caste, that of the _Sangis_ or _Tubriwallahs_ of Bengal. These men, who are usually clothed in yellow robes and wear large turbans, manage the Cobra with really marvellous skill. All travellers who have had the opportunity of crossing India or of touching at a port on the coast or on that of Ceylon have witnessed scenes similar to that described by Natalis Rondot (figs. 90 and 91):-- “Towards six o’clock in the evening a Hindu juggler comes on board. He is poorly clad, and wears a turban decorated with three feathers, and several necklaces of those amulet-sachets called _gris-gris_ in Senegal. In a flat basket he carries a spectacled Cobra-di-Capello. [Illustration: FIG. 90.--INDIAN SNAKE-CHARMER AT COLOMBO (CEYLON).] [Illustration: FIG. 91.--INDIAN SNAKE-CHARMER AT COLOMBO (CEYLON).] “This man instals himself on deck; we sit down on the seat provided for the officer of the watch, and the sailors form a circle. The basket is placed on the deck and uncovered; the Cobra is coiled up at the bottom of it. The juggler squats a few paces off and commences to play a slow, plaintive, and monotonous air, with a kind of small clarinet (fig. 92), the sounds of which recall those of the Breton _biniou_. [Illustration: FIG. 92.--MUSICAL INSTRUMENT USED BY INDIAN SNAKE-CHARMERS TO CHARM COBRAS. (For this figure I am indebted to the kindness of Dr. Pineau.)]