© Penelope Gan – All Rights Reserved – Hawa Mahal, Jaipur, INDIA
I’ve met this man twice now. Always at the same spot, opposite the snake charmer. Separate trades; a flute seller and a snake charmer and yet when you hear them blow their lungs out in an indescript melody on two different (but similar) musical instruments, you’d think they were competitors competing for both the throng of tourists’ attention and that of the snake.
The fact is snake charming is a practice of pretending to hypnotise a snake by playing an instrument, typically one made from a gourd known as a been or pungi. Regardless of instrument used or the quality of the melody produced, the snake does not react to the tune and is unable to hear! What appears to be a response to the musician’s tune with the snake emerging from its container and extending its hood for cobra is a normal defensive reaction of the snake startled by the change of its darkened environment to one that is bright with the removal of the container’s lid. It’s swaying movements which appears as if it were hypnotised is a reaction towards the vibration it feels from the deliberate swaying movement of the snake charmer’s instrument and tapping of his feet.
Taking advantage of the snake’s timid nature, snake charmers sit just out of the snake’s striking range of about a third of the cobra’s body length and amazes onlookers by kissing its head as cobras are incapable of attacking things above them. Understanding this creatures habits and keeping them groggy and lethagic in dark, cool containers, snake charmers are also trained in handling methods and arm themselves with rudimentary knowledge of treating snakebites.
Though this holds true, in some extreme cases of precautions, snake charmers are known to removing the creature’s fangs or venom glands, or even sewing the snake’s mouth shut. This amongst other treatment to the creature have raised the brows of Animal Rights Protection groups.
Having originated from Ancient Egypt with the practice extending throughout Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Northern Africa, snake charming is today in danger of dying out due to a variety of factors including pressures by Animal Rights Protection groups to governmental law enforcement such as the 1972 law in India that bans the ownership of snakes; though enforcement remains questionable.
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