441008- 154
Martaehe , bnolede

10-844. Picture($-10~-8-,)of cobra and trainer, APO 883. One of the
several perfarmers of this city. Was surprised not to find more of this
type of intertainment such as the alleged rope trick, sw pended animation,
etc but other than a few cobra trainers found little magic except the card
trick employed by the clever merchants to lure the curious minds of the
Indians. This fellow in the picture approached nqito asked three rupees
to witness his snake charming. I paid him one rupee according to policy.
I was interested more in the equipment than the snake proper which in-
cluded a bag of miscellaneous property and a reed woven basket covered
with a colorful piece of cloth. The flute like instrument was sanmied
in his hand, He commenced his program with all the mystic formality by
first carefully exposing the basket and then, after partially removing
the cover spoke a work in Hindinstani, follow'ng with a gentlp expirat-
ion of the breath. The basket cover was then removed and placed on the
ground with the basket now supermimposed upan the lid to give it an
added pedistal like display. As the snake slowly raised its head the
training attracted its attention with the flute. There is no question
that this flute had a definite charm for this reptile,as it governed
its every movement, As the trainer slowly swung the flute from side to
side the snake obeyed in perfect syncrony. All this time the neck flaps
were expanded. For the picture he held the flute straight foreward
which checked the movement of the cobra thus allowing for the immobility
demonstrated, After the perfomance was over the snake was taken from
the box and draped arount its trainers neck. At the moment the music
stopped the neck flaps collapsed. The final act was to place the snake
back into the basket and, as in the first act, he blew gently into the
basket and offered another unintelligible Indian word, One of the most
amazing thing about this performance was the large crowd of Indians

that collected around the snake charmer soon after the music started.