believe that these men really possess a charm by which they thus play without dread, and with impunity, from danger. The more enlightened, laughing at this idea, consider the men impostors, and that in playing their tricks there is no danger to be avoided, it being removed by the abstraction of the poison-fangs. The enlightened in this instance are mistaken, and the vulgar are nearer the truth in their opinion. I have examined the snakes I have seen exhibited, and have found their poison- fangs in and uninjured. These men do possess a charm, though not a supernatural one, viz. that of confidence and courage. . . They will play their tricks with any hooded snakes (Naja /r//;i(c/i«««), whether just taken or long in confinement, but with no other kind of poisonous snake." (See also Tennent, Ceylon, 3d ed. i, 199.) Some have supposed that the practice of taking out or break- ing off the poison-fangs is alluded to in Psa. Iviii, 6, " Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth." The ser-
Moderu Oriental ycrpeut-charmei-s.
pent -charmer's usual instrument is a flute. Shrill sounds, it would appear, are those which serpents, with their imperfect sense of hearing, are able most easily to discern ; hence it is that the Chinese suinmon their tame fish by whistling or by ringing a bell. The reader will find much interesting matter on the art of serpent- charming, as practiced by the ancients, in Bochart {flieroz. iii, 161); in the dissertation by Bohmer enti- tled De Psyllorum, Marsorum, ei Ophiogenum adversus Serpentes Virtitte (Lips. 1745); and in Kampfer, Ama.'- nitates Exotica', III, ix, 565; see also Broderip, A'ote- book of a Naturalist, and Anecdotes of Serpents, pub- lished by Chambers; Lane, Modern Egyptians, ii, 106. Those who professed the art of taming serpents were called bj' the Hebrews menachaskim (D'^Olli^), while the art itself was called Idchash (lynp), Jer. viii, 17; Eccles. X, 11 : but these terms were not always used in this restricted sense. See Divination.
In general, these serpent-charmers were, and are, distinct tribes of men in their several countries, pro- fessing the power they claim to be an inherent and natural function. The most famous serpent-charmers of anticpiity were the Psylli, a people of Cyrenaica ; and that theirs was believed to be a natural power ap- pears from the story tolii by Pliny, that they were ac- customed to try the legitimacj' of their new-born chil- dren by exposing them to the most cruel and venomous serpents, who dared not molest or even approach them unless they were illegitimate. He thinks their power resided in some peculiar odor in their persons, which the serpents abhorred {Hist. Nat. vii, 2). Lucan says the same; and the passage in which that poet speaks of them affords a complete exposition of the ancient belief concerning the charming of serpents. He chiefiy describes the measures which they took to protect the Koman camp. When the encampment was marked
SERPENTINIANS
581
SERRAD
out, they marched around it chanting their charms, the " mystic sound" of which chased the serpents far away. But not trusting entirelj' to this, they kept up tires, of different kinds of wood, beyonil the farthest tents, the smell of wliich prevented the serpents from approaching. Thus the camp was protected during the night. But if any soUlier, when abroad in the daytime, happened to be bitten, the Psylli exerted their powers to effect a cure. First they rubbed the ' wounded part around with saliva, to prevent, as they said, the poison from spreading while they assayed tlieir arts to extract it {Pharsulia, ix). See En-
CH.VNT.MKNT.
In this account we find the voice repeatedly men- tioned; and it is to "the voice of the charmer" that the Psalmist refers. We may suppose that, as in the passage we have quoted, the charmers use a form of words — a charm — or else chanted a song in some pe- culiar manner. So Eusebins, in mentioning that Pal- estine abounded in serpent-charmers in his time, says that they usually employed a verbal charm. This is still one of the processes of tlie Oriental serpent-charm- ers. Roberts says that the following is considered in India the most potent form of words against serpents : "Oh, serpent! thou who art coiled in my path, get out of my way; for around thee are the mongoos, the por- cupine, and the kite in his circles is ready to take thee!" The Egyptian serpent-charmer also employs vocal sounds and a form of words to draw the ven- omous creatures from their retreats. Mr. Lane says, " He assumes an air of mystery, strikes the walls with a short palm -stick, whistles, makes a chicking noise with his tongue, and spits upon the ground; and gen- erally says, ' I adjure you by God, if ye be above, or if ye be below, that ye come forth; I adjure ye by the most great name, if ye be obedient, come forth ; and if ye be disobedient, die ! die! die!'" (^Mudern Egyptians, ii, 104). See Adder.
With regard to the manipulation of serpents by the Egyptian magicians (Exod. iv), we may remark that in modern times the psylli, or charmers, by a particular pressure on the neck of the cobra or hnje, have the power of rendering the inflation of the animal — which is a character of the genus — so intense that the serpent becomes rigid, and can be hekl out horizontally as if it were a rod. This practice explains what the sooth- sayers of Pharaoh could perform when they were op- posing Moses, and reveals one of the names by which the Hebrews knew the species; for although the text (Exod. iv, 3) uses, for the rod of Aaron converted into a serpent, the word driD, nachash, and subsequently (vii, 15) "p3n, tannin, it is plain that, in the second passage, the word indicates " monster," as applied to the nachash ']\\st named — the first being an appellative, the second an epithet. That the rods of the magicians of Pharaoh were of the same external character is evident from no different denomination being given to them ; therefore we may infer that they used a real serpent as a rod — viz. the species now called hije — for their impost- ure, since they no doubt did what the present serpent- charmers perform with the same species by means of the temporary asphyxiation, or suspension of vitality, before noticed, and producing restoration to active life by lib- erating or throwing down. Thus we have the miracu- lous character of the prophet's mission shown by his real rod becoming a serpent, and the magicians' real ser- pents merely assuming the form of rods; and when both were opposed, in a state of animated existence, by the rod devouring the living animals, conquering the great typical personification of the protecting divinity of Egypt. See Serpent.