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Volume 3 23 |
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A–Z |  |
CHARMING THE VENOM OF THE FOLDED SNAKE
| The snake-charmer's outfit consists of a cobra, whose poison fangs are extracted, a mongoose — presumably to catch the snake if it escapes — and a wind instrument fashioned from a gourd. On hearing the notes of the pipe, sometimes accompanied by a tom-tom, the cobra raises its body from the basket, spreading its hood and swaying, withdrawing into the basket on the cessation of the strains |