The Music and Musical Instruments of Southern India and the Deccan c5.30

c5.30

Colonel Meadows Taylor relates a somewhat similar circumstance: “One very large cobra which frequented my garden at Ellichpur, and of which everyone was in dread, was caught by some professional snake charmers in my own presence by means of the ‘pungi.’⁸ It was played at first very softly before the aloe bush underneath which the snake lived in a hole, and gradually the performer increased the tone and time of his playing, and, as the snake showed his head, he retreated gently till it was fairly outside and erected itself in a defiant manner. At that moment another man stepped dexterously behind and, while the snake’s attention was absorbed by the player before, threw a heavy blanket upon it, seizing it by the head under the jaws. The head was then pinned down by a forked stick, and the fangs and teeth extracted by strong pincers; the snake was then turned loose, completely cowed and exhausted. There was no doubt about the identity of the reptile, for a portion of its tail had been shot off in an attempt to destroy it.”⁹