. The land and the Book; or, Biblical illustrations drawn from the manners and customs, the scenes and scenery of the Holy Land . ed himnaked, yet his success has been complete. He assumes anair of mystery, strikes the walls with a short palm stick,whistles, makes a clucking noise with his tongue, and spitsupon the ground, and generally says, I adjure you by God,if ye be above or if ye be below, that ye come forth; I ad-jure you by the most great name, if ye be obedient, comeforth, and if ye be disobedient, die ! die! die! The ser-pent is generally dislodged by his stick from a fissure in thew
. The land and the Book; or, Biblical illustrations drawn from the manners and customs, the scenes and scenery of the Holy Land . ed himnaked, yet his success has been complete. He assumes anair of mystery, strikes the walls with a short palm stick,whistles, makes a clucking noise with his tongue, and spitsupon the ground, and generally says, I adjure you by God,if ye be above or if ye be below, that ye come forth; I ad-jure you by the most great name, if ye be obedient, comeforth, and if ye be disobedient, die ! die! die! The ser-pent is generally dislodged by his stick from a fissure in thewall or from the ceiling of the room. I have heard it as-serted that a serpent-charmer, before he enters a house inwhich he is to try his skill, always employs a servant of thathouse to introduce one or more serpents; but I have knowninstances in which this could not be the case, and am in-clined to believe that the dervishes above-mentioned are SERPENT-CHARMERS. 223 generally acquainted witli some physical means of discover-ing tlie presence of serpents without seeing them, and of at-tracting them from their BERPENT-OllARMEBS. What these physical means may be is yet a secret, asalso the means by which persons can handle live scorpi-ons, and can put them into their bosom without fear or in-jury. I have seen this done again and again, even by smallboys. This has always excited my curiosity and astonish-ment, for scorpions are the most malignant and irascible ofall insects. The Hindoos, and after them the Egyptians, arethe most famous snake-charmers, scorpion-caters, etc., etc.,although gipsies, Arabs, and others are occasionally found,who gain a vagabond livelihood by strolling round thecountry and confounding the ignorant with these feats. InPsalm Iviii. 4, 5, 6, there is evidently an allusion to certainkinds of serpents which can not be charmed: Their poison 224 THE LAND AND THE BOOK. is like the poison of a serpent; they are like the deaf adderthat stoppeth he
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