As to the idea that the snakes are previously deprived of their fangs, and that the jugglers secure themselves against all danger of being injured by the regular dancing snakes that they carry about with them in baskets, a single anecdote related by Forbes, in his Oriental Memoirs, will I think suffice to combat and refute it. Not having the book by me while I write, I hope my readers will excuse any slight discrepancies which they may detect on a reference to my authority. Forbes states that on the cessation of the music the reptiles lapse into a sort of lethargy, and appear motionless. It is, however, he adds, necessary that they should be immediately covered up in the baskets, as otherwise they may spring upon and wound the spectators; and he informs us that fatal accidents frequently occur from inattention to this precaution. Amongst his drawings is that of a Cobra de Capella, which, under the magic influence of a professed serpent-charmer’s music, danced before him for an hour upon his table while he painted it, and during that period he repeatedly handled it and carefully examined the structure of its head, hood, and jaws, and inspected minutely the variety and extreme beauty of its spots. The following day an upper servant of his rushed into his apartment, and cried out that he was a fortunate, a most fortunate man, doubtless under the immediate protection of the Prophet--that his devotions had proved acceptable, and sundry other expressions, totally incomprehensible to Forbes, who inquired his meaning. The man then related that he had just been in the bazaar, where he had seen the same juggler who had entertained him the day preceding, performing before a crowd of people, who, as was usual on such occasions, formed a circle around the operator, seated on the ground. At the close of the performance, the reptile, whether infuriated from the music ceasing too suddenly, or from some other cause not to be explained, darted amongst the spectators, and seizing a young woman by the throat, inflicted a wound of which she died in about an hour. Here was proof positive that the extraction of the serpent’s fangs was thought by no means essential to training him to his performance.