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The Mystique of India's Snake Charming |
| Section: CULTURE / PATTERNS |
| Author: Peter Gorman |
| Publication: The world & I online |
| Issue Date: 2/1/2005 |
| Size: 3,603 Words, 21,325 Characters |
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Gogol Vir, the patron saint of all snakes, was the high priest of a serpent worshipping cult whose deities were known as Nagas. One day a viper which lay hidden above a door in Gogol Vir's house bit him on the back of the head, a mortal wound. As he lay dying, Gogol Vir instructed his son to cook and eat his flesh so that his magic powers might be passed on, but no sooner had the son prepared this meal than seven hungry thieves stole it. Feasting on it, they became the masters of magic and gained power over snakes.
An Indian Legend of the Origin of Snake Charmers
A twelve-year-old boy stands at the entrance of a circus tent, his voice adding to the din at a mela, or fair, in Rajasthan: "See the Master! Yogi Raj Bengali, Master of poisonous snakes! See Aasha, the ...
. . .
...a people.
"You don't have to go very far to find people in India who still think that handling poisonous snakes requires something in the way of a magical or supernatural power," Sherman Minton says.
"It's a very old attitude toward snakes," his wife Madge agrees. "They've had it for many thousands of years and they're not likely to lose it."
Bengali laughs. Bet you! Bet you! Bet you!
(812 of 21,325 characters)
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