We told him what we wanted. He had been at a marriage-feast and was
drunk. But he sent for his snakes, and forthwith showed us marvels which
this man has never heard of. At last he took a great cobra from his sack
and began to handle it. Suddenly it darted at his chin and bit him. It
made two marks like pin-points. The juggler started back.
'"I am a dead man," he said.
'Those about him would have killed the cobra, but he prevented them.
'"Let the creature live," he said. "It may be of service to others of my
trade. To me it can be of no other use. Nothing can save me."
'His friends and the jugglers, his fellows, gathered round him and placed
him in a chair. In two hours he was dead. In his drunkenness he had
forgotten a portion of the spell which protected him, and so he died.'
'You have a marvellous collection of tall stories,' said Arthur. 'I'm
afraid I should want better proof that these particular snakes are
poisonous.'
Oliver turned to the charmer and spoke to him in Arabic. Then he answered
Arthur.
'The man has a horned viper, _cerastes_ is the name under which you
gentlemen of science know it, and it is the most deadly of all Egyptian
snakes.
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