o bite everything. A few steps from us was somebody's dog. It seemed to
attract the whole of the buni's attention for some time. Sitting on his
haunches, as far as possible from his raging pupil, he stared at the dog
with motionless glassy eyes, and then began a scarcely audible song.
The dog grew restless. Putting his tail between his legs, he tried to
escape, but remained, as if fastened to the ground. After a few seconds
he crawled nearer and nearer to the buni, whining, but unable to tear
his gaze from the charmer. I understood his object, and felt awfully
sorry for the dog. But, to my horror, I suddenly felt that my tongue
would not move, I was perfectly unable either to get up or even to raise
my finger. Happily this fiendish scene was not prolonged. As soon as
the dog was near enough, the cobra bit him. The poor animal fell on his
back, made a few convulsive movements with his legs, and shortly died.
We could no longer doubt that there was poison in the gland. In the
meanwhile the stone had dropped from the buni's finger and he approached
to show us the healed member. We all saw the trace of the prick, a red
spot not bigger than the head of an ordinary pin.

Next he made his snakes rise on their tails, and, holding the stone
between his first finger and thumb, he proceeded to demonstrate its
influence on the cobras. The nearer his hand approached to the head of
the snake, the more the reptile's body recoiled. Looking steadfastly at
the stone they shivered, and, one by one, dropped as if paralyzed. The
buni then made straight for our sceptical colonel, and made him an offer
to try the experiment himself. We all protested vigorously, but he would
not listen to us, and chose a cobra of a very considerable size. Armed
with the stone, the colonel bravely approached the snake. For a moment
I positively felt petrified with fright. Inflating its hood, the cobra
made an attempt to fly at him, then suddenly stopped short, and, after
a pause, began following with all its body the circular movements of the
colonel's hand. When he put the stone quite close to the reptile's head,
the snake staggered as if intoxicated, its hissing grew weak, its hood
dropped helplessly on both sides of its neck, and its eyes closed.
Drooping lower and lower, the snake fell at last on the ground like a
stick, and slept.

Only then did we breathe freely. Taking the sorcerer aside we expressed
our desire to buy the stone, to which he easily assent