m.

Clara demurred at first and so did Mabel. They were used to seeing snakes
behind a network of wire and glass, and they did not relish the idea of
standing within a few feet of the crawling serpents in the open street.
But curiosity, added to the urgings of the young men, finally conquered,
and they joined the throng on the other side.

The performer, an old man with bronzed face, was squatting on his haunches
playing a weird tune on a reedy instrument resembling a flute. Before him
was upreared a monstrous specimen of the deadly cobra species, swaying
gently to and fro and keeping time to the music. Its malignant eyes
looking out from the broad head whose markings resembled a pair of
spectacles had lost something of their fiery sparkle, and a slight haze
spread over them, as though the creature were under a spell.

The music continued and two other snakes crawled out as if in response to
a call and joined their companion in his swaying, rhythmic dance. Then the
tune changed, the snakes uncoiled, and the performer took them up without
the slightest fear and put them back in the basket.

"Suppose they should bite him!" exclaimed Mabel.

"He's had their fangs drawn already," returned Joe. "The old rascal's
taking no chances."

"They say that a man lasts about half an hour after one of those fellows
nips him," observed Jim. "Somebody was telling me that over twenty
thousand natives are bitten by them every year."

A little further down the street, another fakir was giving an exhibition.
He placed a small native boy in a basket that was a tight fit and put down
the basket cover. Then after making mysterious signs and muttering
invocations, the fakir drew a long sword and plunged it through the basket
from end to end. A scream of pain came from within, and when the sword was
withdrawn it was red. Again and again this was repeated until the screams
died away. Then the fakir lifted up the cover and the boy sprang out safe
and sound, and, showing his white teeth in a smile, went around collecting
coins from the bystanders.

They wandered further among the bazaars, making purchases of curios as
presents for the folks at home and adding to their personal stock of
mementos. Jim secured among other things a cane made of a rare Indian
wood, which while light was exceedingly strong and so pliable that it
could be bent almost double like a Damascus blade.

But through all the chaff and fun of the day Joe was unhappy and re