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Bitten by the gift of the gab
People across the district are falling prey to the wiles of snake charmers who are cashing in on the naivety and fears of the former. A
Pithapuram: People across the district are falling prey to the wiles of snake charmers who are cashing in on the naivety and fears of the former. A gullible public is being deprived of hundreds and thousands of rupees in the name of ‘healing stones’. The modus operandi of the snake charmer usually works this way: he unties his bag of cobras and removes one from it.
The cobra is then provoked with a towel which it tries to bite. The snake charmer then catches hold of the cobra, makes an incision on its head and brings out two black stones which he calls ‘Nagarallu’ and passes them around for everyone to see. Then follows a brief eulogy on the wonderful, ‘healing’ properties of the stone.
The charmer proceeds to convince people that the stone can absorb snake and scorpion poison and that snakes and scorpions do not frequent houses and people in possession of the stone. As proof of this, he takes the stone and shows it to the snake which immediately slithers back into the bag, turning even the most hard-core skeptic into a believer.
It’s now time to get down to negotiation. The stones are sold from anywhere between Rs 200 to Rs 500. It was one such live demonstration that was witnessed on Saturday! Interestingly, many people buy the stones thinking they are precious stones. However, the snake charmer who gave the demonstration on Saturday, speaking to The Hans India says, “They are not precious stones or semi-precious stones. They are carbon stones and each snake has two carbon stones. I have yet to come across a snake with precious stones.”
However, the more educated among the crowd refuse to fall for the bait. They describe bringing out stones from snake’s head is the sleight of hand. “He is producing the stones which he had with him as though he had extricated from the snake’s head.
He might have trained the snake to withdraw into his bag on seeing t the stone. Once bitten, even snakes are not able to withdraw the poison from the victim, how can a stone cure snake-bite victims?” said the non-believers and appealed to people not to fall for the snake charmers’ tricks.
Saride Nageswara Rao
