• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
Zippy Facts Logo

Zippy Facts

Interesting Random Facts

  • Animals
  • Culture
  • Firsts
  • Food
  • Geography
  • Health
  • History
  • Inventions
  • Language
  • Mythology
  • Odds
  • People
  • Religion
  • Science
  • Space
  • Universe
  • World
You are here: Home / Animals / How do Indian Snake Charmers get King Cobras to Dance and Sway to their Rhythms and what is the Name of the Instrument they use?

How do Indian Snake Charmers get King Cobras to Dance and Sway to their Rhythms and what is the Name of the Instrument they use?

April 5, 2020 by Karen Hill

It’s a pretty impressive act, those snake charmers.

From the cobra basket, the snake rises as the crowd shrinks back. The charmer plays his pungi, swaying to the music, and the snake undulates with him, seemingly entranced.

The crowd, equally mesmerized, throws coins into the snake charmer’s basket.

Like other street performers with a good act, however, there’s a catch. As mentioned above, snakes don’t have ears, so there’s no way a cobra can even hear the song that’s being played.

What happens is this: When the snake charmer takes the lid off the basket, the snake is thrust from darkness into light and rises up defensively, as it would in any threatening situation, fanning its hood.

The snake charmer begins to play his pungi, swinging the end in front of the snake. The cobra mistakes the moving end of the instrument for another snake. Because a snake’s eyes can’t pivot, the cobra physically moves to follow the thing it’s trying to strike at.

Since the pipe is moving to a musical rhythm, it looks as though the snake is dancing. Experienced snake charmers know the distance and movements needed to keep the cobra following without lashing out.

But just in case, many of these snakes have been defanged, a little tidbit most charmers don’t tell you before taking your money.

The Pungi is a generic term for several Indian reed instruments.

Related Facts

  • How do Snake Charmers charm snakes and Where did the tradition come from?
  • Is the Mongoose a Goose?
  • How Poisonous Is Snake Venom, What Is Snake Venom Made Of, and Can You Build a Tolerance to Arsenic?
  • What Do Snakes Eat and Do Snakes Have Any Predators?
  • How Does a Snake Shed Its Skin?
  • Which Snakes Spit Venom?

Filed Under: Animals

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

Previous Post: « What are my Chances of Dying if I’m bitten by a Poisonous Snake?
Next Post: Do Snakes have Ears to Hear us and where are they located? »

Footer

Follow

  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • GitHub
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Medium
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Categories

Accomplishments Animals Culture Firsts Food Geography Health History Inventions Language Mythology Odds People Religion Science Space Universe World Your Body

About

Zippy Facts empowers the world by serving educational content that is accessible to everyone.

A tribute to growing up, zippyfacts.com showcases interesting and unusual facts about the world.

Our mission is to use technology to facilitate knowledge transfer and sharing.

Copyright © 2020 Zippy Facts

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy