“There’s a man over
there playing with a snake,” said a passerby.
I was sitting in my
village bazaar, chatting with a Nepali couple about family news. I turned my
attention to the rapidly growing crowd, and, excusing myself, I went over to
see what the fuss was about. The mass of people was encircling a man crouching
next to a small wooden box, in which sat a shiny, black snake with a hood that
screamed: cobra! It rose out of its box and glared at the man taunting it, who
showed no fear.
Suddenly, it struck at his hand and seemed to sink into skin,
but the man was unhurt (reveal: the snake was fangless). The man even convinced
a young man to wear the snake like a necklace, which made everyone squirm. I
tossed in a few rupees in thanks for the show and walked away.
As I was leaving
the bazaar, a woman I didn’t recognize called me over to her. She introduced
herself and informed me that she could tell the future. She kept saying absurd
things like: “I’m a vegetarian, but I eat snakes. I mash them up and eat them.”
She offered to tell me my fortune for about $0.55, so I agreed. Presenting me
with a plate of uncooked rice, she told me to pick up a handful and then place
it back on the plate. Then she mixed all the rice back up and began separating
them into small piles. From these, she began pairing off grains of rice and
telling my fortune in rather odd language. One of the women from the village
helped translate for me.
Even with the
translation, very little of what she said made much sense, so I asked a lot of
questions. Several times the fortuneteller grew very frustrated and said, “I
can’t do this, he doesn’t understand anything!” I understood a lot, actually, I
just disagreed with most of what she said. At one point, she told me that, in
the future, I should give everything with my left hand and receive everything
with my right for good luck. “But in Nepal it’s rude to give things with your
left hand, isn’t it?” I asked. “He doesn’t listen to anything I say!” she said.
In the end, I walked away a little annoyed at having wasted my money on a sham,
but my amusement with her ridiculousness almost made it worth it.
Since they arrived a few weeks ago, the snake man and the fortuneteller have been living in a tent next to the bazaar. No one really seems to want them around, but people occasionally give them food because that’s what you do.
Since they arrived a few weeks ago, the snake man and the fortuneteller have been living in a tent next to the bazaar. No one really seems to want them around, but people occasionally give them food because that’s what you do.
No comments:
Post a Comment