Lots of 'em can manage snakes." The Gray Mahatma, twenty yards ahead, heard every word of that.

He stopped and let us come quite close up to him.
"Have you seen this ?" he asked.
There was a cobra swinging its head about two and a half feet off the ground within a yard of him.

He passed the lantern to me, and holding out both hands coaxed the venomous thing to come to him as you or I might coax a stray dog.

It obeyed.

It laid its head on his hands, lowered its hood, and climbed until, within six inches of his face, its head rested on his left shoulder.
"Would you like to try that ?" he asked.