Note that there is a companion website for this book and it can be seen at: http://secretsofthesnakecharmer.blogspot.com/ Humans and snakes have an intimate and ancient relationship that often revolves around either love or hate. Snakes can be seen as gods, spiritual messengers, symbols of fertility, and guardians of resources in virtually all cultures. But to those that fear them, snakes are seen as venomous creatures that cannot be trusted. In Secrets of the Snake Charmer, John Murphy, a research associate of the Division of Amphibians and Reptiles in the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, provides an in-depth, twenty-first century look at snakes utilizing the published research of other herpetologists as well as his own personal experiences and speculations. Murphy covers a wide range of topics such as the adaptability of snakes, the ways in which evolution has tinkered with snakes during the last 160 million years, and the impact snakes have on the ecological communities they live in. While sharing ideas about the origin of snakes, rattlesnake rattles, and spitting in cobras, Murphy presents an innovative portrayal of snakes that proves they co-evolve with their prey, predators, and parasites in order to fulfill a significant and novel role in the web of life.

HEAT ღ HUMOR ღ HEA Dad was an outlaw. Mom was the daughter of The Man. I’ve never belonged in either world, always stuck somewhere in between. My job with the sheriff’s department pays the bills, but I’m faking my way through life. No one is the least bit interested in seeing behind my mask until Journey Sheerer. My temperamental temptress knows as little about romance as I do. We might crash and burn, but I can’t let her go. All of these months, I’ve waited for my shot with the girl sporting a scary scowl and an even scarier right hook. Having finally made my move, I don’t doubt it’ll be one helluva bumpy ride. "Snake Charmer" contains graphic sexual content, violent situations, and harsh language. The book is only appropriate for adult readers age 18+.

Vishnu dreams of being a snake charmer like his father. But his father thinks that education is more important, so Vishnu must stay home. There are plenty of games and chores to keep everyone busy, and then there's school, which is taught outdoors. Full-color illustrations.

Charlie Charmer, the new rattlesnake in school, captivates his slithery female classmates, especially Rose Hognose. Alternating pages provide facts about snakes.

Varla Ventura, Coast to Coast favorite, Weird News blogger on Huffington Post, and author of The Book of the Bizarre and Beyond Bizarre, introduces Weiser Books’ new Collection of forgotten occult classics. Paranormal Parlor is an eerie assemblage of affordable digital editions, curated with Varla’s sixth sense for tales of the weird and unusual. Learn the ancient art of snake charming! A form of animal hypnotism, this mesmerizing topic is a 1903 excerpt from one of A. Alpheus' greater works on mentalism and hypnosis.

The Snake Charmer narrates the poignant and passionate story of two brothers in Afghanistan, during the time of the Russian invasion. The elder, a writer and poet, is a modernist, who joins the Communist movement. The younger, a traditionalist, adheres to Islamic religious beliefs. The conflict between their values threatens to tear asunder their family ties and loyalties. Set against a backdrop of violence and war between foreign powers, acid-throwing against women who adopt Western dress; brutality and rape in police prisons; and political revenge under the Communist regime, the brothers live to see their lives dramatically changed and yet manage to retain their deep love for each other. This deeply moving story, told with uplifting humour, sears into our minds the tragedies that haunt present-day Afghanistan Ð the importance of Islam as a controlling force; the upheaval and destruction caused by the Russian and American wars; the rise of the Taliban and global terrorism. Bashir SakhawarzÕs writing captures the political and philosophic lyricism of the revered Afghan mystic poet, Rumi. It is the story of a society little known Ð passionate and bold, beautiful and erotic, courageous and daring, richly human and deeply tragic.

This two-volume publication offers an in-depth analysis of ophidian symbolism in Eastern Africa, while setting the topic within its regional and historical context: namely, with regards to the rest of Africa, ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia, the Greek world, ancient Palestine, Arabia, India, and medieval and pre-Christian Europe. Through the ages, most of those areas have connected with Eastern Africa in a broad sense, where ophidian symbolism was as “rampant” and far-reaching, if not more so, as anywhere else on the continent, and perhaps in past civilisations. Much as in the wider context, snakes were held to be long-lived, closely related to holes, caverns, trees, and water, life and death, and credited with a liking for milk. Even though ophidian symbolism has always been developed out of the outstanding biological and ethological features of snakes, the process of symbolisation, which plays a crucial role in the elaboration of cultural systems and the shaping of human experience, was inevitably at work. This first volume deals with snakes as a zoological category; snake symbolism as perceived by encyclopaedists and psychologists; and ophidian symbolism as it occurred in ancient civilisations. It explores the traditional African scene in general with a view to set the scene for a more proximate baseline for comparison. The divide between animals and humans was porous, and snakes had a more or less equal footing in both the animal realm and the spiritual world. Key features of snake symbolism in traditional Eastern Africa are then examined in detail, especially phantasmagorical snakes, the rainbow serpent, snake-totems, and snake-related witches and ritual leaders, among others. In Eastern Africa, the meanings attributed to snakes were multifaceted and paradoxical. Overall, the two volumes of this publication show that African snake symbolism broadly echoed the diverse representations of ancient civilisations. The widely acknowledged assimilation of snakes to death and Evil is therefore unrepresentative, both historically and culturally.