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Yes,
I can make snakes dance by playing the been. I have learnt this
art from my family members. We people are known as Kalbeliyas.
My
grandfather Roshannathji was famous amongst our people. He could easily catch
many poisonous snakes. He tells me many stories about his past. Come, listen to
his story in his own words–
Dadaji
remembers
From
the time of my grandfather and great grandfather, we have always been saperas
(snake-charmers).
Snake
charming is
the practice of a snake by
playing an instrument called pungi or bansuri.
A typical performance may also include
handling the snakes or performing other seemingly dangerous acts, as
well as other street performance staples, like juggling and sleight of hand.
The
charm has nothing to do with the music and everything to do with the charmer
waving a pungi, a reed instrument carved out of a gourd, in the snake's
face.
Snakes
don't have external ears and can perceive little more than low-frequency
rumbles. But when they see something threatening, they rise up in a defensive
pose.
"The
movement of the snake is completely keyed in on the guy playing the toodley
thing," says Robert Drewes, chairman of the department of herpetology (the
study of amphibians and reptiles) at the California Academy of Sciences in San
Francisco. "He sways, the snake sways."
Snakes:
Snakes are
elongated, legless, carnivorous repitiles. Snakes can be distinguished
from legless lizards by their lack of eyelids and external ears.
There
are more than 3,000 species of snakes in the world and there is at least one
type of snake on every continent except Antarctica.
Size-
They are many different species, there
are snakes of many different sizes.
The
world’s smallest snake, according to National Geographic, is the thread snake,
which grows to only about 3.9 inches (10 centimeters) long. It looks much like
an earthworm.
The
largest snake, the reticulated python, can grow to a whopping 30 feet (9
meters). The largest snake fossil ever discovered is called the Titanoboa. This
creature lived 60 million years ago and would have been 50 feet (15 meters)
long.
Snake
eggs & baby snakes- It is a common misconception that snakes build nests
for their eggs.
Only
one species of snake, that is king cobra, will build a nest for its young ones .
Not all snakes lay eggs, but 70% of snakes lay eggs. These types of snakes are
called oviparous.
The
other 30 percent of snakes directly give birth to live young, much like
mammals. This is because some climates are too cold for eggs to develop and
hatch, so snakes living in colder climates do not lay eggs.
What
do snakes eat?
Snakes
are carnivores. This means that they only eat meat. Snakes are often seen as
pests, but they actually can help keep pests at bay by eating rodents.
Many
people think that all snakes kill their prey by biting it and injecting the
prey with poison. This isn't true. Cobras, vipers and other related species are
the only snakes that use venom to hunt.
Most
snakes simply swallow their prey whole. Large snakes, such as the python, will
strangle their prey to death and then swallow it whole.
Snakes
can eat other animals up to 75 to 100% bigger than their own size, according tonationa
geographic. They have been known to eat animals such as crocodiles and cows. To
fit the large prey into their mouth, the snake's jaw will unhinge.
Once
the animal is inside, the snake's body releases enzymes to break the food down into
useable energy. Snakes do not need to eat as often as other animals because
they have a very slow metabolism rate. King cobras, for example, can live for
months without food.
Sometimes,
though, eating a live animal can result in disaster. Snakes have been known to
explode after eating a living animal, though it is not known why.
Where
do snakes live?
Snakes
live in almost every corner of the world. They are found in forests, deserts,
swamps and grasslands. Many call underground burrows or the spaces under rocks
home. Some snakes, like the cottonmouth water moccasin of North America live in
water part of the time.
Though
they are found all over the world, snakes do not, however, like the cold. they
are cold blooded or ectothermic. This means that they don't have the means to
regulate their body temperature like warm blooded creatures. since their bodies
do not use energy to create heat to warm them. When it is cold, many
snakes hibernate in tunnels underground.
Snakes
have been an important part of our life. We used to move from village to
village carrying our snakes in bamboo baskets.Whenever
we stopped in a village, a crowd would gather around us. We would
then take out our snakes from our baskets.
Even
after the show, people would stay on. They knew that in our tinbox
there
were many types of medicines for them. We made these medicines from plants
collected from the forests.
I
had learnt all this from my grandfather. I felt nice that I could
help
people with my medicines even if doctors and hospitals were far off.
In
return, people would give us some money or food grains. In this way we could
manage our life.
Sometimes,
I was called to places where someone had been bitten by a snake. From the marks
of the bite I tried to find out which snake had bitten the person.
I
would then give a medicine for that. But I have not always been on time to
help. As you know, some snake bites can even cause death on the spot.
But
most of the snakes are not poisonous. Sometimes, when some farmers would come
running for help shouting “snake, snake”, I would catch that snake.
After
all, catching snakes was something I had been doing since my childhood. Oh,
those were the good days. We could help a lot of people in many ways. We also
entertained them. It was not like today
when
everyone watches TV for entertainment.
When
I grew older, my father taught me how to remove their poisonous teeth (fangs).
He also taught me how to close the tube of poison in the snake’s mouth.
What
can we do
Aryanath!
your father used to travel with me ever since he was a young child. He learnt
to play the been without being taught. These days it is diffcult. Now the
government has made a law that no one can catch wild animals and keep them.
Some
people kill the animals and sell their skins at high prices. So they made a law
against this. Now, with this law, how will we earn our livelihood? We people
have never killed snakes, and sold their skin.
People
say that we keep the snakes in bad conditions. If we wanted, we too could have
earned a lot of money by killing snakes. But we would never do that.Snakes
are our treasure, that we pass on from one generation to another. We even gift
snakes to our daughters when they get married.
In
our Kalbelia dance we also have movements similar to the dance of the snake.
Aryanath, you will have to make a different life for yourself. You have got
your father’s gift of playing the been. You and your cousins can form a been
party and entertain people.
But
do not waste this knowledge about snakes you have got from your
elders.
Share your knowledge about snakes with children who live in towns and cities.
Tell them, that they should not be scared of snakes. Help them to recognize
poisonous snakes.
Tell
them how snakes are friends of the farmers. They eat the rats in the fields,
otherwise rats would eat the crops. Now you tell our story. Also make a new
story of your life, to tell your grandchildren.
Musical
instruments used in been party Been, tumba, khanjiri and dhol. Except dhol all
the other three instruments are made from dried gourd (lauki)
Do
you know?
Of
the many kinds of snakes found in our country, only four types of snakes are
poisonous. They are: Cobra, Common Krait, Russel’s Viper (Duboiya), Saw-scaled
Viper (Afai).
A
snake has two hollow teeth (fangs). When it bites, the poison enters the
person's body through the fangs. There is a medicine for snake bites. The
medicine is made from the snake's poison and Cobra is available in all
government hospitals.
In
human beings, a pair of kidneys, a pair of urethras and a urinary bladder
represent the excretory system. The nitrogenous end product in man is urea.
Kidney
is a bean shaped, red coloured organ. Kidneys are attached to the dorsal body
wall, on either side of vertebral column in the abdominal cavity. Its outer
margin is convex and inner margin in concave.
The
notch present on the inner margin is called hilus. Renal artery, which brings
blood to the kidney from heart, enters the kidney through hilus.
Renal vein, which carries blood from the
kidney to the heart, and ureter come out of the kidney through hilus. Each
ureter is a thin walled tube. The anterior end of ureter is wide and called pelvis.
The
ureters open into the urinary bladder. Urine is stored in the bladder till it
is filled and then is sent out through a canal called urethra. On the top of
each kidney, an adrenal gland is present. It is an endocrine gland and has
nothing to do with excretion.
To
understand the structure of the kidney, we will study the longitudinal section
of the kidney. Outer region of kidney is
deep red in colour and is called as cortex. The inner region is light red in
colour and is called as medulla.
In
the medulla are 9-12 inverted pyramid like structures with their broad base
towards the cortex and narrow end towards the pelvis. These extend into pelvis.
The
broad end of each pyramid is branched and gives the appears of sepals of a
flower. Hence, these are called calyces. Through calyces, urine reaches funnel
like ducts and from there into pelvis. From pelvis urine enters ureters.
The
structural units of kidney are long tubules called nephrons. These are responsible
for urine formation. In human kidney, there are about 2 lakhs of nephrons.
Each
nephron has two portions – a cup like structure called bowman’s capsule and a
tubular portion. Bowman’s capsule is a two layered cup with space in between
the two layers.
Inside
the cup of the Bowman’s capsule, there is a network of large number of
capillaries which is called as glomerulus. After entering the kidney, the renal artery divides into a number of
arterioles in the kidney.
Each
renal arterioles enters a Bowman’s capsule as afferent arteriole, forms a
capillary network inside the cup like structure and leaves the Bowman’s capsule
as efferent arteriole.
The
tubular part of nephron has three parts – proximal convoluted tubule, loop of
Henle and distal convoluted tubule. The distal convoluted tubules of nephrons
open intocollecting tubues.
Urine
is formed in the Bowman’s capsule. The capillaries in the glomerulus have small
microscopic pores in their walls. When the blood flows through the capillaries
in the glomerulus, it gets filtered through the pores in the walls of the
capillaries. Blood pressure provides the required pressure for this filtration.
All
the water soluble, small molecular weight substances such as salts, glucose,
amino acids along with nitrogenous wastes are filtered from blood. Blood cells
and proteins are not filtered through the pores present in the capillary walls.
This filtration is called ultrafiltration.
Approximately
120 ml of urine is formed in the kidney per minute. In 24 hours, about 175 liters
of urine is formed. However, all this is not excreted – only one to two liters of urine is excreted and the rest of it is
reabsorbed into the body.
The
reabsorption of the urine produced by Bowman’s capsule takes place in the
tubular portion. When the filtrate reaches the proximal convoluted tubule, the
epithelial cells of the tubule reabsorb several substances in a selective
manner and transport them back to blood.
Reabsorption
of water and salts also occurs in the loop of henle and in distal convoluted
tubule. Water, salts and other substances reabsorbed by the tubule are
transported into the blood.
Unabsorbed
substances along with water enter the collecting duct which discharges urine
into pelvis and then into ureter. Urine is produced continuously and is
concentrated continuously.
This
reaches Smooth muscles (involuntary muscles) in the wall of ureter produce
peristaltic movements which prople urine into the urinary bladder.
The urinary
bladder is a muscular sac and opens to the outside through urethra.At
the Junction of bladder and urethra is a sphincter. Urination is a reflex
action.
But in elders, it is voluntary. In children, urination is an
involuntary action. Normally, when about 200 to 300 ml of urine reaches the
bladder, the muscles in its wall contract and relax expelling urine.
DIALYSIS
AND ITS PRINCIPLES
In
the previous chapter you have learnt that a mumber of wastes are produced in
the body which are carried by the blood to the kidneys. In the kidneys, these
wastes are separated from the blood and excreted as urine. In certain disease
conditions, the nephrons in the kidney die.
n
such persons, blood is not filtered and urine is not produced. As a result,
waste products accumulate in the blood and they become toxic to the body. Such
people may loose consciousness or may even die.
Doctors
treat such patients by artificially removing the waste material from the blood.
The separation of wastes from blood by artificial method is called dialysis.
Dialysis machine is used for this purpose.
Blood from the artery is sent into
the dialysis machine where it is filtered and the filtered blood is sent into
the body through a vein. Persons whose kidneys do not function, have to undergo
dialysis once in three or four days throughout their life or get a new kidney
transplanted.
Spices, like everything else, are made
of chemicals. Spices give us health, colour and fragrance and most of all they keep
life from getting monotonous. Spices hide in them our traditions and culture.
let’s study about some spices which we
uses in our daily kitchen.
The Indian state known as the Spice
Garden is Kerala. Kerala is a small state full of hills and hillocks with
stunning green sceneries.
There are many spices growing naturally in abundance
in the state.
Tell
them how snakes are friends of the farmers. They eat the rats in the fields,
otherwise rats would eat the crops. Now you tell our story. Also make a new
story of your life, to tell your grandchildren.
