How are snakes charmed?

There is a lot of misunderstanding about this, and most of it is deliberately caused. Snake charmers would like us to believe that the snake is bewitched by the beautiful music they play on their pipes. The snake sways and dances to the music while the charmer taps his foot on the ground in time with the rhythm – and it is this tapping which solves the mystery. A snake is tone deaf; it cannot hear music, so in fact it doesn’t respond to the sound of the pipe at all, but it does feel the tapping of the charmer’s foot on the ground, and it watches the movements of the piper’s swaying body so closely that it copies him and appears to dance. The music has no part in the ritual at all!