Music hath the power to soothe the savage beast. So we have here a pair of drummers and flautist providing the rhythm for a fourth man who holds a serpent. On drummer looks askance toward the camera, as if questioning if its presence might break the charm. The other drummer, seated opposite, is totally lost in his music, facing skyward, his mouth open in chant. The flute player seems to look without seeing, while the music flows of its own accord from his enchanted, snake-like, instrument. Only the man holding the snake is standing, and his attention is clearly — face-to-face — fixed on the snake.

It is only when we look at the background, and see it is a typical romanticist painting, that we realize this is a studio setting, and the spell breaks. The musicians are posed, immobile — they really are stiff, not just captured in the moment. The snake is undoubtedly real, but it is no cobra or unquestionably venomous species, and may be harmless.

The photo is attributed to Tancréde R Dumas (1830-1905), but very likely was taken by another photographer. Dumas was born in Italy of French parents. He opened a studio in Constantinople in the mid-1860s, but it was brief-lived. By 1866 he was in Beirut, where he remained for the bulk of his photographic career. An advertisement states Vente, achat et échange des plaques negatives de tous les pays, which, roughly translated means “Sale, purchase and exchange of negative plates of all countries.” Since this image is identified as being from Tangiers, Morroco — but we have no evidence indicating Dumas had a studio in Tangiers, it seems likely it is from a negative purchased from — or exchanged with — another photographer, and probably dates from the 1870s or 1880s.