MUIRHEAD`S MYSTERIES: Snake charmers in Hong Kong

I stumbled across these words on the Gwulo.com  Hong Kong history web site in a post by Kirstin Moritz on November 8th 2011 titled `1970s Stanley Village: Photos and memories`. I was very surprised to find out that snake charming takes place outside of India,in this case in Stanley Village,Hong Kong:

" Then on one memorable occasion, a snake charmer came to the market about 8 in the morning on a gray winter day with his cobras.  He made them dance and then in front of the whole crowd he slaughtered them all, draining the blood and selling it in cups to the little old ladies and men in black for $80 HK a cup.  Then he chopped the snakes into pieces, wrapped the pieces in newspaper, and sold them, leaving only the blood stains on the concrete of the market place to suggest the violence of the morning."

Apparently snake charming originated in Egypt and occurs in China

Richard