the.com/snake charmer

means A performer who appears to hypnotize a cobra into swaying with a flute, part street entertainer and part illusionist.

from Snake charming is an old practice associated especially with South Asia (notably India) and parts of North Africa and the Middle East, traditionally performed by itinerant entertainers often from specific hereditary communities. The 'charm' is mostly theater: snakes lack the external ears needed to hear the flute's melody — what actually sways the cobra is the movement of the instrument and the performer's body, which the snake tracks as a visual threat, rising defensively rather than dancing to music. The English phrase itself is straightforward description, snake plus charmer, charmer coming via Old French charmer from Latin carmen, 'song' or 'incantation' — fitting, since the whole act trades on the old idea that song can bewitch, even when the real audience is watching, not listening.