• 

  Young Siti Amirah Sayuti isn't the least bit afraid when she handles poisonous snakes.

Enlarge

KUALA TERENGGANU: Most 3 year old girls love playing with cute and cuddly dolls, but one little Terengganu lass' cold blooded playmates would have made most people run away screaming.

Three and a half year old Siti Amirah Sayuti may look like any other adorable kid, but she's been handling and playing with poisonous snakes even while she was still in swaddling clothes.

Her father Sayuti Harun, 61, is a snake tamer. Siti, the youngest of 12 children, was only 20 days old when her father began using snakes to train her courage. From then on, the snakes became her playmates, and she grew to regard them as her closest friends.

As a professional snake tamer, Sayuti would travel all over the country to perform. He also sells traditional herbal remedies that he makes himself. He rears over 80 different species of snake in his home. Besides Siti, Sayudi's seventh offspring who is 18 years old also has a close relationship with snakes.

Little Travelling Performer

Siti might be young, but she has already been to many states, including Kedah, Pahang, Perak and Kelantan, to show off her skill at handling snakes.

Sayuti said that: "Siti is still a child, and sometimes she might sulk during a performance and refuse to touch the snakes. During those times, I have to find a way to cheer her up so she will continue with the performance."

He added that his daughter was more talented than him, because he had been bitten by his snakes many times despite being an experienced snake tamer, while his daughter had not been bitten even once. Whenever he places his daughter in a cage with the snakes, she always emerges unharmed.

Siti will be performing in a charity event at the Primula Beach Resort in Kelantan as part of the Merdeka Day celebration. She will be placed in a 6x6 feet cage together with 40 different species of poisonous snakes.