Snake people

“ THE WHITE MAN AND THE SNAKE.
(The original, in the Hottentot language, is in Sir G. Grey’s Library, G. Krönlein’s Manuscript, pp. 5, 6.)
A White Man, it is said, met a Snake upon whom a large stone had fallen and covered her, so that she could not rise. The White Man lifted the stone off the Snake, but when he had done so, she wanted to bite him. The White Man said, “Stop! let us both go first to some wise people.” They went to the Hyena, and the White Man asked him, “Is it right that the Snake should want to bite me, though I helped her, when she lay under a stone and could not rise?” ”

“ In council it has been spoken. Your son can be one of us, and the men of the Snake Order will be as brothers to him if ever he comes back to the mesa where the Sun Father and the Moon Mother first looked on his face. In the days of the Lost Others, all the people had Snake Power, as they had power of silent speech with all the birds, and the four-foot brothers of the forests. Only a few have not lost it, and the Trues send all their Spirit People to work with that few. ”

“ They generally keep on the topmost branches of the highest trees to keep out of the way of the Serpents, of which they are very much afraid. Even when tamed and brought to this country, the sight of the most harmless Snake will fill them with terror. ”

“ The attention of the monster being entirely occupied by his prey, the people went boldly up to it, cut off its head, and took both it and the body of the man on board their boat. The Snake had seized the poor fellow by the right wrist, where the marks of the fangs were very distinct; and the mangled corpse bore evident signs of being crushed by the monster’s twisting itself round the neck, head, breast, and thigh. The length of the Snake was about thirty feet; its thickness equal to that of a moderate-sized man ”

“ People whose fondness for playing with fire takes the form of snake-charming will do well to operate upon light-coloured specimens, for experience has taught those who handle snakes that dark-coloured varieties are worse-tempered than those of paler hue. In some unaccountable manner blackness seems to be correlated with evil temper. Another word of warning. A snake has a longer reach than might be anticipated. On one occasion, wishing to show how the cobra strikes, I walked up to within a yard or two of one standing at bay and threw a clod of earth at him. ”

“ It is Death for a Native to kill one of these Snakes, and severe Punishments to Europeans. When Rains are wanted at Seed-time, or dry Weather in Harvest, the People do not stir out after it is night, for fear of the angry Snake, which, provoked with their Disobedience, they are taught, will certainly kill them at those times, if abroad, or render them Ideots.
They have Fetish-Women, or Priestesses, that live separated with a number of Virgins under their Care, devoted to the Snake’s Service: I have heard, the rich Cabiceers do often buy the Consent of these Women to debauch their Pupils ”

“ I hate and fear snakes, because if you look into the eyes of any snake you will see that it knows all and more of the mystery of man’s fall, and that it feels all the contempt that the Devil felt when Adam was evicted from Eden. Besides which its bite is generally fatal, and it twists up trouser legs. ”

“ Indeed, in districts where snakes abound the worship is offered, not at the grave of the dough snake, but in the jungles where snakes are known to be. Besides this yearly worship, performed by all the people, the members of the Snake tribe worship in the same way every morning after a new moon. The Snake tribe is not uncommon in the Punjaub. Members of it will not kill a snake, and they say that its bite does not hurt them. If they find a dead snake, they put clothes on it and give it a regular funeral.937
“Hunting the Wren”in Europe. ”

“ Snakes!—with their forked tongues, their beady eyes and glittering scales, their hissing and their rattling—did I not already know them far too well on that day of my first circus when I saw the snake-charmer lift them up?
They were old friends of mine, enemies rather, that peopled my nights with fear.
Ah, those endless forests, and their horror-haunted gloom! For what eternities have I wandered through them, a timid, hunted creature, starting at the least sound, frightened of my own shadow, keyed-up, ever alert and vigilant, ready on the instant to dash away in mad flight for my life. ”

“ At this the giantess laughed and said, "Foolish girl, drive away these gloomy thoughts. None of us will die, save at the hands of him alone who will, in one breath, reach the white column of crystal under yonder tank, take out the large snake hid in it, and placing the animal on his breast, despatch it with one stroke of his sword. But for every drop of the snake's blood that may fall to the ground, there will start into existence seven thousand beings like us." ”

“ Now the Black Snake chooses precisely the same localities, knowing probably the haunts of its prey. The serpent begins the war by besieging the nest; the old bird, aware of its intention, attacks it with fluttering and uncertain motions, accompanied by a plaintive cry of distress, and is then said to be 'charmed.' The snake is at last either driven off, or it captures the young and not unfrequently the old bird too. ”

“ To this day, Europe has not forgotten in nursery tales or more serious belief the snake that comes with its golden crown and drinks milk out of the child’s porringer; the house-snake, tame and kindly but seldom seen, that cares for the cows and the children and gives omens of a death in the family; the pair of household snakes which have a mystic connexion of life and death with the husband and housewife themselves. ”

“ To this tribe surrounded by enemies, nature has given abundant means of self-preservation,—swiftness of motion; instinct of instant flight; poison, sometimes deadly to its enemies; vast size and strength, as in some boas and pythons, and especially colorations, which closely imitate their surroundings. Thus ground snakes have, especially on the back and sides, brown, gray, black, and white in spots and markings, which together look much like earth, twigs, pebbles, and dead leaves, so that the snake can scarcely be distinguished from its bed or home. ”

“ She, too, has been picking berries, and has come suddenly upon a monster snake just gliding from a cedar bough almost over her head. When her fright subsides he at once hunts for and kills that reptile with far more satisfaction than he ever felt in killing one before. It is an ungrateful return, for although the boy knew it not, the snake has done him a greater kindness than he ever realized. Then when all danger is removed, how sweet it is to sit beside her in the shade and talk over schooldays while he looks into her tender blue eyes. ”

“ The strongly-expressed opinions of publishers convinced me that the prejudices of adults must first be overcome before children could be persuaded to look at a snake as they would look at a bird or a fish, or to [13] enter the Reptile House at the Zoological Gardens without the premeditated ‘Aughs!’ and ‘Ughs!’ and shudders. ”

“ After a time, of course, finding that every one you meet has some startling experiences to relate, of the discovery of intrusive snakes in all sorts of places where they were most unlooked-for and least desirable, you become somewhat inured to this unpleasant feature of colonial existence, and move about your house with the caution of one who would not be surprised to find a snake anywhere. ”

“ Snakes seem to be able to “charm” or mesmerize small animals, and sometimes even human beings, by fixing their gaze steadfastly upon them. The victim appears to be smitten dumb and motionless with terror, and a bird thus charmed will presently flutter straight toward the open mouth of the snake. ”

“ The true Snakes are destitute of poison-fangs; they have two rows of teeth in the palate, and a similar row in each jaw; the head is covered with broad plates, the under parts with parallel shields or scuta, which beneath the tail are arranged in two series; the tail is lengthened, tapered, and destitute of any terminal appendage; there are no spurs or other vestiges of limbs, either externally or internally.
HEAD OF SNAKE.
The prey of the Snakes consists of any small animals which they can procure ”

“ In the evening, by lamp light, they become lively, and then, twisting about and flashing forth their snaky splendors, they present a fine spectacle. The snake-room, with its walls of glass, behind which the snakes live, reminded me of the old northern myth of Nastrond, the roof of which was woven of snakes’ backs, the final home of the ungodly—an unpleasant, but vigorous picture. ”

“ From the fish let us turn to the snake, a gliding creature without limbs and without joints. It is much like one of the fishes, the eel, in shape, but not in anything else, while no other animal is so much feared and hated by man. We hate this creeping reptile from the fact that a few species [290] of snakes carry a deadly poison in their teeth, and the strongest of men, bitten by one of these, has often only a few minutes to live. ”

“ Now the snakes are fed in strict privacy lest the sight overset the morals of visitors; the killing of a bird, a rabbit, or a rat by a snake being almost a quarter as unpleasant to look upon as the killing of the same animal by a man in a farmyard or elsewhere. ”

“ All the young birds shuddered.
"Those big snakes in the South are rather nasty things, too," continued the bachelor bird. "I'm used to them, of course, and I've proved dozens of times that there's no such thing as hypnotism; but the effect of a snake's eye on very young and inexperienced birds is inconceivable, and not to be reconciled to the Darwinian theory or Mendel's law. What between snakes, hawks, and women's hats, the life of a bird—"
"Isn't what it used to be." ”

“ Sometimes the old bird, by her cries, calls in the assistance of her neighbours to drive away the aggressor. I have seen more than a dozen birds thus engaged with a large Black Snake that had probably just committed some depredation, but was now quietly stretched on a rock, basking in the sun; and it was not a little singular that birds of very different genera, and those seldom seen together, all united in this warfare against a common enemy, and finally compelled him to seek shelter among some low, thick shrubs, by the violence of their assault. ”

“ The snake was so full of meal that it could not coil itself, and thus saved my life, for the bite of such a snake as this was, is almost certain death. I knew a white man, some time afterwards, who was bitten by one of these large rattle-snakes in the hand, as he was trying to punch it to death with a stick in a hollow stump, and he died before he could be taken to his own house, which was little more than a mile from the place where he was bitten. ”

“ Those few who, in their journey in the wilderness, have “dreamt” of a snake and made it their “spirit,” become invariably “Medecines.” This reptile, though always harmless in the western countries (except in some parts of the mountains on the Columbia, where the rattle-snake abounds) , has ever been looked upon with dread by the Indians, who associate it with the evil spirit. ”

“ Snakes are said to be common, and among them several are venomous—the rattlesnake, the coral-snake, and most dreaded of all, a little dark serpent a foot or so in length, with an enormous head, whose bite is said to be immediately fatal. There are also many tree-snakes, as thick as a man's arm. ”

“ In the Dictionnaire d’Histoire Naturelle, there is related an instance of a Snake which had been so completely tamed by a lady, as to come to her whenever she called it, to follow her in her walks, writhe itself round her arms, and sleep in her bosom. One day, when she went in a boat to some distance up a large river, she threw the Snake into the water, imagining that its fidelity would lead it to follow her, and that, by swimming, it would readily overtake the boat. The poor animal exerted all its efforts ”

“ For, words are words, but the poor lad was afraid of death. He therefore accompanied the little snakelet to his father's home. They went slowly on until they reached a large cave. It was here that the young snake's father lived, and he was the very King of the Snakes himself. Eh! behold a wonder! the King of the Snakes was just as big as a hay-fork, and in his head there shone such a large diamond that the poor lad almost lost the sight of his eyes when he stepped in. There lay the King of the Snakes in the middle of the cave, and when the lad stepped in he fixed his great eyes upon him. ”

“ How much is due merely to gentleness of touch and fearlessness, and how much to any personal peculiarity which pleases the senses of the snake, it is difficult to say, for the instances, though not few, and perfectly well authenticated, are sufficiently rare to be popularly regarded as his own voice, attract to himself and handle with impunity all the snakes which might be within hearing in any thicket or dry stone wall, such as in that country is their favourite refuge. ”

“ Let those who are snake-charmers play with snakes; if harm comes to them, they are prepared for it. But these boys are so innocent, all the world is ready with its blessing to protect them. They play with a snake not knowing its nature, and when we see them smilingly, trustfully, putting their hands within reach of its fangs, then we understand how terribly dangerous the snake is. ”