Strange Snake Stories, Myths and Nonsense

[EasternGirl]

Yeah...but I got the idea it was more like a wives' tale thing...she said something about how if anyone in the house is ill...they know there must be a snake around...so if they go and find the snake and remove it....the person gets better or something like that. They are from the Mexican old country and they are Azteca...I think they have a lot of weird wives' tales that they believe.

[ProXimuS]

"Snakes hear through vibrations in the ground
When you run away from a snake
it will chase after you
because your feet hitting the ground tickles the
snake’s belly
and makes it feel good"

I read that on a site that I randomly came across. I actually typed in snake intestines(just being curious) on google and some how came across that Here's the link Cave Text: Snakes. Cool lookin snake though....

[ProXimuS]

I found a few myths in a book that I wanted to share:

-A snake will not die until the sun goes down.
-People in North Lincolnshire say that if you wear a snake skin around your head you can cure a headache.
-An old Cornish tale says a snake won't approach anyhting made of ash wood.
-A ring made in the shape of a snake is said to bring long life and good health to it's owner.
-Central Europeans belived that if a woman pulled out one of her hairs at a certain Moon sign she could turn it into a snake by placing it in water. Another similar belief is that if a horse hair is dropped into water it will become a snake.
-Snakes have bad eyesight and can't see forward.
-If a snake swallows the spit of someone who has fasted, it will die.
-Certain snakes, called hoop snakes, take their tail in their mouth and destroy trees, animals, and people by stinging them with the tail.(Something similar to this has already been posted, but this is slightly different.)

[Stefan-A]

I found a few myths in a book that I wanted to share:

-A snake will not die until the sun goes down.

Heard a variant of that as a kid; A dead snake won't stop moving until the sun goes down. And the person who told me, told it as a myth.

[d_virginiana]

I found a few myths in a book that I wanted to share:
-People in North Lincolnshire say that if you wear a snake skin around your head you can cure a headache.

There's actually a little truth in this, but it has nothing to do with it being a snake. Some cultures (one in India I believe?) have a similar story about tying a rope made of goat hair around your head.
If someone has a migraine, tying a piece of string or whatever tightly around the head can actually help, since it changes the bloodflow.

[ConcinusMan]

I was in a store buying tipalia for my snakes when the young man waiting on me asked if if was for my snakes( I buy a lot there) I told him yes. He asked how he can get the garter snakes to stop biting the tomatoes in his garden. He said they are biting the tomatoes and drinking the juice. Never heard that one before.

There's got to to many other stories out there.

Sounds to me like he has slugs. There's probably a lot of garters around eating the slugs, and he's blaming the tomato damage on the snakes. It's even possible that he saw a garter eating a slug on one of the tomatoes and misinterpreted what he saw.

I've heard that snakes are evil (from religious ppl).

If they would just read their Bible, they would know that Satan took the form of a serpent. Serpents aren't Evil, they are God's creation. It's Satan that's evil. Personally, I don't believe in evil. No creature is evil, in spite of our perception that some are.

Heard a variant of that as a kid; A dead snake won't stop moving until the sun goes down. And the person who told me, told it as a myth.

The way I heard it is that a snake won't die until the sun goes down, even if you chop it's head off. I read that stems from the fact that snakes will sometimes remain animated for period of time, long after they're dead. Makes sense.

Some local nonsense...

People around here call northwestern garters yellow racer, red racer, etc. depending on their stripe color. They're not racers, obviously. I have to explain to them that there are racers here, but they are solid grey. No stripes.

[Ctah_Lu]

Yeah...but I got the idea it was more like a wives' tale thing...she said something about how if anyone in the house is ill...they know there must be a snake around...so if they go and find the snake and remove it....the person gets better or something like that. They are from the Mexican old country and they are Azteca...I think they have a lot of weird wives' tales that they believe.

Hi, I live in Mexico and the myths about the snakes are very crazy, but that kind of myths are the stories of the old people (most times ignorant because they didnt go to school and some are very religious).

The most strange story that I heard was from an old lady that affirm that the snakes are attracted by the houses where newborns live, then they enter the house in the night and suck the milk form the mother's breast and they put their tail in the mout of the baby to avoid that cry.

Some of the myts about the snakes are really, really bizarre.

[-MARWOLAETH-]

^^^Now that one takes the crazy biscuit

[thamneil]

My grandpa is full of these. He lived in Africa long before I was born.

One of his best stories is the time he ran over a rock python and the snake flattened out and moved away unharmed.

He also supposedly ran over a mamba which coiled around his tire and then escaped unharmed.

There's also something about a puff adder. Can't quite remember that one.

[d_virginiana]

A really common one around here is that if there is a snake in your house, you can bake a chocolate pie and hide it in a cabinet, and the snake will come to it. Everyone thinks it's because the snakes are interested in the pie. It actually does work since a fresh pie in a cold house, hidden in a cabinet is the equivalent of setting out a heat source and hide
A good superstition I hear a lot from older people is that you will have bad luck if you kill a black snake. I think it's supposed to refer to black ratsnakes but no one knows the difference, so racers usually get saved too.