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Life imitates art: The Snake — 19 Comments

1. I didn’t know there were Maroon colored people. But I’m glad they got some representation in this story. Sadly the Bergundy community is still discriminated against.

2. “I didn’t know there were Maroon colored people.”

   Just ask Bugs Bunny: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HuxJqIs2a-Y&ab_channel=RHajmand

3. I remember the song. I also remember reading a story in a magazine, sixty or so years ago, about a man, camping in the desert, who woke up with a snake in his sleeping bag. They theorize that the Australian snake came in to escape the heat; the man’s companions decided that this one had crawled into the warm bag as a refuge from the chilly desert night. They simply (but nerve-wrackingly) waited it out. As the sun warmed the bag, the man inside lay still and endured the heat until the snake, a fair-sized rattler, crawled out. Not so easy with a snake in a house.

4. Just another day in rural Oz. 😉

   But that snake right there will kill you real dead real quick…lost a cat to one of those a few years back. Ugly way to go.

   Story some years ago about a real “maroon” who ran over one with his car and collected the “corpse” throwing it into his back seat. Trouble was… not dead. Snake revived a few Ks down the track and started looking for revenge. I think the bugger driving the car lost half a leg and most of an arm to vascular necrosis and damn near died of the bites. Let that be a lesson.

   Old adage: Never give up. Never lose hope. You are never a complete failure. You can always serve as a bad example.

5. Apropos of snakes and art: cue Emily Dickinson:

   A narrow Fellow in the Grass
   Occasionally rides –
   You may have met him? Did you not
   His notice instant is –

   The Grass divides as with a Comb,
   A spotted Shaft is seen,
   And then it closes at your Feet
   And opens further on –

   He likes a Boggy Acre –
   A Floor too cool for Corn –
   But when a Boy and Barefoot
   I more than once at Noon

   Have passed I thought a Whip Lash
   Unbraiding in the Sun
   When stooping to secure it
   It wrinkled And was gone –

   Several of Nature’s People
   I know, and they know me
   I feel for them a transport
   Of Cordiality

   But never met this Fellow
   Attended or alone
   Without a tighter Breathing
   And Zero at the Bone.

6. I confess I don’t like snakes. Around here, a snake with a diamond pattern gets killed, while I leave non-poisonous snakes alone, not without Dickinson’s “tighter breathing.” I ran over a copperhead with my SUV last year. It didn’t die. My husband went down with the shotgun loaded with bird shot and took care of it.

   And alligators. I prefer to live where alligators do not. Sorry, Florida.

7. We raised our kids in South Texas near the Gulf Coast, so venomous snakes were a fact of life. They had several near misses, which did not become fatal encounters only through the grace of God.

   For instance: the pile of sand they played in, ultimately destined for garden landscaping, harbored a nest of newly hatched copperheads one year; the area near the hose faucet, constantly in use because lawns need watering despite 99% humidity and frequent rain or kids need cleaning because of the same (mud factor), was once home to a mother coral snake brooding her eggs for a brief time.

   Rattlesnakes are more prevalent in dry country: my brother came close to one in Grandma’s Yard in rural north-central Texas when we were young; between the dogs and her hoe they dispatched it without harm to him.
   Grandpa usually did the honors; I suspect he was out with the cows at the time.
   I never got close enough to see one myself, and do not regret the lack.

8. Yes, Kate, but alligators also eat snakes:
   https://duckduckgo.com/?q=do+alligators+eat+snakes%3F&t=opera&ia=web
   at least after they get big enough not to be eaten by the snakes first.

9. I am afraid of snakes. Grew up in the high mountains in Colorado and never saw a poisonous snake until I went to work in Utah as a geologist. We encountered a lot of rattlers doing field work. I appreciated that they rattled and were not looking for trouble. Never had to kill one, but they made me watch where I stepped quite carefully.

   Later, living in Florida, we lived on a small lake. I acquired a shotgun to kill the water moccasins that would swim across the lake and onto our property. Once I unwittingly cut one up with my lawn mower. From then on, I wore boots to mow the grass.

   I knew a SEAL on the Team at Subic Bay in the PI. He regularly saw sea snakes, which are quite deadly, but not aggressive. He just left them alone, and the snakes left him alone. Wow! I could not have ever been a SEAL.

   Here in the Puget Sound, we have no poisonous snakes. I like it that way.

10. Friends in Malaysia found a cobra under a paving stone in their yard.
    An acquaintance in Bali went into the garage to get his daughter’s trike out and found a cobra sitting under it.
    Asia, particularly Southeast Asia, has the vast majority of venomous snakes and snake bite fatalities. They like the tropics.
    Like the Emerald Isle, there are no snakes in Hawaii.
    Every day I work in the garden I thank heaven for that.
    The centipedes are bad enough!

11. The PBS story (2019) is, of course, from the view of the left, but as usual it misses the point.
    Their complaint is that Trump used a well-worn metaphor to brand illegal immigrants as animals.

    Trump’s focus, and the reason his rally-goers responded approvingly, is the ingratitude of many of these law-breakers, and their betrayal of the country that they came to for shelter.

    Mr. Brown’s lyrical poem is very good, but the story is not original.
    It shows up in a lot of traditional legends around the world, including (ahem) Greece. There are 8 Fables referencing snakes; none of them are complimentary.

    https://aesopsfables.org/C19_aesops_fables_about_snakes.html

    The Countryman and the Snake
    A countryman returning home one winter’s day found a snake by the hedge-side, half dead with cold. Taking compassion on the creature, he laid it in his bosom and brought it home to his fireside to revive it. No sooner had the warmth restored it, than it began to attack the children of the cottage. Upon this the countryman, whose compassion had saved its life, took up a club and laid the snake dead at his feet.

    The plot has had many extensions and variations based on this basic short story.
    https://fablesofaesop.com/the-farmer-and-the-snake.html

    PBS and the Democrats continually ignore the thugs, gangs, and criminals that Trump specifically denounced, in hopes that their listeners’ pity for all the other border crashers will cloud their comprehension of the dangerous situation — and as we’ve seen since Biden was installed, the danger has only increased.

    Which is covered in THIS Fable.

    The Hen and the Swallow
    A hen, finding the eggs of a viper, and carefully keeping them warm, nourished them until they hatched. A swallow, observing what she had done, said; “You silly creature! Why have you hatched these vipers, which, when they shall have grown, will inflict injury on all, beginning with yourself?”

    However, as we’ve been admonished by the Left, elections have consequences.
    Not all of them are intended by the victorious voters.

    The Crow and the Serpent
    A crow, in great want of food, saw a serpent asleep in a sunny nook and, flying down, greedily seized him. The serpent turned about and bit the crow with a mortal wound. The crow, in the agony of death, exclaimed, “Oh unhappy me! Who have found in that which I deemed a happy windfall the source of my destruction.”

    This one has been attributed to Aesop, but isn’t in the canonical list I linked above.
    Still, it has a certain aura of schadenfreude about it, when you look at the position the Left has gotten itself into with its embrace of more than a few snakes.

    The Fox and the Snake
    A Snake, in crossing a river, was carried away by the current, but managed to wriggle on to a bundle of thorns which was floating by, and was thus carried at a great rate down-stream. A Fox caught sight of it from the bank as it went whirling along, and called out, “Gad! the passenger fits the ship!”

12. @ Molly Brown > “Asia, particularly Southeast Asia, has the vast majority of venomous snakes and snake bite fatalities. ”

    Cue Kipling.

    The story of the almost-drowned mongoose rescued by an English family in India is the antithesis of the Fable, because Rikki shows his gratitude by protecting his benefactors from — (wait for it) — a pair of deadly cobras (snakes, that is).

    Full text, with some illustrations; from The Jungle Books.
    https://americanliterature.com/author/rudyard-kipling/short-story/rikki-tikki-tavi
    “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi was inspired by the ancient Indian fables in the Panchatantra, Book Five.”

    And the classic Chuck Jones cartoon from 1975, that my kids grew up with.
    https://tubitv.com/movies/301352/rikki-tikki-tavi

13. AesopFan,
    Love Rikki-Tkki-Tavi and Kipling’s Jungle Book. I had forgotten about the Chuck Jones version but as soon as the images came up I remembered. Thanks for that. Bought an illustrated copy of Just So Stories recently in anticipation of reading them to the grandchild (ren – I hope!) someday.
    But if you’ve ever seen a mongoose up close and personal there is nothing – believe me – NOTHING – warm and cuddly about them.
    I’m not surprised they can take on a cobra.

14. For the artists – lyrics by the composer (sample recording):
    https://genius.com/Oscar-brown-jr-the-snake-lyrics

    Hit cover by Al Wilson (sample recording):
    https://genius.com/Al-wilson-the-snake-lyrics

    I like Brown’s version better.

    Wikipedia doesn’t indicate any source for Brown’s text (published in 1963), other than the Aesop Fable about the Countryman (also called the Farmer) and the Snake.

    However, some of the elements of the song seem to owe more to the non-Aesop fable of the Scorpion and the Frog, which has appeared in various guises, sometimes with other animals in place of one or both the originals.

    Wikipedia believes it is Russian (figures).
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Scorpion_and_the_Frog

    A scorpion wants to cross a river but cannot swim, so it asks a frog to carry it across. The frog hesitates, afraid that the scorpion might sting it, but the scorpion promises not to, pointing out that it would drown if it killed the frog in the middle of the river. The frog considers this argument sensible and agrees to transport the scorpion. Midway across the river, the scorpion stings the frog anyway, dooming them both. The dying frog asks the scorpion why it stung despite knowing the consequence, to which the scorpion replies: “I am sorry, but I couldn’t resist the urge. It’s in my nature.”

    …

    A likely precursor to this fable is the Persian fable of The Scorpion and the Turtle. This earlier fable appears in the Anvaar Soheili, a collection of fables written c. 1500 by the Persian scholar Husayn Kashifi.[7] The Anvaar Soheili contains fables translated from the Panchatantra, a collection of Indian fables written in Sanskrit, but The Scorpion and the Turtle does not appear in the Panchatantra, which suggests that the fable is Persian in origin.[8]

    In the Scorpion and the Turtle, it is a turtle that carries the scorpion across the river, and the turtle survives the scorpion’s sting thanks to its protective shell. The turtle is baffled by the scorpion’s behavior because they are old friends and the scorpion must have known that its stinger would not pierce the turtle’s shell. The scorpion responds that it acted neither out of malice nor ingratitude, but merely an irresistible and indiscriminate urge to sting. The turtle then delivers the following reflection: “Truly have the sages said that to cherish a base character is to give one’s honor to the wind, and to involve one’s own self in embarrassment.”[9]

    The moral of this fable is thus stated explicitly, and not left to interpretation. Another important difference is that the scorpion does not anticipate drowning. In some later versions of this fable, the turtle punishes the scorpion by drowning it anyway.[10]

    How did it enter pop culture?
    Through the movies of course.

    In the English-speaking world, the fable was made famous by the 1955 film Mr. Arkadin. It is recounted in a soliloquy by the movie’s villain, played by Orson Welles.[4][5] In an interview, Welles mentioned that the fable is Russian in origin.[6]
    …
    When the villain of the movie Mr. Arkadin recounts this fable, he uses the word “character” in lieu of “nature”, and he concludes by saying “let’s drink to character”. For director Orson Welles, the word “character” had two meanings: it could mean one’s natural instincts, but also how one chooses to behave. The scorpion couldn’t resist its natural urge to sting, but it also chose to be honest about it to the frog. Orson Welles believed that this frankness gave the scorpion a certain charm and tragic dignity.[16]

    The film wasn’t released in America until 1962 (see its Wikipedia article).

    The story was well-known; I doubt Welles was the first to used it (and Wikipedia confirms he wasn’t the last).

    According to Snopes, it showed up several places in the 1960s (sometimes the turtle, sometimes the frog, always the scorpion).
    https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/stinging-criticism/
    Brady, Thomas.
    Reader’s Digest. March 1967 (p. 36).
    Braude, Jacob. Human Interest Stories.
    Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1965 (p. 22).
    Cerf, Bennett. Laugh Day.
    Garden City, NY: Doubleday and Company, 1965 (p. 431).

    (to be continued)

15. A story similar to Brown’s lyrics does show up on the internet, which kind of blends the Snake/Scorpion and trades the Farmer for a more photogenic Young Girl.

    https://everything2.com/title/You+knew+I+was+a+rattlesnake+when+you+picked+me+up

    A story about destructive relationships, reprinted in Ann Landers’ column among other places. Some say it’s an Aesop story; Cletus the Foetus doubts there were rattlesnakes in Greece and says it was in Natural Born Killers. [a movie that did reference the Scorpion fable]

    A young girl was trudging along a mountain path, trying to reach her grandmother’s house. It was bitter cold, and the wind cut like a knife. When she was within sight of her destination, she heard a rustle at her feet.

    Looking down, she saw a snake. Before she could move, the snake spoke to her. He said, “I am about to die. It is too cold for me up here, and I am freezing. There is no food in these mountains, and I am starving. Please put me under your coat and take me with you.”

    “No,” replied the girl. “I know your kind. You are a rattlesnake. If I pick you up, you will bite me, and your bite is poisonous.”

    “No, no,” said the snake. “If you help me, you will be my best friend. I will treat you differently.”

    The little girl sat down on a rock for a moment to rest and think things over. She looked at the beautiful markings on the snake and had to admit that it was the most beautiful snake she had ever seen.

    Suddenly, she said, “I believe you. I will save you. All living things deserve to be treated with kindness.”

    The little girl reached over, put the snake gently under her coat and proceeded toward her grandmother’s house.

    Within a moment, she felt a sharp pain in her side. The snake had bitten her.

    “How could you do this to me?” she cried. “You promised that you would not bite me, and I trusted you!”

    “You knew what I was when you picked me up,” hissed the snake as he slithered away.

    I gotta admit that Eppie has a better punchline than Aesop.

    The Landers column was reprinted in her syndicated column at the request of a therapist; it is the same as the above, which was easier to copy.
    https://greensboro.com/snake-story-is-a-tale-of-self-destruction/article_538993f8-3a41-5c74-af5d-67663afd52f2.html

    That was in 1996; she began writing in 1955; so, was it originally published before or after Brown wrote his song?

    I found two sites which claim to archive her columns and the Snake story didn’t show up in either of them.
    https://annlanders.com/search.php
    https://www.creators.com/read/classic-ann-landers

    It’s improbable that Brown, a sixties civil rights activist, read Ann Landers, but certainly possible; or he may have had family or friends who passed the story along.

    Or maybe Ann plagiarized his song, and he should get the creative credits.
    Wikipedia was no help with either.

    Anyway, it is a GREAT retelling if Landers was first; and a greater accomplishment if he was.

16. Next Installment: Life imitates Art.
    (Landers wrote until her death in 2002.)
    No doubt there are some people who would complain about Rikki killing Nag and Nagina.

    https://www.southcoasttoday.com/story/lifestyle/1998/05/04/ann-landers/50563155007/

    Ann Landers Staff Writer Standard-Times

    Firefighter who ended snake’s attack speaks out

    Dear … [no name in the original]
    You recently printed several letters about the dangers of owning snakes. One writer recalled a newspaper story about rescuers who cut the head off a snake that had coiled itself around a pregnant woman who was asleep. I am the San Diego city firefighter who responded to that snake attack.

    Four adults, two children and one 10-foot Burmese python were residing in the downtown San Diego hotel room where the attack took place. When the fire engine crew, paramedics and police entered the room, it was an immediate rescue situation. The snake had a full open bite on the pregnant woman’s inner thigh and was constricting around her stomach.

    The woman’s husband was straddled above her, trying desperately to yank the snake off. When I grabbed the snake behind its head, the husband passed out and hit the floor. The snake was constricting so hard that I could pick up the woman by pulling on the snake. I had no option but to cut off the head, using a knife that I always carry with me.

    I have since received many complaints and threats from animal-rights groups and activists for killing the snake. To them, I do not apologize. This was a vicious attack, and the woman was eight months’ pregnant. I wonder what these people would say if the attack happened two months later and the snake went after a defenseless infant.

    I am relieved that this snake is no longer a threat to the family, and I feel confident that the correct decision was made.

    — Proud to Be a San Diego City Firefighter

    Dear San Diego Firefighter You have every right to be proud. You saved not only the life of the woman but her unborn child’s as well. I realize that many animal-rights activists might say that killing the snake was unnecessary or that the snake’s life was as valuable as the woman’s, but I disagree.

    I also cannot understand why anyone would allow a pet snake to be loose in a hotel room when a pregnant woman and children were around.

17. The story has taken on a life of its own, in both the Landers and the Brown versions.

    https://newswithviews.com/Schoeneberg/beth102.htm
    THE LADY AND THE SNAKE

    by Beth Schoeneberg May 21, 2013
    NewsWithViews.com

    The old fable regarding the lady and the snake came to my mind recently as I was sifting through all the threats, lies and rhetoric of our DC Occupiers.

    She does a long post about the depredations of the Obama-era Democrats, familiar I’m sure to many readers here, and quotes the Landers story word-for-word (cut & paste from one of the sources, or maybe she typed it up from an original news clipping).

    She closes with:

    This fable has a lesson in it. I don’t want to be a person whose heart doesn’t trust or have sympathy BUT commonsense tells me (and you) that a snake is a snake and you cannot trust a politician… I MEAN A SNAKE!

    Works for me.

    I have no idea who Dave Shultz is, but his website claims to be conservative (JoeBidenNotMyPresident was kind of a hint), and he used the Brown version TWICE.
    In the first post, the song is massaged and abbreviated, but there are some obvious quotes, which are missing in the shorter second reference.

    https://www.daveschultz.com/factoids/the-old-lady-the-snake/
    https://www.daveschultz.com/2021/02/fable-old-lady-the-snake/

    I couldn’t tell how long he’s been posting, as there is no chronological archive.
    He may have heard the Brown poem at one Trump’s rallies, as he did post this short note on his home page: “I like my Guns like Mumbles Biden likes his voters. Undocumented and untraceable.”

    So of course I can’t leave this term paper without the man who PBS blamed for starting it all.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSrOXvoNLwg

    CBS: Apr 29, 2017
    Trump brought back one of this campaign trail favorites, a poem called “The Snake.” The poem tells the story of a woman who takes in a snake, who ends up biting her and telling her “you knew damn well I was a snake before you let me in.”

    Trump credits Al Wilson; possibly he didn’t know Brown wrote it, or didn’t want to highlight him because of his family’s reaction.

    He gives a pretty fair dramatic reading, with some asides to make it clear he was talking about illegal border crossers.

18. Brown’s family, not Trump’s. PBS made sure to get their reaction to Trump using a poem by a civil rights activist who also wrote a song favoring illegal immigration.

    One of the Youtube commenters mentions yet another version of the fable:

    That saying is older than him. People was using that poem for years. The original saying is that, the hunter was going through the woods and came across a frozen snake took it home threw it out and took good care of it until it regained its health. After the snake got back to health it bit him and he asked why did you bite me after all I’ve done for you. The snake replied I’m a snake it’s my nature and if you turn your back, i will bite you again. My nature.

    And an internet oracle put a similar version in a nice graphic story-book form:
    https://hebfdn.org/portfolio/you-knew-it-was-a-snake/

    A man started to climb a high, steep mountain when a snake asked the man to carry him along. “But you’re a snake,” the man said. The snake smiled. “Don’t worry. I won’t bite you.” After days of arduous climbing, the man reached the mountain summit, whereupon the poisonous snake bit him. As he lay dying, the man cried out, “You said you wouldn’t bite me!” His reptilian hitchhiker looked at him and said, “Ha! You knew I was a snake when you picked me up.”

    This is Howard Butt, Jr., of Laity Lodge. We’re often tempted to make deals when we shouldn’t. If you trust snakes, you’ll get bit. It’s impossible to travel with the wrong people and reach the right result… in the high calling of our daily work.

    Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.” Come back to your senses as you ought, and stop sinning; for there are some who are ignorant of God — I say this to your shame. (1 Cor. 15:33-34)

    AND FINALLY I found a genuine traditional legend, in two variations, which might be the source for both of those recent references:
    https://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Legends/TheLittleBoyAndTheRattlesnake-Cherokee.html

    I wasn’t able to cut & paste from that site, but the legend as told there is more complex than the others.

    So, I think I’ve milked that story for all I can tonight.

19. PS The First People site looks to be a great resource, although I hate black backgrounds; much too hard on my eyes.

    Welcome to our site about the First People of North America and Canada, better known as Turtle Island. This is a child friendly, educational site about Native Americans (American Indians) and members of the First Nations.

    Links to legends, art, poetry, shopping, and history.

    Looking for a treaty or an agreement? Well, we have over 400 so far with the Cherokee Treaty of 1868 being the most read by our visitors. We are sure you will find the one you are looking for.

    The publishers also have a sense of humor – this is at the bottom of the page:

    Best viewed with the monitor turned on.
    Site made using 100% recycled web space.
    This site may contain nuts.

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