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Snakes are a part of the fabric of the South
Coachwhips are kind of unusual. You don't see them nearly as much as you do rattlesnakes, copperheads and other snakes. They are unusual snakes and have produced a lot of myths and legends. Most aren't true. Coachwhips are black from the head about half way down their bodies and then they turn tan. Hence the name coachwhip, or bullwhip, for the whip that horsemen and wagon masters used that were black on the handle end with a tan leather whip on the other end. One of the myths of the coachwhip is that they can chase down a victim, wrap themselves around them and whip them to death. A side note to that myth is that they will then stick their tail in their victim's nose to see if they are still breathing. All of these can make for idle dinner party conversation fodder but that is about it. Coachwhips aren't venomous but they can be easily riled. They have a mouthful of teeth and will bite and it can hurt (and scare the dickens out of you!) but it won't kill you. They often crawl with their heads lifted high; similar to the way you see cobras in India moving, but maybe not that high. Some stories suggest that they can stand full-length on their tails but I don't think they can. My daddy, the late Christie Cox of Coffeeville, wouldn't agree with that assessment. He used to tell stories of playing with a coachwhip in a cotton field in Coffeeville when he was about 8 years old. Daddy said he would run the snake for a while and then the snake would run him. Daddy said he would crouch down in the rows of tall cotton and he could see the snake standing on its tail a few rows over, looking for him. I figured that since Daddy was only about 8 and probably a little fellow, it might have looked like the snake was standing a lot taller than it actually was. Anyway, Daddy said he and the snake played for nearly a full summer that year back in the mid-1920s. Times have changed, haven't they? I would cringe today at the thought of playing tag with a snake and I would go absolutely berserk at the idea of my 9-year-old daughter playing with one. Speaking of mythical snakes, you may have heard of the hoop snake. I always have but when I started researching coachwhips for this article I learned that there is no such thing as a hoop snake. The stories go that a hoop snake could roll itself into a circle, grab its tail in its mouth and roll like a wheel, chasing down its victims and killing them by sticking a venomous tail stinger into the helpless soul. Stories of hoop snakes abound in the South, in Minnesota and Wisconsin. They were made famous in the Pecos Bill stories of west Texas. An Englishman touring the young United States in the late 1700s sent stories of seeing the strange snake back to Great Britain and that helped to fuel the myths too. The naturalist Raymond Ditmars put $10,000 in a trust in a New York bank back in the early 1900s earmarked for anyone who could produce a hoop snake. No one ever has. I wonder if the money is still in the bank?
Snakes are a part of the fabric of the South. Do you have an unusual snake story you'd like to share? I'd like to hear your stories. Drop them off here at The South Alabamian or e-mail me at jimcox@mygalaxyexpress. com.
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