ARTICLES |
THE OLDER THE STORIES, THE BIGGER THE SNAKES
In response to Robert Twigger, Big snake. The hunt for the world’s longest python.
■ The ‘boa’ must have been 120 feet, or let’s say around 36 metres, that the consul Attilius Regulus must have killed on the banks of the Bagradas in 256 BC during the Punic wars in Africa. That was not a particularly easy thing: he had the equipment that he normally used to besiege cities and the fight had cost the lives of many of his men. He brought the gigantic animals skin as well as his ribs with pride to Rome, where everybody could admire his trophy’s (Plinius, VIII, xiv, page 29; Van der Voort, 56-62).
Is 36 metre such an unbelievable length, it is nothing in comparison to the two snakes that the Indian King Abisares kept as pets: one was 98 metre long and the other had a more respectable length of 56 metre. When Alexander the Great heard of this during one of his crusades, he made a detour to be able to observe these impressive animals (Aelianus, XVI, 39).
Plinius did not dwell over the fight between Regulus and the boa that was finally killed. We can get an idea how ferocious this was, as we read the account of the capture from an animal of only 21 metres from Diodorus. Hunters had discovered this giant snake and observed her good. As usual she laid motionless waiting until a victim could whet the appetite, and to grab with her tremendous jaws and to kill with her coiled body. Because the snake was very slow, the hunters hoped that with snares and chains they could overpower her. When they approached the snake so armed, and saw her fiery eyes, with her tongue slithering in and out and heard the terrifying noise coming from her, scales rubbing together, their hearts sunk in their boots. Nevertheless they threw a noose around the tail from the snake. Before she could feel this, she turned around hissing, grabbed the nearest attacker between her jaws and swallowed him alive. She wrapped her body around the second attacker and crushed him. The rest fled. Greed led the survivors to look for a trick, where brute force would always fall short. They made a sort of net from twigs, that was big enough to contain the whole snake. When the snake left her hiding place, the hunters quickly closed the opening and made another hole close by, over which they laid the camouflaged net across. The archers, men with slings, horsemen, trumpeters and more from that sort of people laid in wait along the road where the beast normally followed back to its hole. As the snake came along she was attacked with the aid from dogs, from all sides. This drove her into panic as she tried to flee into her hole. She searched in vain for the entrance to her hole and took refuge in the hole that was prepared by the hunters. The net was drawn shut and dragged out, but the snake directed her anger at the net and would have been destroyed if it was not for the hunters distracting her by sticking spears and arrows in her tail. The catch was taken to Alexandria in triumph, where king Ptolomaeus II rewarded the hunters generously. The story goes on, that the snake was starved and its spirits broken making it eventually tame. Ptolomaeus showed her to anyone that wanted to see her (Keller II, 293-294).
The mentioned measurements from the snakes do not seem to be very reliable. The further you go back in time, the more difficult it is to check. Nevertheless the stories of giant snakes keep returning, even throughout our century. Abuys tells such an anecdote about an anaconda. In Brazil in 1948 a division of soldiers became involved in a fight with a 48 metre long anaconda. Houses collapsed and a number of cars were turned over (Abuys, 130).
■ Literature
Abuys, B., ‘The snakes of Suriname, part II: The family’s Aniliidae and Boidae’. In: LS, volume 2 (1982), 112-133.
Aelianus, De Natura Animalium, with an English translation by A.F. Scholfield. Loeb Classical Library. Harvard University Press. London. 3 Vols. 1958, 1959.
Ameling, A., The adder. Utrecht, 1978.
Barre, W. la, They shall take up serpents. Psychology of the southern snake-handeling cult. Minneapolis, 1962.
Egli, H., Das Schlangensymbol. Geschichte, Märchen, Mythos. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt, (1985).
Even, E., ‘Enkele bijzondere slangen in Shanghai-Zoo’. In LS volume 19 (1999), 111-117.
Grzimek, B., Het leven der dieren, in sixteen volumes . Volume VI, Reptiles. Utrecht, 1973.
Keimer, L., Histoires de serpents dans l'Egypte ancienne et moderne. Mémoires présentés à l'Institut d`Egypte et publiés sous les auspices de sa majesté Farouk Ier, roi d'Egypte. (Tome cinquante). Le Caire, 1947.
Keller, O., Die antike Tierwelt. 2 volumes. Leipzig, 1909-1913.
Morris, R. and D., Men and snakes. London, 1968.
Plinius, Naturalis Historia, 10 Vols. Loeb Classical Library. Harvard University Press. London.
Pope, C., The Giant Snakes. The Natural History of the Boa constrictor, the Anaconda and the largest Pythons. New York, 1961.
Voort, M. van der, Van serpenten met venine. Jacob van Maerlants . Book about snakes revised and complete with herpetological commentary. Hilversum, 1993.
Voort, M. van der, Dat seste boec van serpenten. A study from and a publication from book VI from Jacob van Maerlants Der naturen bloeme. Hilversum, 2001.
■ Translation into English: Marjon Jasker
First published in Litteratura Serpentium 22, 2002, 14-18.