Back to the menu

STRANGE PEOPLE

The reason
‘You will discover something after each curve in the road’ reads the Dutch translation of Mario Puzo’s 1984 children’s novelette The Runaway Summer of Davie Shaw. Together with his pony Mustang and with only seven dollar and seven cents in his pockets Davie Shaw, the leading character of this novella, traveled from California in the West of the United States to New York in the East. He met many different kinds of people on the way and as the Dutch title already suggests acquired several unusual experiencesas well. He met among others an old guru together with whom he on a certain day discovered a serpentarium. The billboard mentioned that Eunice Hill, the owner, is a herpetologist, that the entree is fifty cents and that the poisonous snakes will be milked at nine o’clock in the morning as well as on one o’clock in the afternoon and at six in the evening. The guru was both old and wise and he could hence tell Davie – who had nothing to do with snakes and had rather not deal with them – many pieces of information. One such a knowledgeable piece was that snake poison is, except for radium, the most valuable medical substance on earth. While the guru visited the serpentarium Davie preferred to wait outside. The guru reappeared after some time had passed, accompanied by a most peculiar person of the female gender:
‘Her face was lean, her arms were thin as were her legs and feet. Her hair was pitch black. She kept her hair drawn tight towards the back of her head, which caused her nose and her mouth to protrude as a result. (…) On her right wrist the young woman wore a black snake for a wrist watch. Its diamond shaped head turned around like a sweep-second hand. Another snake curled around her neck and hung down like a stole towards her waist. A third snake twisted around her waist and functioned as a belt for her riding breeches. On each of her knees a snake protruded his head out of her brown leather riding boots’ (Puzo, 51).
When the guru acquainted Davie Shaw to Eunice Hill the herpetologist appeared to exhibit tiny teeth while her voice was soft and hissing. Despite his aversion to snakes – as well as some repugnance to Eunice Hill – Davie Shaw let himself be persuaded to stay the night in the serpentarium. 

The naturally inquisitive guru liked to profit optimally of the knowledge of other people. During the evening he hence never stopped asking Eunice Hill about her animals. As a result Davie learned against his liking that a snake dies when exposed to the blazing sun for fifteen minutes (which did please him, anyway), that snakes are deaf, that they smell with their tongue, that they are able to fast for a year, that their gastric acid is quite powerful, enough so to dissolve the bones of the skull of a pig within a few minutes only, and that even anaconda’s are unable to swallow people because the shoulders of men are too wide… Eunice Hill had often been bitten by her snakes, so much so that she did become immune for their poison. And spoken about snake poisons: each day each snake provided her with a teaspoonful of poison, more precious than gold. All this did not interest Davie very much and he eventually fell asleep on the couch. 

The following morning the guru and the herpetologist told Davie that they planned to get married and to manage the serpentarium together. Eunice will let the guru be bitten daily by a snake in order to render him immune for their poison. They hoped that their children are born immune as a result, which would be a big step forward for science. They not only strived to serve science with their grotesque plan, however, for they also had an eye for the commercial aspect of the immunity. Once they would be able to put their baby on show in a glass box together with a pit viper or a cobra then that might attract a large crowd and those people might perhaps be inclined to pay much more than fifty cents to see this spectacle.
 
The background
For the passage out of his children’s novelette described above Mario Puzo most probably did not only draw on his fantasy. Tales about tribes exhibiting a special relationship with snakes have been doing the rounds for centuries. Even today there may exist groups of people as well as individuals that are adept at charming snakes as well as controlling these animals (Aafjes 1966; Brunton 1950; Cann 2001; Hagenbeck z.j; Keimer 1947). In antique sources we find descriptions of races that not only charmed and controlled snakes but also had achieved immunity against snake poisons, who even had been able to keep snakebite victims from a fateful death. I cannot exclude the possibility that Puzo also drew some inspiration from a herpetological grey past. I will let some examples of possible sources pass in review.

Snake charmers
The Roman authors Plinius and Aelianus both describe the Ophiogenis tribe as a people of which the name rings true since it was born out of the carnal knowledge of Halia with an immensely large divine snake living in the cave of Artemis, the Greek goddess of the hunt. Their special descent from a divine snake made it possible for them to heal people suffering from snakebite just by touching them. Plinius († 79 AD) continues his tale with the remark that there are still people whose saliva are a medicine against snakebite (Plinius VII, 14; Aelianus XII, 39).
Quite different tribes also could be of importance for people who fell victim to snakebite. Lucanus, the chronicler of the Roman civil war tells us at length how the Psylli – a tribe living in ‘Libya’ – charmed snakes and healed their bites. His narrative is interesting enough to cite it more extensively:
'Of the races that inhabit the earth there is but one, the Psylli of Marmarica, who are unhurt by the fell bite of serpents. Their voice has the efficacy of powerful drugs. Their very blood is protected and can keep out all poison, even without the use of charms. The nature of their land has bidden them live unharmed in the midst of serpents. (…) And that race, not satisfied with safety for themselves, keep guard for strangers and aid mankind against deadly monsters. They followed the Roman army now; and, as soon as the leader ordered the tents to be pitched, they began by purifying the sand within the circuit of the rampart with spells and charms to banish the snakes. The limits of the camp were surrounded by a fire of fumigation, in which elder-wood crackled and foreign galbanum bubbled; the tamarisk of scanty leaf, Eastern costos,[1] powerful all-heal, Thessalian centaury, fennel, and Sicilian thapsos[2] made a noise in the flame; and the natives also burned larchwood, and southernwood whose smoke snakes loathe, and horns of deer - deer whose birthplace is far from Africa. Thus the soldiers were protected at night. But if any man was smitten by day and near death, then the wondrous powers of the people were displayed, and there was a mighty battle between the Psylli and the poison absorbed. The native begins by marking the part with the touch of his spittle; this arrests the venom and confines it to the wound; and then his foaming lips rehearse full many a spell with unbroken muttering; for the speed of the ailment suffers him not to draw breath, nor does death permit a moment’s silence. Often indeed the bane after it has lodged in the blackened marrow, is expelled by incantation; but, whenever the poison is slow to obey, and resists when it is summoned forth and commanded te come out, then the healer leans over and licks the bloodless place, sucking up the venom and draining the limbs with his teeth, until victorious he drags out the death from the cold body, and spits it out of his mouth. And it is a simple thing for the Psylli to tell by the taste of the poison what kind of snake it was whose bite the healer has mastered.' (Lucan IX, pag. 571).

The Italian Marsi, offspring of Odysseus’ son begotten by Circe the sorceress, on his famous way back home, were as well known during Antiquity. They also had special saliva. It was not able to cure snakebites, however, but it could chase snakes away instead. Like the Psylli the Marsi were often send along with the Roman legions to regions known to be infested with snakes and scorpions. Before the Roman soldiers made their bivouac the Marsi had to clear the chosen site from poisonous animals. They in addition had the task to deliver antidotes against the bites from like animals (Plinius VII, 15; Jackson, 1995, 135).

‘Steve Irwins’ avant la date
Steve Irwin – the unfortunate crocodile hunter – once generated loathing and outrage during a demonstration with crocodiles, for he then baited the animals with the use of his small son which he held above their snouts. In the tale by Mario Puzo we already encountered a similar detestable exposure of children to dangerous animals. His description of the so-called inherited immunity of babies against snake poison originated from a rather well developed fantasy.  But he does seem for this subject to be indebted to old tales.  It were, again, the Psylli who had devised quite special a test to discover whether or not a child was a bastard. They did not perform such a test to impress the paying public but wanted to satisfy themselves about the unadulterated nature of their offspring instead. Let us listen to Lucanus:
Great is their reliance upon their blood: whenever a new‑born babe falls to earth, fearing some contamination of foreign breed, they test the suspected infant by means of a venomous asp. As the bird of Jove turns his unfeathered eaglets, when hatched from the warm egg, to face the rising sun ‑ those who prove able to endure the beams, and can gaze without flinching straight at the light, are kept alive for the service of the god; but those whom the sun has mastered are neglected ‑ so the Psylli are convinced that the breed is true, if the babe shrinks not to touch snakes and makes a play­thing of the serpent given him. (Lucan IX, pag. 573).

Medicines
The advent of the natural sciences, chemistry in particular, enabled us to analyze therapeutic substances into their constituents and to investigate their effectiveness. This applies mutatis mutandis to snake poisons since these promise to strike lucky in two ways: therapeutically since medicines can be derived from it that mitigate many different ailments (see the contribution by Freek Vonk in this issue), as well as financial since the pharmaceutical companies may draw billions in cash (Nienke Neintema in NRC Handelsblad of January 20th, 2007). But even long before microchemistry enabled us to understand how to decompose and use snake poisons notions did exist about the therapeutic usefulness of complete snakes. The antidotum mithridatium briefly called theriak or triakel was invented long before the advent of our Common Era. Since then it has been extensively used for a wide range of diseases and ailments. Snakes formed an indispensable part of this panacea. Since I did already write some papers on the subject it serves to refer you to these contributions (Van der Voort 1993ab, 1995).

Yet another word.  On a visit to Spain I saw on the market in Olot a market booth with a display of several snake-containing bottles. Present were also dozens of neatly stacked round boxes. They appeared to contain snake fat. The smartly dressed male – who did not at all resemble the common market vendor – brought home to me that the fat derived from a landsnake. The language barrier proved to be too great to achieve a useful exchange of information, however. The jar did however show the following boasting text: This modern panacea relieves or heals all kinds of rheumatic pains, burns, lumps, pustules and ulcers, the common cold, earache, sore throat (pharyngitis), athletes’ foot, ingrown nails, rashes, dislocations, sprains, it aids the expel of splinters, eases all kinds of insect bites, among other things those of wasps, spiders and mosquitoes. According to my own experience even a herpes simplex labialis may be successfully treated with it.

Translation into English by prof. dr. Bert Verveen.
English corrections: dr. Lawrence Smith.

 
Literatuur
Aafjes, B., ‘De charmeur der slangen’. In: Morgen bloeien de abrikozen. Amsterdam, 1966.
Aelianus, De Natura Animalium, with an En­glish trans­lation by A.F. Scholfield. Loeb Classical Li­brary. 3 Vols. London. 1971, 1959, 1959.
Brunton, P., A search in secret Egypt. London, 1950.
Cann, J., Snakes alive! Snake Experts & Antidote Sellers of Australia. Kenthurst, 2001.
Celsus, C., De Medicina. 3 Vol. Loeb Classical Library. London, 1952, 1977, 1961.
Hagenbeck, J., Heilige slangen. In de ban van cobra’s en krokodillen. Amsterdam, z.j.
Hellemont, J. van, Fytotherapeutisch Compendium. Utrecht/Antwerpen, 1988.
Jackson, R., Doctors and diseases in the Roman Empire. London, 1995.
Keimer, L., Histoires des serpents dans l’Egypte ancienne et moderne. Mémoires présentés à l‘Institut d’Egypte et publiés sous les auspices de sa Majesté Farnouk Ier, roi d’Egypte. Le Caire, 1947.
Lucan, Pharsalia. Loeb Classical Library. Harvard University Press. London, 1988.
Payne, A., Medieval beasts. London, 1990.
Plinius, Naturalis Historia. Loeb Clas­sical Library. Harvard University Press. 10 Vols. London, 1932-1989.
Puzo, M., Na elke bocht ontdek je wat. Amsterdam, 1984.
Puzo, M. The Runaway Summer of Davie Shaw.  Munk, 1966; The World’s Work, Kingswood, Surrey 1976.
Voort, M. van der, Van serpenten met venine. Jacob van Maerlants boek over slangen hertaald en van herpetologisch commentaar voorzien. Hilversum, 1993a.
Voort, M. van der, ‘Herpetologische sprokkelingen I: Het slechte huwelijk van Mithridates Eupator’. In: Litteratura Serpentium 13 (1993b), 123-129. Or click here.
Voort, M. van der, ‘Herpetologische sprokkelingen 4, Alexander en het gifmeisje’. In: Litteratura Serpentium 15 (1995), 110-114. Or click here.
Voort, M. van der, Dat seste boec van serpenten. Een onderzoek naar en een uitgave van boek VI van Jacob van Maerlants Der naturen bloeme. Hilversum, 2001.

[1] Costo’s or Costmary (Tanacetum balsamita): the root of a Kashmir plant. The oil was used as an ingredient in an antidote while it was used as a stimulant in case of snakebite (Celsus, p. xxviii).
[2] Thapsos: shepherd’s purse. The seeds of this plant were used in an antidote (Celsus, p. lvii). One assumes even today that its action contains haemostatic properties (Van Hellemont 1988, 119).

First published in Litteratura Serpentium 27, 2007, 184-194.