Here’s what happens when southern pot-belly stove storytellers in country stores turn to tales of sneaky snakes ... and get on a roll Copyrighted ink drawing by Richard Svensson. He’s from the South, too ... the village of Bräkne-Hoby in southern Sweden. The image is used with his permission. Story by Steve A. Maze
T
he South has always produced its fair share of snake stories. One of the best places I ever heard these stories was from pot-bellied men sitting around a pot-bellied stove at old country stores. Stories would usually center around the largest snake someone had seen. Of course, it wasn’t unusual to hear about giant rattlesnakes that reached an exaggerated eight to 10 feet long. Of course, these monsters were obligated to have 20 rattles and a button on the end of their tail. The storytelling would then drift off to more unusual specimens they had personally encountered such as the coachwhip, bull snake, milk snake, hoop snake and joint snakes. 44
According to the old-timers, the coachwhip is a non-poisonous snake that is black in color and reaches up to six feet in length. Its most unusual trait is the scales on its tail, which appear to be braided or plaited, resembling the leather whips people once used while riding in a buggy. The snake is known to wrap itself around the leg of a person or animal, and whip its prey with the plaited tail. The tail administers a stinging blow, and the frightened prey can run itself to death with the snake still wrapped around its leg.
A
nother intriguing species is the milk snake, which has many of the physical characteristics of a black racer. In fact, some people say it is a black racer. The snake is said to have a fetish for milk
AUGUST | SEPTEMBER | OCTOBER 2020
and will slither up to a pet’s bowl to flick at the nectar with its tongue. The tale most associated with this particular scaly reptile is that it will “milk” a cow. A farmer once claimed that his cow produced the same amount of milk every morning before she was turned out to pasture, but was dry when he went to milk her each evening. After this happened for several days, he followed to see what was happening. When she stopped at a creek, he stared in amazement as a black snake raised its head, attached itself to the cow’s udder and milked it, moving from one teat to the other. Mystery solved, the farmer claimed. The bull snake grows up to five feet in length, and has a yellow-brown or cream colored skin with black and brown markings. Its small head is equipped
