![]() ![]() If you know snakes like I know snakes, then you know that all a wild snake wants to do is get away from people, not chase them. Speaking of pursuit, another myth is that snakes will chase people. Suffice it to say, there are people who still think snakes can form hoops and roll after them. The origins of this myth appear to go way back, back much further than I really care to research at the moment. Once it catches up, a stinger on the tail will proceed stinging. Then there’s the “hoop snake.” This is a snake that can glom onto its tail with its teeth, forming an upright circle, which it will do in order to roll after a quarry. The truth, though, is the snake is simply following the back-and-forth motion of the snake charmer’s arms that are holding the flute. This gives the impression that the snake is hearing the music and is held in its sway. During such exhibitions, a snake under the influence of the charmer’s melodious tones - most often a cobra, which may have had its venom glands or fangs removed - will sway back and forth. Snakes don’t just hypnotize others some believe they are prone to being hypnotized themselves, most famously by a snake charmer’s flute. Combine these two factors - an unblinking snake staring at an animal that is not moving – and the tableaux seems to illustrate hypnotism at work. Animals that sense danger will often remain motionless, in the hope (assuming animals can hope) that the predator that is approaching or confronting them will not see them if they are not moving. Second is the tendency of living prey animals to freeze up, possibly in fear, when in close proximity to a snake. The resulting unblinking stare gives snakes a bit of a hypnotic aura right off the bat. There are two factors that likely contribute to the belief that snakes can hypnotize their prey, and neither has anything to do with a watch being swung back and forth. Check out the You Tube clip at the bottom of this blog to see Kaa’s hypno-eyes in action. A snake’s capacity to hypnotize its prey has been portrayed in books and movies for many years, perhaps most memorably through Kaa, a python in Disney’s animated version of The Jungle Book (1967) that uses hypnosis to subdue his victims. One that is fairly well known is the myth that snakes have hypnotic abilities. It comes as no surprise, of course, that the snake is the reptile most commonly bestowed with mythic abilities. ![]() The unblinking eye of a snake creates a hypnotic effect. ![]()
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