Blowing Vipers and Exploding Snakes

My husband is full of stories, some of them believable, some not so much.

His stories about his family's pet crow seem reasonable and true. Jimmy, as the crow was known, came to them as a baby that Larry's father brought home from the woods after he'd been out on a hunting trip. They raised the crow on an eyedropper and watered down milk and it eventually grew to full size and full of nuisance and entertainment. Jimmy, for example, liked to ride around on the back of their old hound dog Drum, and Jimmy loved to devil the hogs, dive-bombing them unmercifully.

He also liked to divebomb the redheaded neighbor kids, which led to them striking at him with a baseball bat and breaking Jimmy's legs. Larry's mother bandaged the poor legs with popsicle sticks and tape, and while they were healing Jimmy rode around on Drum.

There are lots of other Jimmy stories and I believe them. But a snake that swells its head up, and then falls over stiff on its back and looking dead?? No way.

And a snake that explodes? Not even.

But...

Another friend told us this week about a snake his uncle (or was it his father? I can't remember!) found. The snake raised up and its head looked just like a cobra. When his uncle didn't run, the snake stiffened and fell flat on the ground, looking dead. The uncle picked it up and threw it in the back seat of his car to take and show someone a half hour's drive away. Every now and then the snake would raise up, and he'd holler at it to quit that! The snake would go stiff again and fall over, until finally they reached their destination.

Sound crazy? I thought so too. But Larry said yes, he'd seen such a snake and it scared the life almost out of him. I sat there looking at the two of them as if they were a two-headed circus sideshow, sure that they were conniving to trick me into believing this weird tale.

And then  looked it up. Larry called it a "blowing viper" so that's what I searched. And lo and behold:

By Bladerunner8u - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18329270

The Eastern Hognose snake, I learned, acts somewhat like a cobra when threatened. It flattens its head and rises up looking menacing and as if it is about to strike. If that doesn't scare away the threat, the snake then falls over and plays dead. It's a real snake! It has lots of names too--Wikipedia lists the following: Eastern hog-nosed snake,^[2] spreading adder, hog-nosed snake, adder, bastard rattlesnake, black adder, black blowing viper, black hog-nosed snake, black viper snake, blauser, blower, blowing adder, blowing snake, blow(ing) viper, blow snake, buckwheat-nose snake, calico snake, checkered adder, checquered adder, chunk head, common hog-nosed snake, common spreading adder, deaf adder, eastern hognose snake, flat-head, flat-head(ed) adder, hay-nose snake, hissing adder, hissing snake, hog-nosed adder, hog-nosed rattler, hog-nose snake, hog-nosed viper, hissing viper, (mountain) moccasin, North American adder, North American hog-nosed snake, pilot, poison viper, puff(ing) adder, red snake, rock adder, rossel bastard, sand adder, sand viper, spotted (spreading) adder, spread nelly, spread-head moccasin, spread-head snake, spread-head viper, flat-head adder (spreading) viper.

And it comes in all kinds of colors and patterns, sometimes resembling a black snake, other times looking like a copperhead, which is what Larry saw. So. True, not pulling my leg.

But the exploding snake?

Larry said that he and his Daddy were going berry picking one July day. They had their lard cans hooked through their belts and they were deep into a patch when they heard the unmistakable sound of a rattler's warning. Now, they had Larry's little dog Blackie with them. Blackie ran over to the snake and began barking and running around it in circles.

From http://www.publicdomainpictures.net 

Larry was terrified because the snake kept striking at his dog, and he loved that little dog. Blackie kept just out of the snake's reach. The rattler twisted and twisted, striking at the dog and then one strike went off target--the fangs sank deep into the rattler's own body.

Now here is where it gets strange. The snake began to swell up where it had bitten itself! It swelled and swelled and then Larry's Dad got a big stick and hit it, and the snake exploded! No way, I said! A snake can't be allergic to its own venom, can it? That just doesn't make sense.

So tonight I looked it up. What happens if a rattler or copperhead bites itself? Will they die from the venom?

No, the experts say. The snakes have an immunity to their own venom. Except...if the venom is very fast-acting. It takes a bit for the immunity to kick in, says one snake expert, and it is possible for the snake to swell in the area of the bit. And if the snake was struck on that spot? I didn't find any answer to that, but it seems reasonable enough that if it was swelled enough, yes, it could explode. Sort of like when a doctor punctures a stoved up toe or finger and the blood spurts out in a huge fountain. TMI, I know.

So, I guess my hubby is not telling tall tales. This time.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

A True Story

A story from right here in Jackson County, West Virginia, as told by Delmer Hutton, who was one of our best natural storytellers:

A man lost his milk cow, and couldn't find her anywhere. There was a revival going on at the church so he went on to the tent.When he got there he asked, "Preacher, would you mind to tell them about my lost milk cow? She needs milked because she's been gone two full days now. I'm mighty worried about her."

The preacher said he would--it wasn't an unusual request since everyone in the area would be in the tent and someone was likely to know where the cow was.

The service started and as the preacher preached on and on the old man nodded off. The preacher began to wax eloquent about the importance of faithfulness. He mentioned his own wife, who had left him a few weeks previously, an left their four children behind.

"She's gone, she's gone, I know not where," wailed the preacher. The old man jerked awake at these words, and thinking that the preacher was speaking of his cow, he stood up and said,

"Preacher, you might want to tell them she's only got three tits!"

Finding the New Moon

Once there was a man who could not find the new moon in the sky, no matter how hard he tried. He spent hours standing in a field, staring upward at the heavens. People tried to help him, but it was no use.

"Look!" shouted a friend in frustration. "It's right there! Can you not see it?"

"No, I do not see it." The man shook his head sadly. "I see no new moon. Only the same old moon that has been up there for years and years."

Stories from Strangers: The Big Potato

After the first day of storytelling at the festival was over, many of the tellers went to visit Lambert's winery on Gee Lick Road near Weston. (I wrote about Lambert's in my August 10th post).

While we were there, the owner told us this tale:

Seems there was a man who decided to plant potatoes. He plowed, cultivated, planted, weeded, fertilized and mulched religiously all summer. When the time came to harvest his crop, he was disappointed to find that only one plant had developed tubers. He began digging--and digging--and digging. He discovered that there was only one potato on that vine, but it was big that although he dug all day he couldn't dig it up.

The next morning he brought in a backhoe, and the potato was finally pulled from the ground. That potato was so big that the man and his family ate on it all winter. Come springtime, they still had a lot of potato left.

They decided to cut it up into pieces for planting the next year's crop. But when they cut into that potato,
twenty-six sheep came out of the center of that potato. They'd been living in there and eating potato all winter, and were as fat and healthy as any sheep you might want to see.

So sayeth our host! A great tall tale, told well.

Appalachian Books and Resources

I prepared this bibliography for a workshop I presented at the WV Writers Conference last month. While not in any way all-inclusive, the titles below offer a sampling of Appalachian stories and storytelling.

Folktales

Musick, Ruth Ann. Ballads, Folk Songs & Folk Tales from West Virginia. Morgantown: West Virginia University Press, 1960.
Green Hills of Magic : West Virginia Folktales from Europe Parsons, WV : McClain Printing Co., 1989.

Barden, Thomas E. Virginia Folk Legends
Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 1991.
Extensive collection of originally collected by the Virginia Writers Project under the WPA.

Chase, Richard. Grandfather Tales: American-English Folk Tales. Boston, Houghton Mifflin,1948
The Jack Tales. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1943.
Traditional mountain folktales and Jack tales, collected by Chase in the 1930’s and 40’s.


Tall Tales, Lies and Mountain Humor

Sutherland, Herbert Maynor. Tall Tales from the Devil’s Apron
Johnson City, TN: Overmountain Press, 1970.
You may recognize some popular internet jokes in this collection. I’ve wondered if this is the source of those stories. Creative writing by a newspaperman from southern Virginia.

Credle, Ellis. Tall Tales from the High Hills
New York: Thomas Nelson & Sons, 1957.
Tales collected by Credle in the Carolina mountains.

Harshman, Marc. Rocks in My Pockets New York : Cobblehill Books/Dutton, 1991.Based on a tale told by WV storyteller Bonnie Collins

Lepp, Bil. Inept, Impaired, and Overwhelmed. Quarrier Press, 2001.
The Monster Stick & Other Appalachian Tall Tales Little Rock, Ark. : August House Publishers, 1999. Great lying by West Virginia’s best liar.

Dent, James F. The Dog with the Cold Nose
Parsons, WV: McClain Printing, 1981
A collection of short anecdotes and jokes.


Ghost Stories

Jones, James Gay. Haunted Valley: and More Folk Tales of Appalachia. Parsons, WV: McClain Printing, 1979
Ghosts and spirits and strange legends, most of them set in WV.

Deitz, Dennis. The Greenbrier Ghost and Other Strange Stories
South Charleston, WV: Mountain Memories, 1990 (2nd ed) West Virginia’s most famous ghost story and other tales collected by Dietz and recounted in the source’s words.

Musick, Ruth Ann. Coffin Hollow and Other Ghost Tales University Press of Kentucky, c1977.
The Telltale Lilac Bush, and Other West Virginia Ghost Tales.University of Kentucky Press,1965
More tales from the queen of West Virginia ghost stories.

Coleman, Christopher K. Ghosts and Haunts of the Civil War
Nashville: Rutledge Hill Press, 1999.
Just what it says.

Price, Charles Edwin. Witches, Haints and Boogers: Tales from Upper East Tennessee
Winston-Salem: John F. Blair, Publisher, 1992.
In other words, ghost stories from the Tennessee mountains.

Gainer, Patrick W. Witches, Ghosts, and Signs
Grantsville, WV: Seneca Press, 1975.
A fine collection of lore and stories from the Glenville State professor who established the Glenville Folk Festival.

Holstein, Susanna. Granny's Ghost Stories. 2004. My own collection of tales--original, local legends and stories from history.

Ballads

http://www.contemplator.com/ Online, extensive source of songs and ballads

Wimberly, Lowry Charles. Folklore in the English and Scottish Ballads. New York: Dover, 1965 (reprint). A scholarly study of the folkloric content of the ballads that form the basis of most Appalachian ballads.

Sargent, Helen, and George Lyman Kittredge. English and Scottish Popular Ballads. Cambridge: Riverside Press, 1932.
A condensed version of Francis James Child’s 10 volume collection of ballads.

Sharp, Cecil J and Maud Karpeles. Eighty English Folk songs from the Southern Appalachians. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1968.
Remember the movie Songcatcher? These are the songs collected by the real songcatchers between 1916 and 1918.

Boette, Marie. Singa Hipsy Doodle and other Folk Songs of West Virginia. Parsons, WV: McClain Printing, 1971.
Fascinating source notes on songs collected in our state.

Storytelling Sources

I am sometimes asked for sources of stories by those who are interested in telling tales themselves. Where can stories be found? They're everywhere, in every place we travel and in every person we meet. They're in books certainly, but also online, in the local newspaper, in the classified ads, on the staff bulletin board.

How can these stories be found? By not only hearing but listening, not only looking but seeing, not only touching but feeling. And by asking questions and listening to the response. How often have you seen a TV personality ask a guest a question, only to continue to talk, interrupt and ask more questions before the guest has a chance to answer?

Many people seem to like the TV show called The View. I find annoying in the extreme as the stars of the show try to outshout each other in desperate efforts to get the most attention from the audience and the camera.

This past weekend at a farm auction I was standing by an older man and discussing the items being sold. I said I'd like to have the old wood ironing board, and he said he used to have one like it. He proceeded to tell me the story of the Coon and Possum Dog (read a version of it here), a tall tale that's been told in the mountains for years. I tell it myself, and that's why I wanted the ironing board. But here he was, telling the story as a current joke, and telling it well--he could be a professional storyteller, but I'd bet he doesn't even know there is such a thing.

He told me several more stories and jokes that afternoon, for the pure pleasure of sharing them. And I listened, for the pure pleasure of hearing the tales told so well.

Stories? They're everywhere. Listen--you may be hearing one right now.

The Squirrel Lure

Told to me by an old-timer at an estate auction today:

A squirrel saw a walnut on a rock in the middle of a river. The squirrel was a saving sort, and wanted that nut. He ran up and down the riverbank for a while, then finally decided to go for it. He dove into the river, swam out to the rock and got the nut. The squirrel tucked the nut into his cheek and began the return swim.

There was a great churning of water in the river, and then a huge muskie surfaced and grabbed the squirrel. The muskie and squirrel disappeared below the water, and after a few minutes the water was quiet.

Then the muskie surfaced again, walnut in his mouth. He carefully replaced the nut on the rock.

A Fishing Story

My oldest son took off for his annual trout fishing trip with his buddies today, up in Pendleton County, WV. He's hoping to catch that big trout he caught two years ago. He said it was a giant.

He couldn't get the hook out of it's mouth unfortunately, so he had to throw it back with the hook still attached (he's a catch-and-release kind of fisherman). Last year they went back to that same spot, and he caught that fish again.

He said he knew the fish in that river grew fast (South Branch of the Potomac) so he wasn't surprised that the trout weighed 10 pounds more than it had last year. But he wasn't expecting that the hook he'd left in the trout's mouth would grow--it was a big as an anchor, and that fish was just dragging it around with him.

He's wondering how big that fish is now, and if the anchor is still growing too. He's worried that it's made its way down to Washington DC and got itself caught in one of those fishy stories floating around there these days. Of course, with Katie Couric's rating problems, it might get hired on as a news anchor on NBC.