100 Snakes
way the snake does is to pick its tail up in its mouth, and then whirl over and over like a hoop. His tail is sharp-pointed and hard like a spike. When he catches up with you, he just takes his tail out of his mouth, and jabs it into you. Qh, I tell you, you’d better swallow a dozen snakes rather’n get one o’ these hoop-snakes after you.
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It is said that when a hoop-snake strikes a man it “blasts” him. I suppose that means he is paralyzed, turns black, shrivels up, and like enough blows away. When one of these hoop-snakes strikes its tail into anything wooden,—a hoe-handle, for instance,—it shivers the wood into splinters, just as if it had been struck by lightning.
Another snake you want to beware of is the “black racer snake.” It is said
