Snake Bit Man, Snake Died!

Mr Slithery thought it might be a good idea to bite a man, but hey, this was India. After it did so, the 5-foot snake (yes, not the bitten man) vomited blood and perished. A snake vomitted?

Hang on, that’s no ordinary man. He’s a priest, and not just any priest but one from the Nag Devta, a snake god. The temple is in Badapaghar village of Dumka district (now, which State would this place be in?). Needless to say, he recovered and attributed his miraculous salvation to Lord Shiva's blessings.

Now why did a snake in a temple of a snake god bite its own priest? I wonder whether there were any witnesses. Undoubtedly the alms collection would start almost immediately.

Snake worship in India is as ancient as India itself. In Hinduism, there are always snakes or serpents of some sort, consorting with various gods. Even today, snake worship still prevails in Hindu India, in states like Kerala. Lord Shiva of course is particularly associated with a snake, always having a cobra around his neck, symbolising his powers over both creation and destruction.

This claimed outcome of the encounter between the snake priest and an unfortunate snake reminds me of two stories about animal encounters with human beings.

One was an African elderly man who ripped the tongue out of a leopard which attacked him. 73-year-old Daniel M'Mburugu said "A voice, which must have been from God, whispered to me to drop the panga (machete) and thrust my hand into its wide open mouth, I obeyed."

Damn Spots died. That’ll teach other leopards not to mess around with humans, especially elderly men who speak with God (an African Shiva?).

Then, there was a case of an elderly woman in Alor Setar, in northern Malaysia, who was badly mauled by a couple of ferocious dogs. The woman’s family, not exactly bespectacled university professors of the fine arts or Indian classical studies (of Lord Shiva?), went to the house, caught hold of the 2 dogs and slaughtered them. They did the butcher bit, hung the two split-wide–open carcasses on the fence of the house, and demanded further accounting from the dogs' owner for his irresponsible lack of control of the poor dumb animals.

Fortunately for the man, the injured old lady rushed to the house (by car of course) to stop her family from butchering the master of Rin Tin Tin & Lassie.

You won't get the last story from the newspapers because it's all highly illegal vigilante stuff, told only by word of mouth, as Malaysians are wont to do.

Never mess around with humans. They are the most ferocious creatures on earth.