SSSSnakes!!!

I like snakes, and so does Mrs Noah, as can be seen in the picture on the right, which I hope she will not mind me publishing. It records a close encounter with an amiable python a few years ago at Aldershott. They seem to cause an irrational fear in most people especially women, over and above the fear of their possible poison.  The Bible cast the Serpent in the role of the Tempter of Eve to eat the forbidden fruit and thus get her and her husband thrown out of the Garden of Eden. `Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field that the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree in the Garden?` Genesis 3 v 1.   However I feel that this was perhaps allegorical and women have a built-in urge to question orders given by anyone, especially if they are not explained! However God punished the serpent for his poor advice -And because thou hast done this thou art curst above all cattle and above every beast of the field, upon your belly thou shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of thy life`,v14
 So the poor snake has had a very bad press since biblical times. Certainly here in Poitou Charentes he is feared and killed by the country French if they encounter one. I was witness to such an attitude a couple of years ago. I was driving down a country road when I saw a large grass snake crossing in front of me. I stopped and put on hazard lights but a French registered car (may the driver fry in Hell an appropriate time) pushed past and deliberately ran over the unfortunate reptile leaving it writhing in agony in the road. I could not help him except by putting a term to his pain by cutting off his head with my knife, a deed which left me quite tearful and which worried Kim when she saw how upset I was.
   I was reminded of this episode and moved to write this entry when I saw two days ago a snake crossing the road in front of me. At first I thought it was a strip of green packing tape blown by the wind, but realised just in time that it was a coulevre or grass snake frantically wriggling across the tarmac. In a moment he had reached the verge and disappeared but I am always happy to see one of these attractive and inoffensive animals.