Monday, October 16, 2006

No longer afraid...

I would like to extend a hearty thanks to those of you who contributed to my snake dilemma email. I had a wide variety of suggestions and feel now that my main problem is not the fear of being bitten, but choosing from the wide range of options that are seemingly available (actually, I'm still afraid of getting bitten by a black mamba - we had a few horror stories whilst doing "first aid for bites and stings" training last week. First Aid if you get bitten by a black mamba is the last rites it would seem. A second story involved 8 people admitted to hospital with multiple fractures having jumped from the back of a speeding truck when a black mamba got caught in the axle and was flung up into the open back with the passengers. Locals obviously felt to jump was far less risky to your health than to stay!).

The Lester Meister should have special mention for the ream of info she sent on serpents and their wiley ways and a prize may be winging its way to you (though it may not get there given stories of Namibian postal services). My favourite remedy, however, and first remedy of choice if feasible should a venomous creature sink its fangs into my flesh was a medival remedy for snakebite as follows:

"If one is bitten by a snake, one thing that one can do is to have sexual intercourse, as the force of an orgasm will drain all the poisonous substances from the body"

- Albert of Aachen, Historia Hierosolymitana 5.40, in Recueil des historiens des croisades, historiens occidentaux, 5 vols. in 6 (Paris: Imprimerie royale, 1844 -95) 4: 459.

Many thanks go to Angharad and especially Albert.