Reptiles

"Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil."

"So down the great dragon was hurled, the original serpent, the one called Devil and Satan, who is misleading the entire inhabited earth; he was hurled down to the earth, and his angels were hurled down with him."

"RATTLESNAKE, n. Our prostrate brother, Homo ventrambulans."

"This is a footnote to our gay-marriage discussion. A woman in India last week married a snake. And it was done at a traditional Hindu ceremony attended by 2,000 people. Now, I would like to ask the proponents of gay marriage, which after all violates traditions going back through all of human history, to now absolutely positively guarantee that the next movement is not going to be allowing people to marry their pet horse, dog or cat. And you know what? Given the anything-goes culture we live in, I don't think they can deliver that guarantee."

"Some huge camoodi, able to crush my bones like brittle twigs in its constricting coils, might lurk in these shadows, and approach me stealthily, unseen in its dark color on the dark ground."

"In certain snakes there is a large actively functional right and a small comparatively useless left lung. The evolutionist would suggest as the meaning of this that the ancestors of snakes possessed, like normal air-breathing s, a pair of lungs—right and left—approximately equal in size, but that in correlation with the lengthening of the body as it assumed the typical snake form the left lung had undergone a gradual reduction in size. He would point out that in some snakes, such as the , a still further stage has been reached in which the left lung has disappeared altogether, leaving only a single—the originally right—lung."

"David Kimbrough studied, observed, participated with, and befriended many individuals in this unique expression of faith: the handling of snakes. This activity is understood not as a test of God's care and protection, but in fulfillment of the command of Jesus himself, that if done in his name then no harm would come to them. The exception to this is if the person is not right with God, then injury and/or death could follow. It was a test of the person's faith."

"Believing wholeheartedly that such an act was not only appropriate but commanded, churches practicing the handling of snakes and the drinking of poisons have often been labeled as cultic in nature, but, according to Kimbrough, nothing could be further from the truth. These are people who truly believe in taking the words of the New Testament seriously."

"And these signs shall follow them that believe: In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues. They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover."

"Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you."

"The book of Mark in the Bible's New Testament calls serpent handling one of the "signs" that true believers must follow."

"Snake handling is based on a passage in the Bible that says a sign of a true believer is the power to "take up serpents" without being harmed."

"Using the image of a snake for the ego he (Ashtavamka asks, you think you are the doer, so has the black serpent of ego bitten you? Whenever you think you must do, he says you have been bitten by the snake of ego. By not doing the doer, you drink the nectar of trust and can be happy."

"Today, two serpent motifs are commonly used to symbolize the practice and profession of medicine. Internationally, the most popular symbol of medicine is the single serpententwined staff of Asklepios (Latin, Aesculapius), the ancient Greco-Roman god of medicine."

"On her way to work one morning Down the path along side the lake A tender hearted woman saw a poor half frozen snake... "Take me in tender woman Take me in, for heaven's sake Take me in, tender woman," sighed the snakeShe clutched him to her bosom, "You're so beautiful," she cried "But if I hadn't brought you in by now you might have died" She stroked his pretty skin again and kissed and held him tight Instead of saying thanks, the snake gave her a vicious bite..."I saved you," cried the woman "And you've bitten me, but why? You know your bite is poisonous and now I'm going to die" "Oh shut up, silly woman," said the reptile with a grin "You knew damn well I was a snake before you took me in""

"The serpents are these worlds."

"Nature has made snakes deadly and precise predators. Their speed, senses, and killing tools allow them to control the populations of small mammals, lizards, birds, fish and insects."

"Rattlesnakes venom stuns prey immediately and can kill small animals within 20 seconds."

"Black mambas are Africa’s fastest and most feared snake. Their venom causes muscle paralysis which stops a victim’s breathing."

"Snake venom is a toxic saliva. The moment the venom enters the body, it starts to destroy cells and begins to digest the prey before it is even dead."

"Australia’s fierce snake, also called an inland Taipan snake, has the most toxic venom of any snake. Its poison is 50 times stronger than that of an Indian cobra. Despite its name, the fierce snake is usually very calm and shy. No humans have been killed by this venomous, but easy-going reptile."

"A single bite by a fierce snake has enough poison to kill 100 human adults or 25,000 mice."

"Most sea snakes are calm and shy. Few people have ever been envenomated."

"Snakes-low and cunning creatures that hide themselves. Yet, you don’t see them, and when you do they see you too and it is too late. Don’t go near them for your own sake."

"Sometimes they pretend to be harmless, but they are not. That is snake’s nature, believe it or not."

"If you know anyone that acts like a snake, don’t think they wont strike."

"“A snake will always be a snake,” slithering around to find some one to strike, not only on the ground, but anywhere else around."

"Watch out for two-legged snakes."

"The numerous snakes and other animals which inhabit arid mountains, or plains destitute of water, can only quench their thirst with rain or dew. Snakes require but little water as long as they live in the open air. It is an established rule that no water is found in the maw, stomach, or entrails of snakes killed in the open air. Even when destroyed by or in piece of water. Snakes are never seen to go to drink in any part of the world."

"All snakes drink and die when deprived of water."

"Snakes drink by suction, not by lapping."

"...are almost within hearing of a piano, and never show the slightest emotion at the sound"

"And my idea is that it is the jarring or vibration through solids, and not the mere sound that affects the snakes."

"The ‘snake men’ of the East, whose trade is to hunt out snakes by means of sound, effect this by rapping on the wall or ceiling or by making loud clicking noises with their tongues much as by their so-called ‘music."

"Snakes are easily aroused by the sound of footsteps than by the sight of the approaching person."

"A custom is prevalent in Ceylon, we are told, of using a jingling stick in the dark to strike the ground in order to frighten snakes out of the path."

"May we not conclude, then, that the perception of sound to a serpent is through solids, a feeling more than a hearing of noises? The creature always prone to the ground or other solids, and with an internal aural apparatus, must be peculiarly sensitive to vibrations thus conveyed."

"...the waving of hand or knee, or bright colours used by the charmers, to which the movements of the serpents respond."

"The snake remains rigidly still the while, the only moving thing being that investigating tongue."

"Any other ’spell’ or ‘fascination’ or attraction might be attributed to a soporific or paralytic rather than a pleasurable influence; and arising from noxious breath of a venomous serpent or the fixity of its eyes, never blinking."

"It is serpent nature to wait motionless for its prey."

"a scarlet tanagerin Costa Rica had been attracted out of tree down close to a snake by its quivering tongue, the only moving thing about it."

"Indian snakes were more deadly than those in Australia"

"Constantly affirmed by our scientific experimentalistson, snake venom that ‘as yet no antidote to them has been found'. Remedies there are in abundance and it is just as great an error to believe that all snake venom is curable."

"Snake virus is a natural secretion provided for the distinct physiological purpose of enabling the reptile to secure its prey."

"With regard to many drugs used in various countries for the cure of snake bite, it is curious to note that, as a rule, they are procured from the most deadly plants. As ‘like cures like’, so poison cures poison. Most of them are powerful stimulants, in which lies their chief virtue."

"The myth of ‘sarpa satra’ or ‘snake sacrifice’ originally occurs in the Bhagavata Purana. The references to ‘sarpa satra’ are also there in Shivalilamrita and Dnyaneshwari."

"King Parikshita, the son of Abimanyu, grandson of Arjuna and father of Janamejaya who succeeded Yudhishthira on the throne of Hastinapura died of the bite of a serpent. And so, Janamejaya, the son of Parikshit is said to have performed a great sacrifice of serpents as revenge....After the intervention of Aastika the ‘sarpa satra’ ended."

"In Hindu India, there is a cult of snakes in which the cobra, role model for the snakes of India, is especially revered."

"There have been snake people (nagas or nags) and their rulers and their rulers, commonly multiheaded cobras, in Hindu mythology since antiquity."

"...the worship of snakes is not limited to cultivators, but occurs among Hindus of all castes and sects, among the literate and well educated as well as the illiterate."

"Cobras reverenced throughout India and their worship takes different forms in different parts of the country."

"The [next] important festival which is an All India occurrence is Nag Panchami. The name of the festival implies that it is a day which is dedicated to the worship of snakes (Nag) and the worship is to be on the fifth day (Panchami) in the bright fortnight of Sravana (August-September)"

"Nag Panchami celebrations may be regarded as fertility rite."

"There exists a wide spread belief that the same animal (cobra) has power to impart fecundity and remove barrenness."

"In Kerala it is common to find in the houses of the high-caste Hindus a shrine for cobras in the south western corner of the large compound round the ancestral house. [So also in Coorg, every Okka has a nata which is a platform where unhewn stones representing cobra – deities are deified."

"The thousand headed Sheshnag or Anant is the most powerful of them and revered even by the gods. He bears the whole earth on his hood like a chaplet on his crown. When he nods or yawns, the earth, with its oceans and mountains, begin to tremble."

"The snake deities are also regarded as the guardians of treasures on land and sea."

"The scriptures treat snakes as a community as there is a mention of nag lok."

"But most significantly worship of snakes gets prominence in modern astrology because they are considered as rahu and ketu. The head of a snake is rahu and the tail ketu. If all other planets are caught between the head and the tail in a horoscope then it is termed as kaal sarp yog."

"Dinosaurs are not lizards, and vice versa. Lizards are scaley reptiles of an ancient bloodline. The oldest lizards antedate the earliest dinosaurs by a full thirty million years. A few large lizards, such as the man-eating Komodo dragon, have been called "relicts of the dinosaur age", but this phrase is historically incorrect. No lizard ever evolved the birdlike characteristics peculiar to each and every dinosaur. A big lizard never resembled a small dinosaur except for a few inconsequential details of the teeth. Lizards never walk with the erect, long-striding gait that distinguishes the dinosaurlike ground birds today or the birdlike dinosaurs of the Mesozoic."

"Are you happy if you aren’t conscious of being happy? What is consciousness? Is consciousness the great boon we consider it? Which is better off, a lizard basking in the sun or a philosopher? Better off in what way and for what? There have been lizards for longer than there have been philosophers. Lizards do not bathe, do not bury their dead, and do not perform scientific experiments. There have been many more lizards than philosophers. Are lizards, then, a more successful species than philosophers? Does God love lizards better than he loves philosophers?"

"Lizards have been the subject of speculation and superstition among our ancestors for thousands of years, especially in those areas of the world where they are most numerous. People's curiosity about the animals with which they share the earth is one of the few characteristics which sets the human being apart from other species; which are, by and large, only interested in the animals they can eat, be eaten by, or mate with. Although some of the larger lizards may play a part in the nutrition of certain groups of humans, and a very small number may cause people pain or discomfort, they normally live in peaceful coexistence with us, except when we destroy the habitat in which they live."

"Just as a house lizard runs about on the surface of a pitcher lying in open space, so do the human beings move about comfortably all around the Earth."

"Ανίκα δὴ καὶ σαῦρος ἐφ’ αἱμασιᾶισι καθεύδει."

"Nunc varia in gelida sede lacerta latet:"

"And the green lizard, and the golden snake, Like unimprisoned flames, out of their trance awake."

"The lizard with his shadow on the stone Sleeps like a shadow,"

"On sunny slab of the ruin the furtive and fugitive lizard,"

"Meagre as lizards;"

"And many an emerald lizard with quick ears Asleep in rocky dales;"

"Did giant Lizards come and crouch before you on the reedy banks?"

"Under her old pink gateways, where Time a moment turns, Where hang the orange lanterns and the red hibiscus burns, Live the harmless merry lizards, quicksilver in the sun, Or still as any image with their shadow on a stone."

"Most people think of pterosaurs as "flying dinosaurs". When I was a boy, I remember the other kids called them "dinosaur-birds", but they were neither dinosaurs or birds. The first problem is that most people don't know any more about the fossil record than what they've seen in a few plastic pieces in a prehistoric playset. Not only do they typically think that all these things are dinosaurs, they might even think that these are all the fossil forms that are known. They have no idea how rich the fossil record is."

"Let's just ruin all the movies about pterosaurs: they could soar like airplanes, but they couldn't hover like hummingbirds. They couldn't carry things in their feet either, they couldn't perch on tree branches like birds, they didn't look like "bird-monsters", and they didn't look like "lizard-bats". They didn't have four-fingered wings like bats; their wings were based on an elongated pinky finger. The only thing bat-like about them was the way they walked; on all fours. So what are the possibilities for fluffy pterosaurs? We know they were a very diverse and almost certainly colorful group. They looked like a wide range of things, from fluttering bats to darting falcons. Some had powerful shell-crushing jaws and some had ridiculous crests, and some were quite huge. For decades, we were told that Pteranodon was the biggest animal that ever flew, then they discovered Ornithocheirus, then Quetzalcoatlus, then Hatzegopteryx (an apex predator)... These were capable killers of even human-sized prey, with a skull larger than that of even the biggest carnosaurs."

"In their evolution, we see that the earliest pterosaurs were small, and yet still unecessarily heavy and clumsy, both in the air and on the ground, but 160 million years of refinement has honed their abilities to the limit of incidental engineering. Despite their enormity, they were unbelievably lightweight; even the biggest ones were estimated at less than 500 lbs. They had hollow pneumatic bones of large diameter but only millimeters thick, making a strut-supported tubular frame that's surprisingly strong and highly resistant to the stresses of aeronautics. They also had extraordinarily powerful wing muscles, and this made them capable of vaulting airborne in a single bolt. Once in the air, muscle strands and tendons in the membrane of the wing itself worked with a network of pycnofibres to give them all the data they needed for subtle adjustments to the shape of the wing. The portions of the brain which were dedicated to flight, balance and visual gaze stabilization in birds are all larger and more adapted in pterosaurs. In fact, scientists are now convinced that these animals had such a mastery of flight, that the larger ones could even cross oceans, going 80 mph at 15,000 feet for thousands of miles on a single launch."

"ALLIGATOR, n. The crocodile of America, superior in every detail to the crocodile of the effete monarchies of the Old World. Herodotus says the Indus is, with one exception, the only river that produces crocodiles, but they appear to have gone West and grown up with the other rivers. From the notches on his back the alligator is called a sawrian."

"Each predator directly exerts a negative effect upon its prey, but predators may also provide indirect benefits to their prey. In ecosystems, such benefits are effected via indirect trophic pathways that can provide a more than compensating positive influence. The ecosystem of the Big Cypress National Preserve (southwest Florida) appears to contain an unusually high number of such predators—most notably, the American alligator, Alligator mississippiensis... the predation by alligators on snakes and turtles accounts for most of the trophic benefits bestowed. The actions of alligators in modifying their physical environment contributes to the maintenance of biotic diversity. It appears that the trophic influence of this species adds further evidence to the important role it plays in the functional ecology of the cypress wetland."

"A note to our enemies. You think you know America, but you only see the tiny, inept, incompetent, cowering political tip of a very big, very capable iceberg. ... You don't know the swamp folks in Cajun country that can wrestle a full-grown alligator out of the water."

"We fired our cannon 'til the barrel melted down, So we grabbed an alligator an' we fought another round. We filled his head with cannon balls an' powdered his behind, An' when they touched the powder off, the 'gator lost his mind."

"Ida: Personally, Veda's convinced me that alligators have the right idea. They eat their young."

"Guru Pitka: Rajneesh, I'd like an alligator soup, and make it snappy. Because alligators are snappy, and at the same time, I want it prompt."

"Optimist" is a word which here refers to a person...who thinks pleasant thoughts about nearly everything. For instance, if an optimist had his left arm chewed off by an alligator, he might say, in a pleasant and hopeful voice, "Well, this isn't too bad. I don't have my arm anymore, but at least nobody will ever ask me if I am right-handed or left-handed", but most of us would say something more along the lines of "Aaaaah! My arm! My arm!"

"The turtle obviously had no sense of proportion; it differed so widely from myself that I could not comprehend it; and as this word occurred to me, it occurred also that until my body comprehended its body in a physical material sense, neither would my mind be able to comprehend its mind with any thoroughness. For unity of mind can only be consummated by unity of body; everything, therefore, must be in some respects both knave and fool to all that which has not eaten it, or by which it has not been eaten. As long as the turtle was in the window and I in the street outside, there was no chance of our comprehending one another. Nevertheless, I knew that I could get it to agree with me if I could so effectually buttonhole and fasten on to it as to eat it. Most men have an easy method with turtle soup, and I had no misgiving but that if I could bring my first premise to bear I should prove the better reasoner. My difficulty lay in this initial process, for I had not with me the argument that would alone compel Mr. Sweeting to think that I ought to be allowed to convert the turtles — I mean I had no money in my pocket. No missionary enterprise can be carried on without any money at all, but even so small a sum as half a crown would, I suppose, have enabled me to bring the turtle partly round, and with many half-crowns I could in time no doubt convert the lot, for the turtle needs must go where the money drives. If, as is alleged, the world stands on a turtle, the turtle stands on money. No money no turtle. As for money, that stands on opinion, credit, trust, faith — things that, though highly material in connection with money, are still of immaterial essence."

"Slugs have ridden their contempt for defensive armour as much to death as the turtles their pursuit of it. They have hardly more than skin enough to hold themselves together; they court death every time they cross the road. Yet death comes not to them more than to the turtle, whose defences are so great that there is little left inside to be defended. Moreover, the slugs fare best in the long run, for turtles are dying out, while slugs are not, and there must be millions of slugs all over the world over for every single turtle."

"Anytime you see a turtle up on top of a fence post, you know he had some help."

"Good well-dress'd turtle beats them hollow,— It almost makes me wish, I vow, To have two stomachs, like a cow!" And lo! as with the cud, an inward thrill Upheaved his waistcoat and disturb'd his frill, His mouth was oozing, and he work'd his jaw— "I almost think that I could eat one raw."

"The turtle trapped 'twixt plated decks Doth practically conceal its sex I think it clever of the turtle In such a fix to be so fertile."

"Zoos mislead their visitors by the way the species are housed. Birds are in the Bird House, of course, and crocodiles are always segregated to the Reptile House with the other naked-skinned, scale-covered brutes. So the average visitor leaves the zoo firmly persuaded that crocodilians are reptiles while birds are an entirely different group defined by "unreptilian" characteristics - feathers and flight. But a turkey's body and a croc's body laid out on a lab bench would present startling evidence of how wrong the zoos are once the two stomachs were cut into. The anatomy of their gizzards is strong evidence that crocodilians and birds are closely related and should be housed together in zoological classification, if not in zoo buildings."

"Anche se una piroga resta a lungo nel fiume non diventerà mai un coccodrillo."

"Wilt thou draw out the crocodile with a hook and with a cord wilt thou press down his tongue? 2 Wilt thou put a rope in his nose? and wilt thou hollow out his jaw with a thorn? Will he multiply supplications to thee? will he speak soft things to thee?"

"In America lo sai che i coccodrilli vengon fuori dalla doccia?"

"Poi [Dio] creò il coccodrillo, e subito dopo la maglietta. Così mise il coccodrillo sulla maglietta, e fu un grande successo."

"Il coccodrillo! Anche lui si è inventato tutto! Sicuro! Il coccodrillo... Chi mai crederebbe a un coccodrillo? Uno che sta tutto il giorno nudo sulla spiaggia.. con la bocca aperta.."

"The crocodile eats the man and then mourns him."

"Yuk! I don't like crocodiles. I tried them once... they were stringy."

"By the Cretaceous crocodilians of essentially modern form were the theropods main competitors. Yet crocodilians appear to be less abundant in most Mesozoic deposits than they are later in the mammal-dominated Cenozoic. Not only that, but they tended to be small-bodied: few specimens were as big as American alligators or Nile crocodiles. It is possible that theropods were eating the crocs. Even today, big cats once in a while kill a fairly large crocodilian. A tyrannosaur could have swallowed one whole, and gone into the water after them. Constant attacks could have suppressed croc populations, and favored the smaller, harder to catch species."

"The priests' crocodiles⁠ not only recognize the voice of those who summon them and allow themselves to be handled, but open their mouths to let their teeth be cleaned by hand and wiped with towels. Recently our excellent Philinus came back from a trip to Egypt and told us that he had seen in Antaeopolis an old woman sleeping on a low bed beside a crocodile, which was stretched out beside her in a perfectly decorous way. They have long been telling the tale that when King Ptolemy⁠ summoned the sacred crocodile and it would not heed him or obey in spite of his entreaties and requests, it seemed to the priests an omen of his death, which came about not long after; Cwhence it appears that the race of water creatures is not wholly unendowed with your precious gift of divination.⁠"

"In the middle of the lake you don't make fun of the caiman."

"Avendo tempo, il caimano resisterebbe anche di più sott’acqua."

"Durante la stagione delle piogge il caimano si stufa."

"La femmina del caimano, che per brevità chiameremo caimana, se provocata, suda."

"È rarissimo vedere un caimano che spia i compagni mentre fanno il bagno."

"Un piccolo di caimano nato prematuro pesa tre chili e otto."