Antony and Cleopatra

So this post has the storyline a little backwards. Unlike this play, which has something to do with snakes killing people, this post is somewhat about people killing snakes.

In my experience, there are three things Mozambicans are terrified of: dogs, rain, and snakes. As a result of this last fear, every snake seen is killed on sight; sometimes with a shoe, sometimes with hot coals, sometimes with a machete, and every now and again by a combination of all three. It’s surprising how quickly this dogma engrained itself with my roommate and me. We have had one or two snakes in our yard before, and we’ve quickly fetched the machete and put an end to such madness.

Today was different. As I was walking back from the bathroom to our house (in case you weren’t already aware, our house has no plumbing whatsoever) when out of the corner of my eye I glimpse something lunge upwards against our fence. I went over to investigate, discovering that a snake about two feet long had just snatched a rather large gecko. This gecko apparently didn’t have the survival instinct, since it was already missing its tail. I watched as both reptiles battled; one for life, the other for lunch. My Mozambican ideals kicked in, and I quickly retrieved the machete. But as I sat there watching, my fascination for nature overcame the teachings of my host mom.

So I set aside the machete and made one more trip into the house, this time to grab my camera. By now the gecko had succumbed to death, and the snake had begun swallowing its lunch. Even after I’d snapped a few shots and could have disposed of this legless menace easily, I could not bring myself to give it the axe, or machete in this case. I watched it finish the meal, and slink off along the fence line.

I’m quite content that I did not kill it, but it is vaguely unnerving that I couldn’t find which species it might belong to…