Ye Olde Forked Tongue

Were there a serpent seen, with forked tongue,
That slily glided towards your majesty,
It were but necessary you were waked,
Lest, being suffer'd in that harmful slumber,
The mortal worm might make the sleep eternal;
And therefore do they cry, though you forbid,
That they will guard you, whether you will or no,
From such fell serpents as false Suffolk is,
With whose envenomed and fatal sting,
Your loving uncle, twenty times his worth,
They say, is shamefully bereft of life.
-Shakespeare, King Henry VI, Part II

This island is pretty much full of only two things: snakes and rats. And in the end of Mother Nature, we have Richard the Snake, who knowingly went after prey; and Kelly, who turned into the Rat, that ran around like the rats do on this island, trying to run from the snake. And I feel we owe it to the island's spirit that we have learned, have come to know, to let it be in the end the way Mother Nature intended it to be: for the Snake to eat the Rat."
-Sue Hawk, Final Episode of Survivor I


J'ai montré mon chef d'oeuvre aux grandes personnes et je leur ai demandé si mon dessin leur faisait peur. Elles m'ont répondu: "Pourquoi un chapeau ferait-il peur?"

Mon dessin ne répresentait pas un chapeau. Il répresentait un serpent boa qui digérait un éléphant. J'ai alors dessiné l'interieur du serpent boa, afin que les grandes personnes puissent comprendre. Elles ont toujours besoin d'explications.

(I showed my masterpiece to the big people and I asked them if my drawing frightened them. They responded to me: "Why would a hat be frightening?"

My drawing did not show a hat. It showed a boa snake, who digested an elephant. I thus drew the inside of the boa snake, so that the big people could understand. They have always need of explanations.)
- Le Petit Prince (The Little Prince)

He's a cold-hearted snake
Look into his eyes
Oh oh oh
He's been tellin' lies
He's a lover boy at play
He don't play by rules
Oh oh oh
Girl don't play the fool
-Refrain of Paula Abdul song

ophidiophobia
noun
Fear of snakes.