More about the Hoop Snake

Season 2, Episode 11: The Race

The Hoop Snake is a fearsome critter from the US and Canada.  There are sightings dating back to colonial times, and it was popular enough to be in a Pecos Bill story.  The snake grabs its own tail and rolls like a wheel, straightening out at the last second to skewer its prey with the sharp spike of its tail.  It's hard to tell if its poison kills its prey on contact or if its prey dies because it's been skewered.  You can escape a hoop snake by hiding behind a tree, so the tree is skewered instead of you, or by jumping over a fence, which the snake will have to straighten out to crawl through, thus slowing it down.

There are other mythological snakes around the world that latch onto their own tail.  The most well known is the Ouroboros, which is a symbol for infinity, or all being one, and was very popular in the iconography of alchemy, which had a strong focus on living forever.  August Kekulé, a famous organic chemist, discovered the structure of Benzine in 1865 after having a dream about the Ouroboros--a story that's about as truthful as Newton discovering gravity when an apple fell on his head, but whatever.

It was a wacky dream!

There is also the poisonous Tsuchinoko of Japan, which can bite its own tail and roll like a wheel, but can also speak lies and jump a meter into the air where it then preforms a second jump while still airborne.  There's also the Jormungander of Norse Mythology, the serpent that grew so large that it surrounds the world and it able to bite its own tail.  Ragnorok begins when it lets go of its tail.  Since the hoop snake is such a recent legend, it's fair to say that stories of the hoop snake are informed by its predecessors. 

It's also fair to say that there are a bunch of snakes in the South-West, and they are terrifying.  Coming up with a goofy snake makes it a little less frightening, while at the same time warning people to give snakes some space because they might chase after you at fifty miles an hour.  Also, the Mud Snake (a real snake species) likes to coil up in a loop, and has a pointy little tail that it points at predators to get them to back off, even though it can't actually sting or poison anything with that tail.

For this story, I thought, if Hoop Snakes were real, surely someone would have one and use it for something weird.  Since they chase things at high speeds, a drag race seemed a good idea.