In Western culture, a “snake oil salesman” is synonymous with a charlatan. But this article explains that in cultures throughout the world, they rely on snakes for their healing properties:
Got a headache? You could take a painkiller or, if you happen to be in the Black Sea town of Kirkpinar between early May and mid June, you could put a snake on your head.
Every country has its share of snake myths. In the United States, some people believe that a woman’s birth pains are reduced if she ingests a drink made from the powdered rattle of a rattlesnake. In Thailand, a married couple isn’t supposed to see a snake together or the wife will miscarry. And an old English treatment for neck injuries was to draw a live snake across the affected area three times and then bury the snake alive in a bottle.
In Kirkpinar, snakes treat every sort of ailment but are apparently especially successful at treating skin conditions such as eczema and psoriasis.
Kirkpinar is a small village near the larger town of Bayburt and some of its female inhabitants make a significant part of their yearly income by hunting and gathering baby snakes as they hatch in mid-May from underground eggs. These snakes are of the natrix (grass snake) genus which live in grasslands near water and are neither aggressive nor venomous.
The snakelets are kept in earth-lined boxes and reared on cow’s milk for two months. During this period, sufferers seeking “snake treatments” arrive from all over Turkey. Ten sessions are deemed necessary for a cure and treatment takes place in the grass fields around the village where the afflicted lie down in the sun, fully clothed, and wait.
Related posts:
