The joint snake is a mythical creature that can reassemble itself after being severed into several pieces. The myths of the joint snake originated in the South as part of African American oral traditions. However, the historical precursors of these tales, rooted in the worldview and cosmology of Voodoo, reach back much further in time: back to the practices of West African societies. The worship of snakes was particularly popular in West African spirituality, which followed Africans captured and sold into the colonial European transatlantic slave trade. Consequently African American snake tales are in many ways transformed versions of the African snake mythology, which came to North America as a part of slave history. While the spiritual meaning of the joint snake originated in the slave cultures, the popularity of this creature in European American folklore resulted from American expansion to the West. The joint snake stories reached American audiences as a part of frontier tall tales, where the experiences of farmers and explorers of the American West made the snake a popular character of American folklore.
The joint snake was a powerful symbol that helped Africans endure and resist the social and cultural impact of slavery. The supernatural abilities of the joint snake made it a charm of almost infinite power: no matter how dissected the snake became, it could never be killed. This meaning reinforced the African belief that snakes represent great life-giving powers, even to the point of reincarnation. African American snake stories also associate snakes with thunderstorms and rain, a meaning that derives from the African perception of snakes as rainbow guardians. The joint snake has magical healing capacities that allow it to connect dismembered segments back to its body, similar to its African mythological relative, the snake featured in traditional African American medicine practices. The spiritual significance of the joint snake persisted as a part of African American cultural tradition, in part because during the nineteenth century, the period when joint snake stories gained popularity, African Americans transmitted their heritage orally. Early printed descriptions of snake worship and their symbolism in African American culture appeared mostly in scholarly publications describing Voodoo practices. One of the most significant works in this area to this day were the writings of the African American anthropologist, folklorist, and literary figure of the Harlem Renaissance, Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960), who interpreted the magical powers of snakes using traditional Voodoo beliefs. Contemporary scholars of African American spiritual traditions continue this research. Recent discussions of the joint snake have appeared in studies of American Voodoo religion.
American expansion into the West brought about the incorporation of these African American tales into the broader folk tradition during the nineteenth century. European American audiences learned of this creature from frontier tall tales that began to appear in print in the early nineteenth century. These early accounts were featured in news sources, journals, and magazines that represented the frontier’s real and imaginary geography. Since the middle of the 1800s, and especially close to the turn of the twentieth century, reports of the joint snake became prominent among settlers of the Rocky Mountains and the Upper Mississippi region. Prairie Farmer, one of the oldest farm publications in the United States (established in 1857), was among the most conspicuous sources of these tales, featuring stories of the joint snake that fascinated readers into the late 1920s. In these tales joint snakes exhibit similar powers and meanings to those featured in slave mythological narratives; however, there was less emphasis on their spiritual significance and more on their exotic and frightening biological features. Folktale collections, appearing roughly around the same time, became another source of dissemination of joint snake tales, with the Journal of American Folklore being among the most prominent sources. Farmers claimed that the reptile they encountered could regenerate its body when dismembered. Reporters maintained that the joint snake would collect its bone fragments and slowly reincorporate the parts back into its body over time. In the third volume of Transactions of the Edinburgh Field Naturalists’ and Microscopical Society (1895), R. H. Traquair recollects a conversation he had with an American man who claimed to have encountered a joint snake. The man went in depth about the snake’s regenerative tendencies. The man claimed to have beaten the snake into five or six pieces, and then each piece reconnected with the others after some time. The connections started with the tail, and eventually the long body attached to the decapitated head. The joint snake’s regenerative powers remained the hallmark attribute of the creature, helping to cement the myth among frightened farmers who aimed at exterminating the reptile.
Some farmers devised methods to attempt to stop the joint snake’s regenerative process. Burying the head as soon as it was severed from the body was one of the proposed methods. As the proponents of this method pointed out, the remaining pieces of the reptile no longer had an “end point” to which to attach, and thus could be prevented from rejoining. Other witnesses to the snake’s powers suggested that burying the head stopped the joint snake’s mind-to-body connection, leaving the dismembered limbs without control. Another popular proposed method was to fasten the joint snake into a split-open sapling. The dismembered body parts would be unable to reach the connecting point of the head, therefore preventing any reconnection. This method seemed particularly handy for hunters who encountered the joint snake in the wild, as saplings can commonly be found and easily split with a hunting knife.
Many authors of the joint snake accounts created stories deliberately for the purpose of terrifying the listener. Volume 47 of Forest and Stream (1896) included an article in the “Snap Shots” section with the ending “You may scotch these serpents, but you shall not kill them.” Although the wording intends to scare the reader, many reporters described the joint snake as a nonengaging and reclusive creature. According to them, the joint snake is a docile reptile that lives the life of any other typical garden snake. It is not hostile by nature: in many stories it scampers away once its regeneration is complete. Nevertheless, the majority of Americans who have claimed to have encountered the joint snake seemed curious about its powers and wanted to test it. Dissections of joint snakes sometimes occurred by accident, such as a farmer accidentally stepping on one in the fields or a hunter killing the wrong snake. Once the joint snake reattached its sections, many narrators who had witnessed the reptile would run at the sight, just as the joint snake scurried away from them.
The fear of the joint snake was alive for much of the early twentieth century. Near the end of the century, however, myths of the joint snake faded as more comparisons were made with the very real glass lizard. However, farmers and hunters still report a reptile that can reconnect its fallen limbs almost instantly. Voodoo practices, where snake worship is an important element, remain a part of Southern culture, especially in Louisiana, preserving the spiritual significance of joint snake powers for future generations.
Adam Sinker and Ulia Popova
See also Hoop Snake; Two-Headed Snake; Voodoo
Further Reading
Davis, Varina Anne. 1888. “Serpent Myths.” North American Review 146 (375): 161–171.
Hallock, Charles, and William A. Bruette. 1896. “Snap Shots.” Forest and Stream 47: n.p.
Herskovits, Melville J. 1958. The Myth of the Negro Past. Boston: Beacon.
Pound, Louise. 1959. Nebraska Folklore. Lincoln: University of Nebraska.
Traquair, R. H. 1895. “Popular Delusions in Natural History.” Transactions of the Edinburgh Field Naturalists’ and Microscopical Society 3: 171–172.