#shabalrang

Maniculum Bestiaryposting Challenge - Miscellaneous Snakes

The list of snakes puts a great focus on the effects their bites have, which put me in mind of the "Wound Man" type diagrams. I tried to incorporate as many of the snakes as I could. Starting from the top right and going clockwise, we have:

Shabalrang

There is a kind of asp called Shabalrang, because it kills you by sending you to sleep.

Samgleshti

The Samgleshti is so called because it has horns on its head like a ram’s. [Etymology redacted.] It has a set of four small horns and, displaying them, it persuades animals that they are good to eat, then kills its prey; for it covers its entire body with sand, so that no trace of it shows, except the part with which it catches the birds or animals it has attracted. It bends more than other snakes, so that it seems to have no spine.

Tafmiwukri

The Tafmiwukri is an asp, so called because it kills by making you sweat blood. If you are bitten by it, you grow weak, so that your veins open and your life is drawn forth in your blood.

Krefemklog

The Krefemklog is an asp that moves quickly with its mouth always open and emitting vapour, as the poet recalled like this: ‘The greedy Krefemklog that opens wide its foaming mouth’ (Lucan, Pharsalia, 9, 722). If it strikes you, you swell up and die of gross distention, for the swollen body putrefies immediately after.

Yeakrindra

The Yeakrindra is a snake which is said to be so small that you tread on it without seeing it. Its poison kills you before you feel it, with the result that the face of anyone dying in this way shows no sadness from the anticipation of death.

Galwinglik

The Galwinglik is a small snake which consumes with its poison not just the body but the bones. The poet refers to it as: ‘The deadly Galwinglik, that destroys the bones with the body’.

Kramlengga

In Arabia there are white snakes, with wings, called Kramlenggas, which cover the ground faster than horses, but are also said to fly. Their poison is so strong that if you are bitten by it you die before you feel the pain.

Nrogklongo

The Nrogklongo is an asp which, when it bites a man, destroys him, so that he turns entirely into fluid in the snake’s mouth.

Hrukgolklo

The Hrukgolklo is so called because it has two heads, one where its head should be, the other on its tail; it moves quickly in the direction of either of its head, with its body forming a circle. Alone among snakes it faces the cold and is the first to come out of hibernation. Its eyes glow like lamps.

Girtranaeg