Because the Mississippi Delta is snake heaven, many folks who live there learn to tolerate them. Even my mother wasn’t too frightened by snakes, as long as she saw them ahead of time; instead of chopping one to pieces with her hoe when working in the garden, she’d just shoo him away because she knew snakes preyed on varmints that preyed on her vegetables. On the other hand, if she discovered a chicken snake in one of her hen nests, he had eaten his last egg, and became haute cuisine for the hogs.
