More snake stories

Joan Adams (wife of Eddy Adams) – Merredin Western Australia

Story (1)
Being 7 months pregnant with my second son Ronald Winbury Adams (some time in 1949) I was washing a few clothes in a tub on the back table at Mangowine. Two aboriginal women came for some tea or whatever we could give them , their names were Eva and Mary. They sat on a seat alongside me while Nanna Adams (Flo Adams) made them some tea. I was wearing an old pair of slippers torn at the side, when a little black snake with orange bands appeared. The aboriginal women went mad. They said “It bite you, he very bad fella that one, your baby die, you die, kill him, no get in shoe missus”. Nanna Adams came running with a special snake stick and killed it, the women called it a “Bandee Bandee”.

Story (2)
Grandad (Tom) Adams would visit Mangowine after he and Nanna Adams retired to Perth around 1958/59. Among other things, he used to “do the white ants” on the buildings. The family would worry about him being on his own camped up there, as he was not young any more. Their worry was justified as the following short tale attests. Upon returning from town late one night, Tom Adams decided he would go over to the chook house and get the eggs. Being very dark, he pulled the wire back and put his hand in to grab the eggs but they “moved”. He had put his hand on a large snake. He jumped back and struck a match to see a very big black snake in with the eggs. He didn’t kill it but went back over to the house. Next morning 2 eggs were broken and the contents may have been eaten by the snake. He worried a lot over how lucky we was not to have been bitten. Being there all alone he would have had no chance if the snake had bitten him.