Netlore Archive: Forwarded email purports to share instructions from a U.S. government Peace Corp manual on what to do if an anaconda or python attacks you in the wild.
Description: Email joke
Circulating since: 1998 / Earlier?
Status: False
Email example contributed by Dan M., May 24, 1999:
Anaconda Attack
The following is from the US Government Peace Corps Manual for its volunteers who work in the Amazon Jungle. It tells what to do in case an anaconda attacks you.
1. If you are attacked by an anaconda do not run. The snake is faster than you are.
2. Lie flat on the ground. Put your arms tight against your sides, your legs tight against one another.
3. Tuck your chin in.
4. The snake will come and begin to nudge and climb over your body.
5. Do not panic.
6. After the snake has examined you, it will begin to swallow you from the feet and always from the end. Permit the snake to swallow your feet and ankles. Do not panic.
7. The snake will now begin to suck your legs into its body. You must lie perfectly still. This will take a long time.
8. When the snake has reached your knees slowly and with as little movement as possible, reach down, take your knife and very gently slide it into the side of the snake's mouth between the edge of its mouth and your leg, then suddenly rip upwards, severing the snake's head.
9. Be sure you have your knife.
10. Be sure your knife is sharp.
Comments: I am told that big snakes typically throttle their prey to death -- or at least unconsciousness -- before swallowing it head -- not feet -- first, so you might do well to seek snake attack guidance elsewhere. In fact, this text -- which has circulated online in basically this form since 1998 or earlier -- is clearly a joke, and was never, so far as I have been able to determine, published in a Peace Corps instruction manual. Someone in an Internet discussion mentioned seeing it in Mad magazine years sgo, but I haven't been able to verify that either.
Internet and tabloid lore notwithstanding, snakes have rarely, if ever, been known to swallow full-grown human beings.
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Snake Swallows Man
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An urban legend
Last updated: 04/19/08
