Snakeskin

Snakes are the limbless reptiles of the suborder Serpentes, clad in overlapping scales and found on every continent but Antarctica, in around thirty families and more than 4,000 species. Their skin is smooth and dry rather than slimy, its outer layer made of keratin, the same material as nails, claws and hair. A snake does not lose its scales one by one: four or five times a year it sloughs its whole outer skin in one piece, peeling it back from head to tail, and a cast skin that stays reasonably whole can in principle identify the snake. That renewal lies behind the snake’s old link with healing, seen in the Rod of Asclepius. Snakes are revered in many religions: Shiva wears one about his neck and Vishnu rests on a seven-headed serpent, India honours snakes as symbols of fertility at the festival of Nag Panchami, and in Wicca and modern paganism the snake stands for wisdom and knowledge and is linked with Hecate. In Hoodoo, reverence for snakes came from West African Vodun, where they represent divinity; snakeskin is a main ingredient of goofer dust, a powder for laying harmful spells, and snakes are used for healing, for protection and to curse. Zora Neale Hurston described lying wrapped in snakeskins for three days at her initiation. In Mexico, Cunningham notes, snakeskins are sold in botánicas beside candles, incense and other occult goods.