• "Secret of Snake Island" - story by Donne Avenell and art by Heiner Bade.

Not many people are comfortable around snakes, their mythology runs very deep in our culture on a range of levels. They seem to fill those dark, creepy places in our imaginations and I, for one, avoid them as much as possible but some people love them and train them for a variety of purposes!

The earliest evidence for snake charming comes from Ancient Egyptian sources. Charmers there mainly acted as magicians and healers. As literate and high-status men, part of their studies involved learning the various types of snake, the gods to whom they were sacred, and how to treat those who were bitten by the reptiles. Entertainment was also part of their repertoire, but they knew how to handle the animals and charm them for other, more particular purposes …

Welcome to “Snake Island” … Last published 27 years ago in 1987 (Frew Issue 887A).