Snake in the Grass

by Jared Paul
(Okinawa, Japan)

The Habu of Okinawa

Over here on the island there is one really large snake species named the habu. This snake can reach large lengths and are extremly poisonous. There is a legend that says if you play a sanshin (3 stringed instrument made from habu skins) in the middle of a sugarcane field, you will be attacked by habukishin (habu king) a creature that could swallow you whole.

Many thought this to be just a legend to explain bodies turning up in sugarcane fields, so a couple of people decided to see if the legend was true. They went into the field and started playing their instruments bouncing off the canes and echoing in the valley. They played for an hour and nothing happend.

They were about to leave when they heard a deep hissing sound. When they looked back they saw a few habu's and thought it was nothing. That was until they saw the largest one, longer than a river, this creature slithered slowly towards them, venom dripping from it's fangs. They turned to run but their exit was blocked with many slithering snakes. As the serpent got closer it began to reek of rotting flesh and dead animals.

The men only had time for one blood curdling scream before the serpent was upon them. The next morning when the farmer came to check his crops, he saw three corpses, mouths open in terror and habus slithering through their eye sockets and next to them were three torn up sanshins.