King of the Rattlers

Folklore can be a mixture of truth and fiction or just a downright fabrication.  Normally a good story is particular to a given culture.  Some however have a mix in races and cultures.  This story is one that has such a mixture.

A legend among the white people of the Arbuckle Mountains of southern Oklahoma tells of a giant rattlesnake.  The story says that the snake was "as broad as the back of a dog and as long as two ponies".

He was the king of all rattlesnakes.  In his head was a great diamond and studding his long sides are other diamonds so dazzling that they would strike one blind if they happened to see it in the light of the sun. 

The legend also states that long ago a tribe of Indians from the east came into the Arbuckles bringing the sacred snake with them where they regularly came to perform religious ceremonies.  On one occasion this band was attacked by hostile forces and in their confusion of retreat they lost their sacred snake.

Some white people say they have hunted for the snake and there was reportedly a $500 reward for the snake "dead or alive".  Once a hunter claimed to have seen the awe inspiring creature crawl into a crevice called Rattlesnake Cave.

At other times it was claimed by hunters that they found the rattler's discarded skin and the breaks and indentations in it showed that he still wears the great jewels in his body.

Now we don't have to think too hard about this one.  This is a true folktale but it is far from the truth.  To begin with, until recently, diamonds were not found in North America.  And surely there was no one who could cut and polish such a stone in ancient times.

The Indians of America did not know what a diamond was until the arrival of the white man.  True enough there were some tribes that used the rattlesnake in their religious ceremonies

This story is truly a legend of the jeweled rattlesnake but totally improbable.

Contributed by Dennis Muncrief - September, 2003.