Python: A docile Albino Burmese python is brought outside by its owner to slither and lounge lazily at a sidewalk in Mandaue City. | Dennis Singson
MANDAUE CITY, Philippines — Have you ever seen or watched a man who sells potions and herbs to treat various ailments at a local marketplace, one where there is usually a “snake show”?
Where the man uses a snake, most usually, a reticulated python (Malayopython reticulatus), which is more or less similar to an Albino Burmese Python (Python bivittatus), to draw a crowd.
He usually would have a small speaker, and turned to full volume in a street corner of a public market, where he would show and talk about the snake. He would then let it come out of a sack and let it slither to the ground, holding it, and petting its head. And most usually, the big snake would gather a crowd.
And then, he would start selling the potions and herbs to the crowd.
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“Kung naa moy gipamati ilabi na kaning mga sakit sa tiyan, imna lang ni ninyo ug mawala dayon ang inyong sakit sa tiyan. Barato ra kaayo ning tambala gikan sa mga gamot sa kahoy,” he would usually say after a break in the snake show, which had then drawn a crowd.
(If you have ailments especially like a stomachache, just drink this and your stomachache will go away. This medicine is just very cheap and this has been taken from the roots of a tree.)
Python: An Albino Burmese python, 4-meters in length and about 100 kilos in weight lies lazily on the sidewalk in Mandaue City. | Dennis Singson
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This was most usually his spiel to sell the potions he had when there would usually be a crowd to watch his snake show.
Or he would give a spiel about some potion made from some herbs that can cure the unstable menstruation of a woman.
I remember seeing one of this snake shows from one of these vendors some two decades ago where he would hold and pet the reticulated python or baksan on the head.
They would usually do their show outside public markets and on weekends especially on Sundays where people would go to the public markets to buy their necessities or fresh fish or meat for their lunch or supper. This is after the market-goers finished attending Sunday masses in churches.
The python or the “snake show” would usually draw a crowd.
Today, this kind of potion vendors are no more, but one thing that sticks to my mind is the baksan or the reticulated python or an Albino Burmese python that they could be in a way tamed?
There are also people who have snakes as pets particularly reticulated pythons or baksan or another kind of python, an Albino Burmese python.
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Python: This 4-meter long, 100 kg python is fed 4 whole chickens in a week, says its owner. | Dennis Singson
I just met one of them last Saturday, March 8, while I was doing my walking exercise along a road in Barangay Cabancalan, Mandaue City.
The owner had the snake, a yellow colored 4-meter long python slithering at the sidewalk.
The owner said that the snake weighed at least a hundred kilograms and would eat 4 whole chickens in a week or so.
When asked if it was not dangerous raising this reptile, he said no and that it was harmless even during the times when it was hungry.
“Walo ka tuig na ni nako….Gihatag sab ni sa amigo nako nga pulis nga nakuha nila niadtong higayona sa usa ka raid nila,” the snake’s pet owner said.
(This has been with me for eight years already….This was given to me by a friend, a policeman, who got this from one of their raids at that time.)
He said that it was around two years old then.
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Python: This huge snake is a pet and has been raised and taken cared of by its owner for eight years now. | Dennis Singson
While the owner and I were talking, the snake drew the attention of passersby and motorists as it slithered and stopped and would lounge lazily on the sidewalk.
A motorcycle rider even stopped to take a picture of the snake and posed with it as he held the head of the snake.
The snake’s pet owner said that his pet was not a danger and even urged those who wanted to take a photo to pet them or hold the snake.
He even said that he did not have a cage for the snake and that he did have a place for it, but he claimed that he would just let it roam free in their yard, most of the times.
Seeing the “tamed” snake was really a contrast to the past month where the baksan or reticulated pythons were seen slithering inside fences of homes or even atop an electric post in Mandaue City.
There was also even a reticulated python, which hid under an SUV, in the Department of Health parking area along Fuente Osmeña also last month.
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This also came amid also sightings in Cebu of another endemic snake in Southeast asia including the Philippines, the king cobra.
As for the python seen on that Mandaue street on Saturday afternoon, it did create a stir to passersby and motorist as seeing a “tame” python — that big snake slithering and lounging on the sidewalk — was really unusual in the city.
The owner assured that his pet would not hurt anyone and even urged again those wanting to pose with the snake to touch it, pet its head, and hold it.
“Kupti lang duol sa ulo. Di na siya mangunsa,” he told a motorcycle rider, who stopped by to pose and get a photo with the yellow baksan beside him.
(Just hold it near the head. It would not harm you.)
The motorcycle rider at first was hesitant to hold the head but eventually he obliged and well, posed by holding quickly and loosely the part near the head of the snake as another bystander agreed to take a photo of the rider with the snake.
Perhaps, a once in a lifetime shot of well — him posing next to a yellow colored 4-meter long, 100 kilogram python.