For mature audiences (was: some doubts)

[Frances Karttunen]

More about the mazacoatl.

In the Florentine Codex book on natural history, it is reported that there
are two snakes called mazacoatl.  The first is a large, thick, dark-colored
snake that lives in the forest and eats rabbits, birds, deer, and people.
The second is black, long, and thick with no rattles on its tail and no
fangs.  It is said to be fairly docile, and people keep them in their homes.
The reason for keeping them is that they are delicious to eat.  The
Florentine Codex provides a funny illustration of the mazacoatl as a snake
with antlers (reminding one of the Texas "Jackalope" postcards of jack
rabbits with antlers).

Francisco Hernandez, in his Natural History of New Spain, Vol. II, reports
that the mazacoatl was described to him as a snake of the hot country, very
thick of body, as thick as a human limb or even as thick as the trunk of a
human body.

Fran