How often do snakes shed their skin? Rejuvenation through skin shedding Normal shedding goes through several stages

James Frazier

From the book. "Folklore in the Old Testament"
Many savages believe that because of their ability to periodically shed their skin, some animals, especially snakes, regain their youth and never die. Trying to substantiate their belief, they tell various legends explaining why these animals have the gift of immortality, while humans are deprived of it.

So, for example, the Wafipa and Wabende tribes (in East Africa) claim that one day a god whom they call Leza descended to earth and, turning to all living beings, asked: "Which of you does not want to die?" Unfortunately, man and other animals were asleep at this time: only the serpent was awake and immediately answered: "I." That is why people and other animals die; only snakes alone do not die their own death, but die only when they are killed. Every year they change their skin and thanks to this they restore their youth and strength. Similarly, the Dusuns (in the northern part of Borneo) say that after the creation of the world, the creator asked: "Which of you knows how to shed his skin? He who knows how to do this will not die." Only one serpent heard the voice of God and answered: "I can." For this reason, the snake does not die to this day, unless a man kills it. The Dusuns did not hear the creator's question, otherwise they would also begin to shed their skin, and there would be no death among them. In the same way, there is a legend among the Tojo Toraja tribe (in the central part of Celebes) that once a god called people and animals together in order to determine their fate. Among the various suggestions made by the deity was this: "We will take off our old skin." Unfortunately, humanity at this important meeting was represented by a mad old woman who did not hear the words of the deity. But animals that shed their skin, such as snakes and shrimps, heard and agreed. The natives of the island of Wouthom, belonging to the Bismarck Archipelago, relate that a certain deity named To Kokokonomiange ordered the Two Youths to bring fire, promising them immortality as a reward and warning that if they refused, their bodies would die, but their shadows or souls would remain. However, the young men did not obey, and the deity cursed them, saying: “How! After all, you would have saved your life, and now you will die, although your souls will remain alive. But the iguana (Goniocephalus), the lizard (Varanus indicus) and the snake (Enygrus) will live ; they will shed their skin and live eternal life." Hearing these words, the young men wept, for they bitterly repented of their folly, having disobeyed the order to bring fire for the deity.

The Arawaks (in British Guiana) say that the creator once descended from heaven to earth to see what life is like for his creation - man, but people turned out to be so evil that they tried to kill him. Then he deprived them of eternal life, giving it to animals that change their skin - snakes, lizards and beetles. Another, slightly modified version of this legend exists among the Tamanako tribe living on the Orinoco River. The Creator, having lived for some time among this tribe, got into a boat to cross over to the other side of the great salt water from which he had come; pushing off from the shore, he shouted to the people in a loud, altered voice: "You will change your skin," which, in his opinion, meant: "You will regain your youth like snakes and beetles." But, unfortunately, some old woman, hearing these words, exclaimed in a tone of doubt or mockery: "Oh, that's how it is!" Then, annoyed by this exclamation, the creator angrily said: "You will die." That's why we all became mortal.

The natives of the island of Nias, which lies to the west of Sumatra, say that after the creation of the earth, a being descended from the sky to complete the creation. The celestial was supposed to fast, but, feeling the pangs of hunger, he ate several bananas, and the choice of this particular food turned out to be fatal. If he began to eat crabs, then people would change their skin, like crabs, and, thus restoring their youth from year to year, would live eternal life; but since he chose bananas, we are all subject to death. Another version of this Nias legend adds that snakes, "on the contrary, feed on crabs, which, according to the Nias population, shed their skin, but never die; therefore, snakes do not die, but only change their skin."

According to this latest version, the immortality of snakes is explained by the fact that they feed on crabs, which, by molting, regain their youth and therefore live forever. Such a belief about the immortality of crustaceans we find among the natives of the islands of Samoa, who have their own legend about the origin of death. According to them, the gods gathered for a meeting about what fate should be prepared for man. A suggestion was made that people should change their skin like crustaceans, and thus constantly regain their youth. For his part, the god Palsi suggested something else: crustaceans would shed their skin, and people would die. But while the assembly was discussing this proposal, to the misfortune of the human race, a downpour broke out; the meeting was interrupted, and hurrying to take shelter from the rain, the gods unanimously accepted Palsi's proposal. This is where crustaceans molt and people die.

Thus, there are many tribes who imagine that an enviable gift of immortality is achieved by periodically shedding their skin. It was once available to the human race, but by an unfortunate accident this gift passed to some lower creatures, such as snakes, crabs, lizards and beetles. According to others, people once already possessed this priceless gift, but lost it because of the stupidity of one old woman. Thus, the Melanesian tribes of the Banks and New Hebrides say that in the beginning people never died, but, having reached old age, shed their skin like snakes and crabs, and became young again. After some time, a woman, old, went to the river to shed her skin. According to some, she was the mother of the mythical or legendary hero Kata, according to others, she was Ul ta marama, "renovator of the world." She threw her old skin into the water and noticed that the skin, carried away by the current, caught and hung on a branch. After that, the woman returned home, where she left her child. But the child did not recognize her, began to cry and kept repeating that his mother was an old woman, completely unlike this young and strange woman. Then the mother, in order to calm the child, went for her old skin and put it on. And ever since then, people stopped shedding their skin and began to die. A similar tradition about the origin of death exists in the Shortland Islands and among the Papuan Kai tribe in the northeastern part of New Guinea. Kai say that initially people did not die, but returned to youth. When their skin became wrinkled and ugly, they entered the river, stripped off their old skin and emerged from the water in new, young and white skin. At that time, an old woman lived in the world with her grandson. Burdened by her advanced age, the old woman once bathed in the river, shook off her old, flabby skin and returned to the village in beautiful, new skin, young and fresh. In this transformed form, she climbed the stairs and entered her house. But when the grandson saw her, he began to cry, scream, and for no reason wanted to believe that he saw his grandmother in front of him, and since it was impossible to calm him down by any means. The frustrated woman is back she, finally, to the river, she took her old, ugly skin out of the water and came home again the former disgusting witch. The child was very happy with her, but she told him: "The locust changes its skin, but you people will die from now on." Indeed, this has been the case ever since. The same legend, but with some minor variations, is transmitted by the natives of the Admiralty Islands. Once upon a time there lived a woman, old, decrepit, with two sons. One day the sons went out to fish, and the old woman went for a swim. She threw off her shabby wrinkled skin and emerged from the water as young as she had been in former times. The sons, returning from fishing and seeing her, were extremely amazed. One of them said: "This is our mother," and the other son said: "It is possible that she is your mother, and she will be my wife." The mother overheard this conversation and asked: "What were you talking about among yourselves?" The sons replied: "Nothing, we only said that you are our mother." But the mother objected: "You are lying, I heard your conversation; if you had not interfered with me, then all of us, men and women, would have lived to old age, and then would have shed our skin and become young again; but you prevented me Therefore, we will all grow old and then die." And with these words, she grabbed her old skin, put it on herself and again turned into an old woman. And we, her descendants, the more we live, the more we grow old, but if not for those two loafers, then there would be no end to our existence, we would live eternal life.

Far from the Banks Islands, among the Toku Lavi hill tribe in the central part of the island of Celebes, we find the same, very common legend. According to the Dutch missionaries, the Celebes version is as follows. In ancient times, people, like snakes and shrimps, had the ability to change their skin, due to which they became young again. There lived an old woman with her grandson. One day she went to the river to bathe, and after bathing, she took off her old skin and hung it on a tree. But when she returned home quite young, her grandson did not recognize her and, not wanting to have anything to do with her, kept repeating the same thing: "You are not my grandmother, my grandmother is old, but you are young." Then the woman returned to the river and put on her old skin again. Since then, people have lost the ability to get younger, and are doomed to death.

So, some peoples believe that in ancient times people were immortal due to the periodic change of their skin; others explain this happy gift by the influence of the moon, as a result of which humanity is constantly passing through the same regularly alternating stages of development and decline, life and death. According to this view, very soon after death came the resurrection, usually after three days, in accordance with the three-day period between the disappearance of the old moon and the appearance of a new one. So, the Mentra, or Mantra, a tribe of unsociable savages in the jungles of the Malay Peninsula, argue that in the first centuries of the existence of the world, people did not die, but only grew thin with the beginning of the moon's damage and then, as they approached the full moon, they gained weight. Thus, nothing hindered the growth of population, and humanity multiplied to an alarming size. Then the son of the first man on earth drew his father's attention to this state of affairs and asked what to do. But the first man, being a very good-natured being, replied: "Let everything remain as it was." However, his younger brother, who took a more Malthusian point of view, said: "No, let people die, but let them, like bananas, leave offspring on the earth." The matter was left to the ruler of the underworld and resolved in favor of death. Since then, people no longer return to youth, like the moon, but die in exactly the same way as bananas. There is a legend in the Caroline Islands that once people did not know death, or, more precisely, death was only a brief dream. People died together with the disappearance of the moon and were reborn to life with its reappearance, as if waking up after a refreshing sleep. But some evil genius managed to somehow turn this light dream into a deep sleep of death. There is a belief among the Wotobaluk tribe (in the South of Eastern Australia) that in ancient times, when all animals were men and women, some of them died, but the moon turned to the dead with a call: "Get up!" - and they came to life again. And then one day some old man said: "Let them remain dead." Since then, none of them has returned to life anymore, only the moon continues to revive in our time. The Unmatchera and the Kaitish, two tribes in Central Australia, relate that they once had the custom of burying the dead in hollow trees or burying them in the ground, and that after three days the dead invariably revived. The end of this happy time, according to the Kaitish tribe, came through the fault of one person of the totem "kulik", who came across several people of the totem "little kangaroo", who were burying their relative.

It is not known why a man of the "Kulik" clan got angry and pushed the corpse into the sea. Of course, after that, the dead person could no longer regain life, and that is why since then no person can rise from the dead after the advent of three days, as it used to be. Although this story of the origin of death says nothing about the moon, but by analogy with the above legends, it can be concluded that the three days during which the dead was buried constitute precisely the time when the moon rested "hidden in its empty interlunar cave." The natives of the Fiji Islands also associate the possibility of immortality, if not the actual immortality of man, with the phases of the moon. According to them, two deities, the moon and the rat, once argued about the fate befitting a person. The moon said: "Let him exist, like me, which disappears for a while, then comes to life again." And the rat said: "Let a man die just like a rat dies." And the rat won the argument.

The upoto tribe living in the Congo keeps a legend about how the moon gained the gift of immortality, and people lost it. One day, the god, who is called Libanza in the language of this tribe, called the people of the earth and the moon to him. The moon immediately hastened to appear before the deity and was rewarded for her zeal. “Because,” God said, addressing her, “that you immediately came to me at my call, you will never die; you will die only for two days a month, and then only to rest and then shine brighter than ever." But when the population of the earth finally came to Libanza, he said to him in anger: "Because you did not immediately come to me at my call, you will die when your day comes, and will not return to life anymore, but will come to me ".

The Banar tribe (in East Cochin China) explains the immortality of primitive people not by the phases of the moon and not by the custom of shedding their skin, but, apparently, by the life-giving power of a certain tree.

Initially, after death, people were buried under a tree called long blo, and after a while the dead always resurrected, moreover, not as babies, but as adults. Therefore, the earth was very densely populated and was one huge continuous city, ruled by our ancestors. Over time, people multiplied to such an extent that some kind of lizard could not crawl freely on the ground without some person stepping on its tail. This drove her out of patience, and the vicious animal gave the gravediggers insidious advice: “Why do you bury the dead under the long blo tree?” she told them. end". The advice was accepted, and since then people have not returned to life after death.

In this last legend, as in many African legends, the lizard is responsible for human death. Why is such an unsightly role attributed to the lizard? The reason must be sought, apparently, in the fact that this animal, like the snake, periodically sheds its skin; from this primitive man concluded that the lizard, like the snake, regains its youth and lives forever. Thus, all the myths that tell how a lizard or a snake became the culprits of human death may be reduced to the ancient idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe envy that people felt for creatures that change their skin, especially snakes and lizards. It can be assumed that all these myths are based on a dispute between man and animals for the possession of immortality, a dispute in which, due to deceit or mistake, the victory went to animals, who managed to gain eternal life, while man was doomed to death.

Most reptiles change their old skin for new skin from time to time. This renewal process is called molting and is different for all reptiles. Snakes are no exception, shedding not only all their skin, but even the film covering their eyes.

Why does a snake change skin?

For a long time it was believed that another reason for the change of the skin is that the body of the snake is growing, but its skin is not, so you have to discard it and acquire a new, larger one. At present, this fact causes doubts among scientists.

How does a snake change its skin?

So how does a snake shed its old skin and get a new one? The snake's new skin grows under the old one, and when the process of its growth is complete, the old skin begins to stretch and separate from the new one. First, the old skin bursts around the mouth, and the snake begins to rub its head against various hard surfaces and wriggle, trying to pull it off. When the snake manages to free its head, it just crawls out of its old skin, turning it inside out. The shed old skin looks like almost a whole cover, which, by the way, after being shed, turns out to be several cm longer than the body of the hostess.

How does a snake prepare to molt?

How does a snake change its skin? She is preparing for this process for a very long time - she becomes restless, stops eating, her behavior changes. Some snakes become lethargic and lazy, while others, on the contrary, become nervous and very aggressive. Poisonous snakes are especially dangerous during the molting period.

The fact that the snake is preparing for molting is also noticeable externally: its old skin fades and grows dull, the pattern on it is no longer so clear, and its eyes acquire a dull blue tint. This time is called the "blue eye period" and it lasts an average of 7 days.

How often does a snake change its skin?

It is through the process of constant skin renewal that the snake has become a symbol of medicine and healing.

What is a molt

Moult (general definition)- the process of changing the covers of animals, which has a diverse character.
Among invertebrates, a typical molt occurs in nematodes, cephalopods, arthropods, and groups close to them. In most of these animals, molting is regulated by the hormone ecdysone 1. Since, according to molecular phylogenetics, these groups are related to each other, they have recently been combined under the name Ecdysosoa- Shedding. In these groups, molting is reduced to periodic shedding and change of the cuticle. Before molting, the inner layers of the old cuticle dissolve, and below it, hypodermal cells secrete a new cuticle. After a molt, the animal rapidly expands in size (usually by absorbing water or "puffing up" with air) until the new cuticle hardens, after which growth stops until the next molt (periodic growth).
Nematodes molt larvae (usually there are four larval stages), adult nematodes do not grow and do not molt. In most groups of arthropods (crustaceans, spiders, etc.), molting and growth continue throughout life.
Moulting in insects, as a rule, is repeated at the larval stage; in insects with complete transformation during the last molt, the larva turns into a pupa, and after shedding the covers of the pupa, the insect turns into an adult form - an imago. In insects with incomplete transformation during the last molt, the larva turns into an imago (only mayflies have a winged subimago stage, which molts one more time before turning into an adult insect. Adult insects do not grow and do not molt.
Among vertebrates, molting occurs in all tetrapods. They molt, shedding several layers of keratinized epithelial cells, frogs and toads. Molting is also characteristic of representatives of reptiles. Among reptiles, snakes periodically completely shed their horny cover, with the formation of the so-called. "Crawl out" - the discarded "skin" of a snake. In birds, during molting, plumage is replaced, and in temperate and subpolar latitudes, seasonal molting occurs (in spring and autumn) - a change from winter to summer plumage. Sometimes at the same time its color changes (polar owl, white partridge). In mammals living in temperate latitudes, as a rule, molting also occurs twice a year - in spring, when thick winter wool is shed, and in autumn, when a warm winter cover builds up. Often the color of this cover also changes, for example, in hares, squirrels, etc.

1 Ecdysones(from Greek. ekdysis- molting) - hormones belonging to the group of steroids (27-28 carbon atoms), stimulating molting and metamorphosis of arthropods.

Molting at snakes

Normally, molting is a complex process in which cells of the epidermis intermediate zone (several outer layers of living cells under the stratum corneum) proliferate and form a new stratum corneum, called internal epidermal generation. Roughly speaking, this is a biological process during which a new cover is formed in a reptile and the old one is shed.
Reptiles, in particular snakes, are preparing to “change their skin” for quite a long time, they are worried, they lose their appetite. The time preceding the molt is called the "blue eye" period by herpetologists. At the same time, snake skin looks lifeless, fades, fades, the pattern on it loses its clarity, and the eyes become dull blue. The behavior of animals during this period also changes: some become lethargic and move little, others are nervous and show increased aggressiveness. Poisonous snakes are especially dangerous: accidentally disturbed, they can actively attack and try to bite.

Cheney's carpet python (lat. Morelia Spilota cheynei), cloudy-eyed juvenile

White-lipped python (lat. Leiopython albertisii), cloudy-eyed juvenile

In most snakes, molting begins from the head, with the exception of burrowing snakes of the blind snake family (lat. Typhlopidae), which molt from the tail. At the same time, the exfoliated covers begin to slide, stretching and breaking away in the form of more or less long tubes. The discarded old "stocking" of the blind people does not turn inside out. Normally, the snake sheds quickly and completely. The discarded skin is called the "creep out" and is an almost complete cover, which is several cm longer than the snake's body. Very large snakes molt with a gap "creep out" under the weight of their weight. Lump molting occurs in sick snakes or living in adverse conditions (for example, with insufficient air humidity). It is especially important to have transparent "glasses" on the crawl - the stratum corneum from the eyes, since its untimely convergence can cost the animal vision: squeezing the eyeball leads to its inflammation and even death.

Snake "crawls"

The first molt in kites occurs either immediately after birth, which is typical for viviparous and ovoviviparous species, or 7–14 days after leaving the egg (for oviparous snakes). Further, the young growth molts every 3-4 weeks, as it actively feeds and grows. With age, the frequency of molts decreases, and the intervals between them increase. Adult snakes shed their old skin once every 3-6 months, and some species living in difficult natural conditions (for example, in the highlands) shed only once a year. A snake that has just shed its skin has a beautiful, bright and distinct coloration.

Normal molting goes through several stages:

proliferation stage. At this point, the skin becomes dull and dull. In snakes, this stage is hardly noticeable.
The phase of molting divergence. Includes the formation of internal epidermal generation and the formation of a cavity with lymph effusion into it. Proliferation is replaced by differentiation of cells that make up a new stratum corneum on the periphery of the proliferate with the formation of a thin gap in the intermediate zone (between three layers of old and three layers of new cells). After the formation of internal epidermal generation of cells, a cavity is formed - a zone of stratification. During this time, clouding of the eyes of snakes can be observed. The so-called blue-eye period.
The stratification phase. During it, the skin brightens and almost does not differ from normal. In the phase of stratification, lysis (dissolution) of the interstitial substance and adhesion (adhesion) of proteins occur, followed by molting.

Moulting disorders in snakes

Usually snakes shed their old skin in a very simple way: they crawl out of it. The outer layer of the snake's skin is a single unit, from the goggles on the eyes to the tip of the tail. Blurred eyes are considered the first sign of molting in snakes. But in fact, in the beginning there is a clouding of the abdominal scutes, which takes two to four days. Then the eyes become cloudy for one to five days. The eyes become milky white later, and this color disappears earlier than in other parts of the body, which is of vital importance for the snake, since it does not see well at this time. The third stage is the clearing of the eyes, the fourth stage is the clearing of the abdominal shields and, finally, the last, fifth stage is the actual molting. Preparation for it takes from five to twelve days, the third and fourth stages are often quite short.
Before molting, many snakes lose their appetite and become irritable. Many species living in nature go in search of water in which they get stuck.
In healthy snakes, the molt itself takes from thirty minutes to several hours. It begins after the snake peels off the old cuticle on the lips, rubbing the tip of the muzzle on some rough surface. Then the snake begins to move the skin back from the head and, crawling among the bushes and stones, gradually, centimeter by centimeter, pulls off the old skin. Along with the old clothes, she also discards the "glasses" that protect her eyes.

Patterned snake (lat. Elaphe Dione) in the process of shedding the old skin

According to the materials of the sites: http://ru.wikipedia.org/, http://www.zmeuga.ru/ and the works of Vasiliev D.B.

Today there is a new bartender at the Bar by the Road!

True, he looked at us for only one evening, but we, as they say, are happy about this. :)

Celebrities usually work as guest bartenders, and our guest today is no exception. So sit down, pour yourself some “firewater” and get ready to listen to one of the legends of the Navajo tribe, which will be told by the most important Indian of all times and peoples!

Who doesn't know Gojko Mitic?!

And now - to the point. :)

Most cultures in the world have their own werewolf legends.

In India, these are were-tigers, in Africa - hyenas and leopards, in Egypt - jackals and bulls. In the Russian Far East, the Nivkhs and Nanais believed that people could become tigers, bears, and even killer whales in the sea.

But in American folklore (we mean the folklore of white people, immigrants), there are almost no legends about werewolves. European settlers, of course, brought their own mythology and legends to America, such as the belief in vampires. They firmly believed in vampires and never questioned their existence, which is rather surprising, since most of the colonists arrived on the mainland before the "vampiric" culture formed in the UK!

But the indigenous population has more than enough legends and stories about werewolves. Every Indian tribe is familiar with werewolves firsthand, and the Indians do not at all consider them fictional and non-existent.

Take, for example, the legend of the Skinwalkers. Probably best (and clearest) if you translate this word as "changing the skin."

Navajo legends tell of "black" shamans and witches who can transform into wolves, coyotes, bears, or birds.

After the transformation, shamans gain the strength and agility of an animal or the ability to fly like a bird, but at the same time retain a human mind.

But if Navajo shamans could do just that, the skin-changing legends would still be just harmless funny stories. But Native American sorcerers are capable of something else, and therefore the stories about Skinwalkers, about those who change the skin, inspire fear and horror.

The Navajos can make anyone “changing the skin”, only the converted person will lose his human mind as soon as he receives the skin of the beast. They say that it is not difficult for sorcerers to make a person a werewolf: you just need to look into his eyes (there is another way, we will talk about it later).

By the way, the shaman himself (not an ordinary one, namely the one who is able to “change the skin”) can also be calculated by the eyes: if you look closely, you can see how his eyes flash with a phosphorescent sheen, like that of an animal.

But our bartender, the head Indian, strongly advises you not to do this: what if the shaman gets angry and in response also looks into your eyes?

Naturally, having learned about the “skin changers”, a completely logical question arises: how can one finish off such a werewolf?

The regular visitors of our bar are people well versed in the part of all supernatural beings, so, probably, they immediately remembered the silver bullets and rushed to load their pistols?

Wait, wait, it's not that simple.

They don't take silver bullets from "skin changers"; something else is required here. Let's listen to the end of the story, but keep your pistols handy just in case!

(whoever recognizes this revolver will get a glass of "fire water" for free. And the one who calls the name of the one who holds the revolver in his hands takes the whole bottle!)

Yes, for the Navajo and other Native American tribes of America, the tales of the Skinwalkers are more than just legend. Witchcraft has always been part of Indian culture!

Do white people believe in these legends? Will you and I, people living in the 21st century, believe that there are those who can turn us into a werewolf?

Do not rush to say "no", let's rather listen to the story of Michael Staff, a white educated man, a lawyer by training. Believe me, it's hard to find a more pragmatic person, far from the legends about werewolves, than a lawyer. :)

Michael Staff is one of the few lawyers in the history of American jurisprudence who led a case against a Navajo witch.

Here is how it was.

The young lawyer worked for an Indian legal aid program in Arizona. Most of his clients were Navajos.

Before starting work, Michael studied the history of the Navajo, their traditions and culture, laws and customs, and therefore enjoyed the trust of Indian clients.

One fine day, he received another case: his client, a Navajo woman living on a reservation, wanted to end her marriage to her husband. She wanted to ensure that her child, a boy, stayed with her, and not with her husband.

The case turned out to be complicated, it dragged on for a long time, but, in the end, it became clear that the woman would win and the child would remain with her.

Then the husband obtained official permission to take his son to him for one evening.

However, the next day the boy did not appear, but returned only a few days later and told about what happened one of the nights when he was with his father.

According to the boy, at night a shaman, a witch of the tribe, appeared in their house. Together with the boy and his father, they left the house, climbed the mountain and lit a fire at the very top. For several hours, the Navajo witch performed rituals, songs, and sang spells around the fire. With the onset of dawn, all three descended from the mountain into the forest and there, under one of the trees, they dug a grave. The witch put two dolls carved from wood into the grave (one doll was made from dark wood, the other from light wood), said a few more words, after which the grave was buried.

Upon hearing the news (it wasn't hard to guess that the dolls represented the boy's mother and the lawyer in charge of the case), Michael Staff, of course, didn't take it seriously - at first.

Still, he worked among the Navajo Indians, and apparently he guessed that there were some things that are difficult for a white person to understand, but which are better not to be neglected.

So he went to a nearby college and found a professor of Navajo history there. The professor (himself a Navajo Indian) explained to him that, judging by the description, a very powerful and serious ritual of cursing and turning into a "skin changer" was carried out, which was supposed to turn him and his client into Skinwalkers - and, in the very near future.

He also said that any Navajo witch could only perform this ritual four times in her life, the fifth time would prove fatal to her.

Also, the professor said that if the intended victim finds out about this rite, the curse returns to the person who "ordered" it.

Probably, it is not necessary to say how grateful our lawyer was to the blathering boy! After considering the situation, Michael Staff decided to fight the witch in the most effective way in the United States: through the law.

He prepared documents for an injunction against the meetings of the father with the child and, in addition, filed charges against a new defendant who appeared in the case and went under the name "witch".

He described the ritual in detail (with the help of a college professor, of course) and interpreted it as an attempt on his own life.

The lawyer of the opposite side tried to argue that the witch did not perform a deadly ritual at all, but, on the contrary, the "Blessing Ceremony", after which, supposedly, unprecedented prosperity awaited the lawyer.

However, the judge (also a Navajo Indian) understood what ritual the lawyer was talking about and

issued a verdict: leave the child with the mother, and continue to prohibit the witch of the tribe from trying to make the lawyer a werewolf, "changing the skin."

And the Navajo witch obeyed the judge's order.

And what do you want?

In America, even black witches follow the law!

Not much is known about "skin-changers". Cautious Navajos will never openly talk about them, because werewolf sorcerers can hear.

And then the one who is too persistently interested in Skinwalkers may become the next victim - for this, the sorcerer just needs to look into your eyes.

Skin-changing, werewolf shamans have the ability to read minds and reproduce any human voice and any bestial roar. The werewolf may speak in the voice of a relative or cry like a baby to lure victims out of their safe havens. It is not easy to defend against them, it is not so easy to kill them.

Unlike other werewolves, silver does no harm to Skinwalkers.

But we still need a gun!

Remember well: "skin changers" can be killed by rolling bullets in human dust, the ashes that remain from a burned body.

So, if you decide to go hunting for Skinwalkers, first find out where the nearest crematorium is located.

Everything about everything. Volume 5 Likum Arkady

How often do snakes shed their skin?

There are over two thousand different snakes. They live on land, in water, in trees and are very different from each other. But all snakes, young and old, shed their skin. During this process, even the film covering the eyes is shed, and the skin is turned inside out. The snake rubs against rough surfaces and thus sheds its skin. This happens several times a year. The skin of the snake is scaly, which is very important for her. The snake has no legs, although some species, such as boas and pythons, have retained underdeveloped hind legs. They are not visible at all, only claws stick out in the lower part of the body. It is the scales on the skin that give the snake the ability to move gracefully and quickly on the ground. Wide scales on the lower surface of the body with sharp edges are repelled by irregularities on the surface of the earth, and the whole snake moves forward from these shocks.

If the snake needs to crawl quickly, it also resorts to another trick. It consists in the fact that the snake bends in loops, repels from the stones and plants with which it comes into contact, glides along the winding path that the loops of its body form. The closest relatives of the snake are other cold-blooded reptiles: lizards, crocodiles and turtles.