Man Bites the Head Off Python

A man bit the head off a giant snake to save himself from being crushed to death.

Sidwell Moremi fought for nearly three hours with the two-metre-long rock python.

But only one of the two emerged from the battle. And it was not the beast.

Moremi, 45, is the fourth man to survive a python attack in the last three weeks.

Moremi decided to take a short cut home from work yesterday.

But the shade of a tall tree was too irresistible to pass up after a hard day's slog in the hot sun.

Moremi says he dozed off under the tree while leaning against a rock. He was close to a river where the villagers swim.

But he was startled awake by the powerful grip of the thick snake coiling itself around his body.

And even though Moremi was aware that the snake was not poisonous, he knew it could crush him to death.

Moremi struggled for what seemed like ages, he says, before using his teeth to bite off the snake's head.

The snake died instantly and Moremi sold the body to a samgoma who uses pythons for muti.

It is illegal to kill rock pythons, which are commonly found in Limpopo.

Yes, that was from the Daily Voice, the fine tabloid that graces Cape Town's newspaper stands five days a week.

Newspapers that have "standards" and abide by silly things such as "telling the whole truth" usually try to tell you the who, what, when, where, why and how of the story as close to the top of the article as possible. You'll notice that the Voice has perfected the art of leaving out the all-important "where" element.

I'm convinced this is on purpose, so you have to read the whole article before realizing this happened nowhere near Cape Town. In this case, Limpopo is to Cape Town what Arizona is to New York. In other cases, they'll run snippets of wire copy from Germany, Thailand or Australia and leave out where it happened until the very end.

So don't worry, mom. I won't get eaten by a snake.