{Wes Note: Pythons have been out of the press for a while - and that's probably a good thing. But I had to laugh at myself when I read the title of this item ... it is gramatically correct and not what I expected! Cheers, Wes}
DAILY CHAMPION (Lagos, Nigeria) 25 March 05 Unbelievable! Pictures of 7 persons in python’s belly (Victor Nze)
The serene Mosafejo community in Badagry council area, Lagos State, erupted in intense activity yesterday when seven passport-size pictures of persons (three women and four men) living in the area were recovered from the belly of a dead python.
Subsequently, the community literally exploded in commotion as surging residents who ran back and forth with the strange news, exclaimed at the occurrence, many holding their heads in shock.
While some attributed the spectacle of snake and pictures to voodoo, others believed that the huge reptile could have been sent on an evil mission possibly against the persons whose pictures were recovered from its belly.
The incident occurred in the early hours of yesterday when a middle-aged man identified as Baba Blessing, an artisan, lumbered home with the dead snake for his house boy to prepare a sumptuous meal.
Screams from house-help attracted the man’s attention as he raced to the scene and subsequently alerted neighbours that something was amiss.
A large crowd of awe-stricken people was shortly attracted to the spectacle.
Narrating the incident to them, the artisan recounted that he had gone out early in the morning on his usual round of visiting customers when he found the reptile by the roadside, run over by a vehicle, possibly the night before.
The sources quoted him as saying he then brought the reptile home to the house-help to butcher and prepare a pre-Easter meal with.
However, he said in the process of cutting it up, the boy discovered the pictures, numbering seven inside the belly of the snake.
His subsequent alarm caused the man to rush to the scene and he himself screamed and alerted his neighbours.
Baba Blessing overwhelmed by shock, said he could identify the persons whose pictures were recovered from the belly of the snake, even as unlookers marvelled at the clarity of the pictures despite their stay in the snake’s inside.
Speculations as to how the passport-size pictures found their way into the belly of the snake raged as some believed the snake could have been on an evil mission that night when it was run over by a vehicle.
Others argued that the snake may have eaten those pictures presumably for food
Even as that, some in the area still believed that if the snake ate those pictures, they (the pictures) would not be intact.
The matter has been reported to the traditional heads of the community just as residents are now wary of snakes as they claim they no longer know which is safe for consumption.
Pictures of 7 persons in python’s belly
