"Are you afraid of snakes?" was a question once put to a little boy. "Yes!" he replied in horror, with a shudder - and, no doubt, you must be scared too.

Indeed, most of us have a deep fear and an extreme horror of snakes. These slippery serpents slither and slide, twine and twirl, leaving a trail of terror wherever they go. Imagine coming across a black mamba coiled on a ledge or a king cobra raise its dark head from some crevice in the rock?

There are more than 2,000 kinds of snakes, and they are found in practically all parts of the world except the polar regions. Snakes are divided into two categories: the poisonous and the non-poisonous.

The poisonous snakes possess poison fangs. These fangs are actually hollow teeth with an opening at the tip. They are located in the upper jaw and connect with poison glands in the head.

When the snake wants to bite, it contracts the muscles connected to these glands, and the poison (or venom, as it is usually called) flows out through the fangs into the open wound which the snake has already made by its bite. A medium-sized snake can put as much as half a teaspoon of this poison into the victim at one time!

Notable poisonous snakes include:

• The Mamba
• Cobra
• Python
• Adder
• Anaconda
• Viper
• The Rattlesnake

(Click the links above for more info on these reptiles) 

Their very names send shivers down one's spine!

Do you know what the fear of snakes is called?

The answer is: ophidiophobia.