I heard old Cracky Wainwright say he seen two black snakes come together, and they was both mad. He seen they was going to fight, so he stood and watched them. The one got ahold of the other one's tail and began to swallow it. And the other one got ahold of the other one's tail and began to swallow him. He said they kept on fighting and swallowing one another until both snakes was swallowed. There wasn't any snake left there at all.

—Charles Grant, quoted in John McPhee, The Pine Barrens