Spaniards+kill+snakes.

Spaniards kill snakes. It does not matter what sort of snake it is, and nor are they dissuaded by the fact that only one of the snakes in the Iberian Peninsula, the viper, is venomous — and not very venomous at that. You would have to be either very young or very old, and pretty much on the verge of death anyway, to die from a viper’s bite.

Curiously enough the Spanish for snake is feminine – la serpiente – whereas most of the indicators would suggest masculinity.

There is, for a start, an undeniably phallic look to a snake. But feminine they are, and every Spaniard who can will happily run them over or chop them in half with his mattock.

I think that the femininity of serpents, and the irrational fear and loathing of them is not entirely unrelated to the claptrap dealt out by the Church.