Jayto:

Not only have I heard of the infamous "hoop snake," which my Dad used to insist on having us believe in, but I remember working on a forest fire crew during the summer of 1959 when our crew chief brought up an even "deadlier" reptile, the "snow snake." When one of the boys asked how to identify it, he said, "It's snow white, is only about 18 inches long and has red, beady eyes and no mouth." One of the more innocent among us asked, "No mouth? How can it hurt you?" The answer, "It crawls up your butt and freezes you to death!"

Those relics rate right up there with left-handed monkey wrenches and sending someone out for 50 feet of shoreline.