What is a Meskin?

quote:

Originally posted by fairgame:
What is a Meskin?

It's a bit like a tokoloshe but with a big hat and a habit of sneaking under fences to avoid the customs and irritations people.



Either that or a Mexican........

Meskins are kinda like snakes. They sneak around and will eventually bite us all in the ass. REMEMBER THE ALAMO

quote:

What is a Meskin?

I had never heard the term until I was in Texas. Interesting enough, they clearly distinguish between a regular law abiding "Mexican" and an up-to-no-good "Meskin" while talking.



In regards to the snake story, seems a little cheesy to me. Only time I've ever had issues with snakes is when I went and poked it, picked it up, invaded their comfort zone, etc. I leave them alone and they do the same for me.

Now spiders, them things need to be squished on sight ...

quote:

I was illustrating to my young son how to handle snakes.

sorry to laugh at you mate but isn't that always they way.

"Stand back son...I'll show you how to catch a snake"

Now here's one you don't want to find in your back yard. A fired up Brown snake, makes those Mamba's look like harmless garden worms

There was a video on here several years back showing a Mamba going into a blind with a hunter.....The hunter froze, while the mamba craweled around, I think they later killed it outside.

Anybody remember that video?

As for me, I would have had a heart attack long before the venom were to have an effect. I'm kinda like Mary Lou in that 70's song "I don't like spiders and snakes, and that ain't what it takes to love me. You fool, you fool"

quote:

Originally posted by shakari:
They live there and they're there for a reason...... it's you that's the intruder in their environment and if you can't live with their presence then maybe you shouldn't be there at all.

No, there is no reason at all why snakes should live on this planet.
We get along just fine without them in New Zealand.
Great to be out and about going about your business, preferably hunting, without thinking about some damn small creature trying to sink its poisonous barb or teeth into you.
And may that continue forever in our country.

quote:

Originally posted by catosilvaje:
Mr. jdollar I didn't realize you were from Kallifornia and should defer that you know all things , should never question any thing you say. On the mamba story though the man from South Africa , sunshine, probably knows the man in the story. But since he didn't ask you first it is probably just bullshit.

like i said- if you believe the bullshit in that post, i have some great beachfront property i would love to sell you -IN ARIZONA. read any text on herpatology and you will see what i mean. check out the other posts from Africans- hell just use common sense! head butts, stare downs, circle backs for God's sake! where i am from has nothing to do with using my brain and the ability to read. there are people who claim to have seen Elvis last week and have had sex with aliens, but i don't believe them either- although i guess you do.

quote:

Originally posted by David W:

Great picture and this is something about a large poisonous snake that commands respect.

quote:

Originally posted by jdollar:

quote:

Originally posted by catosilvaje:
Mr. jdollar I didn't realize you were from Kallifornia and should defer that you know all things , should never question any thing you say. On the mamba story though the man from South Africa , sunshine, probably knows the man in the story. But since he didn't ask you first it is probably just bullshit.

like i said- if you believe the bullshit in that post, i have some great beachfront property i would love to sell you -IN ARIZONA. read any text on herpatology and you will see what i mean. check out the other posts from Africans- hell just use common sense! head butts, stare downs, circle backs for God's sake! where i am from has nothing to do with using my brain and the ability to read. there are people who claim to have seen Elvis last week and have had sex with aliens, but i don't believe them either- although i guess you do.

This would be a hissing match?

quote:

Originally posted by fairgame:
I was once bitten by a Bibron's burrowing adder which I mistook for another specie. I was illustrating to my young son how to handle snakes.

What he did learn that day on was to kill any snake that he came across.

Three days of shear agony. Note even a case of cheap whiskey could dampen the pain.

fairgame,

The same thing happened to me. Only difference was I was demonstrating to my boss how to catch a burrowing adder which I mistook for a blind worm. Yeah, how's that for pain eh? Did you get it on the finger-tip? Did you lose your fingernail? The end of my finger looks a little alien-like....

Dave

Finger tip of the fore finger but managed to keep the nail.

My greatgranpaw told me a story about when he was driving a herd to Montana a young cowboy fell off his horse in Red river and was bit to death by watermoskins. He was there as was Uncle Gus and Captian Call. Smebody later made a documentary out of the drive, Lonesome somethin or other. So see all my snake stories ain't bullshit.

How do you feel about Santa clause?



Don't worry buddy. I'm only pulling your leg!

We are close friends. Last year he stopped by to borry on of my mules cause one of his raindeer got crippled.

That's the problem with those flying reindeers...... they make very easy targets.

Raindeer in a nice wine sauce taste great too, and dam there fun to shot just as they leave the ground

Okay, maybe a herpetologist should get in on the act here. [I am not one.] I am surprised that some well known "P.H.s" appear to have little knowledge of snakes. There is no such thing as a poisonous snake! Venomous, yes. As venom is protein based, it is valuable and therefore not wasted. There have been several instances where snakes have bitten but not invenomated. From what I know, venomous snakes do have the ability to control the amount of venom injected.I do stand to be corrected, but what is the difference between a non venomous bite and a closed mouth strike. I have seen a Cape cobra give a fairly hard strike to an invenomated elephant shrew, I presume to check that it was beyond inflicting any harm to the cobra. Snakes do warn, usually by hissing and expanding the neck area according to the specie.Snake behaviour is dictated by circumstance and weather conditions. None of us were there so none of us can prove otherwise and no snake has ever read the book on snake behaviour.

As for Santa, so long as the white bearded beggar brings me books, I will put out the scotch and crackers.

OK if have a white beard and love good single malt I'll be right over with this months copy of bigg'uns.

quote:

Originally posted by ddrhook:
OK if have a white beard and love good single malt I'll be right over with this months copy of bigg'uns.

Do me a favour and sweep my chimney as you slide down it please?

Oh and make sure the malt is Ardbeg!

quote:

Originally posted by ddrhook:
OK if have a white beard and love good single malt I'll be right over with this months copy of bigg'uns.

BOOKS not "toilet paper!!"

Steve, as if I did not know your brand already
another literary critic I like big'uns

Here's a little ditty for you:

THE BOTTLE
By Robert Service

When first into this life I burst,
My infant wails to throttle,
My Mother gratified my thirst,
By giving me a bottle,
T’was milk of course, but how I made,
It gush to my subsistence;
And ever since, the bottles played a part in my existence.

It’s never done me any ill’ –
Least, none that I’m aware of;
But if it does, I have the will,
Immediately to swear off.
So in my cellar, cool and dark
Are wines my heart to kindle,
And ‘ere I lose this living spark,
I hope to make them dwindle.

If Ma had fed me at the breast,
I might have been teetotal.
Poor dear! She knew what was best,
And raised me on the bottle.
Let water from my board be banned,
And though my nose it mottle,
Here’s to wine’s jolly sunshine and
The boon that’s in the bottle.


Or if you prefer a 'short' here's one from Dorothy Parker.

I love to drink martinis,
Two at the very most.
Three I'm under the table,
Four, I under the host.

Don't usually post in the African forums, but just curious what ya'll'd say this one, at my son's daycare, is doing?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88Vc9t5rpzE

quote:

Travis said will you cross this line? I replied ''Can I shoot a lot of Meskins'' ? All you want son all you want. I'm crossin' Sir.

Is it just me or does anyone else have a problem with this statement?

it's a line out of and old war movie! movie's are not real. Just like the TV news is not real

quote:

Originally posted by fairgame:

quote:

Travis said will you cross this line? I replied ''Can I shoot a lot of Meskins'' ? All you want son all you want. I'm crossin' Sir.

Is it just me or does anyone else have a problem with this statement?

Andrew,

As I have gotten to know you better...this is all I got to say.

Just like you kicked JB outa your camp...if you were a Texan...you would probably have the exact same signature line.

It pertains to when Texas was kicking the evil Mexican dictator Santa Anna and his army out of Texas.

Travis and his small band of men (<200...one of which may have made that statement) held off thousands for over a week at the Alamo is San Antonio, TX before they were massacred by Santa Anna. But it gave Houston time to gather a larger force and ultimately kick there butts.

Heck...we need somebody to make the same statement today and sit down on the border.

P.S. They all knew they were gonna die...that is why Travis ask them to volunteer. He was giving them a chance to bow out gracefully. Those men were the equivalent of the Selous Scouts.

I guess this is probably one for the Myth-Busters. I reckon that apart from the barrel of salt thrown in, it could just be plausible. I have been 'head-butted' before by a large brown-house snake that put on quite a threat display, but actually calmed down very quickly once in hand and thankfully did not bite me in the end. Dry bites, or bites which do not result in envenomation do sometimes happen, which is why it is often important to check for signs of envenomation before administering antivenom. As for being head-butted on your head/chest, this could possibly happen with a large 11/12ft or so snake, which can probably lift nearly half of it's body off the ground. I know that in many cases bites have been to the head/neck/chest/arms of victims, and often with multiple bites so again it might just be plausible! Mambas are extremely agile, alert (they seem to have pretty good eyesight for snakes) and always quick to escape if given the chance though, so can not imagine this happening often in the bush, as the snake would almost always sense you and be on it's way before you could get close enough, but if cornered by a rock outcrop or in a room with no escape, that is when you don't want to meet one for sure!

Here's the post of the Mamba dropping in the archery hunters blind. I knew I remembered reading it on here

Mamba

The link and story are on Bowsite.com day 8 of a leopard bow hunt Day 8

The video can be downloaded on the bottom, it's an interesting read.

quote:

Travis said will you cross this line? I replied ''Can I shoot a lot of Meskins'' ? All you want son all you want. I'm crossin' Sir.

As a 5th generation Texan who, when in San Antonio, stops by the memorial to the Texans who fell at the Alamo and then stands quietly for a moment facing the front of the old chapel, I usually am receptive to expressions of Texas patriotism, BUT a few things make me uneasy with the quoted line.

First, Col. Wm Barrett Travis was a young lawyer from Alabama who had recently emigrated to Texas. Undoubtedly, he did not speak like this. Someone made up this line and attributed it to this long-dead hero. Not fair and not right.

Second, the Texans who suffered most from Gen. Santa Ana's legendary cruelty and avarice were the Hispanic Texans who cast the fate of themselves and their families with their Anglo neighbors and fought for Independence. The Alamo flag was not the Lone Star flag--it did not yet exist. The flag was the tricolor of vertical red, white, and green stripes, like the flag of the Republic of Mexico, but with the Mexican eagle and serpent removed from the center white stripe and the number "1824" in place of the eagle and serpent. The "1824" was a reference to the Mexican Constitution of 1824 which provided for a democracy, under which the Anglos emigrated to Texas, and which constitution Santa Ana had overthrown.

Third, The early Anglo settlers often intermarried with their Hispanic neighbors. All of them, white and brown, were citizens of Mexico. The Texas revolution had its Tejano heroes, such as Juan Seguin, for whom the town of Seguin is named. Jim Bowie's wife was the daughter of a wealthy Texan-Mexican family. There was little room for discrimination in early Texas. The Comanche and Apache Indians provided a common enemy that kept everyone else allied for survival.

Many of us who live here have friends whose family roots go back further than our own--to Mexico and even to Spanish times. The heroes of the Texas revolution hated Santa Ana, what he did at the Alamo, and what his army did at Goliad. That was war and history does not show that it was underlain with prejudices. We've had 174 years since then to develop our prejudices.

I'm sure you meant no harm but your sign-off line is unsettling to me, here in Texas, as it is to Andrew, in Zambia. I've had the privilege of dining with Andrew in a hunting camp and of riding his truck. Someday, I am going to the Luanga Valley to hunt with him. Despite his pugnacious reputation, he is a perceptive, thoughtful, and considerate guy. I am with him on this one.

With best wishes to all,

quote:

I'm sure you meant no harm but your sign-off line is unsettling to me, here in Texas, as it is to Andrew, in Zambia. I've had the privilege of dining with Andrew in a hunting camp and of riding his truck. Someday, I am going to the Luanga Valley to hunt with him. Despite his pugnacious reputation, he is a perceptive, thoughtful, and considerate guy. I am with him on this one.

Blanco,

First, just let me say I respectfully disagree and I have many hispanic friends. And...I too think highly of Andrew Baldry.

My family has ranched in Texas further than 5 generations. "Meskin" was a slang term used widely in the State of Texas farther back than even my father can remember. It was NOT derogatory really just us Texan's way of butchering english just as Shakari always says.

Crockett and the Tenesee group came just for the fight...yes to shoot "Meskins".

And after watching first-hand what is going on in the border-towns right now...I am ready to shoot some...

Well, I guess I have another grand adventure to look forward too! I have been bitten by a Copper Head ( on the thumb) , had three rattlesnakes strike at me and stepped on a couple of Copperheads which then hit my boots....all lived because I was the agressor but I have whacked a couple of
Rattle Snakes when they invaded my territory.And every Cottonmouth I have encountered was the soon to be dead agressor(4).
I have seen several Mambas, we speeded up once to try to run over one in a two track, it reared and hit the side of the bakkie just behind the drivers window, others slitered off, when my friends wife noticed an adder in a tree feasting on bird eggs just outside the chalet, she said we must get rid of it , so we did....we caught it and took it a couple of hundred yds away, we caught and played with a small green tree snake who somehow got lost and was in the dried Senga river...we released it in the bush, we have toyed with spitting cobras to get them to spit and they usually did.....but I have never been head butted by a snake....is this something I shud look forward too?

Hey Blanco County, I agree wid you...ancestors got a TX county named after them---Waller Co. It would appear the other side of my ancestors, Johnson, did some in house slave breeding....not to mention my Grandmother's Cherokee blood...when you arrived in this country long enuff ago to have ancestors with a Revolutionary War land grant and are certified First Famililies of TN, you can find a lot in your "blood" line! Aint hiding or ashamed of any of mine! Well, maybe the discovery that my Great GrandMother Leftwich could with 95% liklihood be traced to first Earl of Leftwich...awared his title by William the Conquerer for being a great General---sheit, I got French bllod.....damn!

Good story Tom, that was the kind of thing I was looking for when I started this not asseatins. And yes Dr. Lane when your ready to go you know where I am .

quote:

Originally posted by ledvm:

quote:

I'm sure you meant no harm but your sign-off line is unsettling to me, here in Texas, as it is to Andrew, in Zambia. I've had the privilege of dining with Andrew in a hunting camp and of riding his truck. Someday, I am going to the Luanga Valley to hunt with him. Despite his pugnacious reputation, he is a perceptive, thoughtful, and considerate guy. I am with him on this one.

Blanco,

First, just let me say I respectfully disagree and I have many hispanic friends. And...I too think highly of Andrew Baldry.

My family has ranched in Texas further than 5 generations. "Meskin" was a slang term used widely in the State of Texas farther back than even my father can remember. It was NOT derogatory really just us Texan's way of butchering english just as Shakari always says.

Crockett and the Tenesee group came just for the fight...yes to shoot "Meskins".

And after watching first-hand what is going on in the border-towns right now...I am ready to shoot some...

Lane,

You say it is not derogatory but then again you are not Mexican.

Most here display a thought provoking proverb or two but this one just goes against the grain for me.

Anyway let us get back to snakes and not asseatin as catosilvaje so eloquently put it.

quote:

Originally posted by Nakihunter:
Most of us have probably seen the Animal Planet show on the rattel / honey badger which kills and eats cobras. One female gets bitten and goes into a coma for 2 hours and then wakes up and starts eating the snake again. The question I have is - Do rattels kill mambas?

In India the well known folk lore is of a mongoose killing snakes (cobras in particular). But the other less known snake killers are Peafowl and otters. Otters are known to gang up and kill large python in the rivers.

Naki
A cobra and a Mamba are completely different creatures. A mongoose will happily take on a cobra but will run a mile when its sees a mamba. Local African species of Mongoose often have running battlings with Cobras, but I cant say I have any knowledge of them tangling with a Mamba(Perhaps others may correct me.)Most handlers will tell you that Mambas are a lot more agressive than Cobras and I know from experience are far far quicker moving. On the strike they are not as fast as the Adder or Viperadea family but the do cover ground extremely quickly.

Now I am going to go out on a limb here. I have seen a large Mamba "head Butting" a plastic bale filled with grass. Obviously the intention of the reptile was not to cause damage, but rather I think to either elicit a reaction from the strange object, or the head but is attempting , in some way to identify the object or potential threat. I remember a lecture by Johan Marais, a well known Mamba expert in SA talking about similiar behaviour once before.

I think the bottom line is that there may be some credibility to the story, however perhaps it has been sensationalised or blown up to a degree.

quote:

Originally posted by Scriptus:
Okay, maybe a herpetologist should get in on the act here. [I am not one.] I am surprised that some well known "P.H.s" appear to have little knowledge of snakes. There is no such thing as a poisonous snake! Venomous, yes. As venom is protein based, it is valuable and therefore not wasted. There have been several instances where snakes have bitten but not invenomated. From what I know, venomous snakes do have the ability to control the amount of venom injected.I do stand to be corrected, but what is the difference between a non venomous bite and a closed mouth strike. I have seen a Cape cobra give a fairly hard strike to an invenomated elephant shrew, I presume to check that it was beyond inflicting any harm to the cobra. Snakes do warn, usually by hissing and expanding the neck area according to the specie.Snake behaviour is dictated by circumstance and weather conditions. None of us were there so none of us can prove otherwise and no snake has ever read the book on snake behaviour.

As for Santa, so long as the white bearded beggar brings me books, I will put out the scotch and crackers.

Well said and I wholeheartedly agree with the comment about many PHs not knowing much about snakes. I remember years ago at a learner Hunters exam, a young appy answered the question
What is the Shona name for a Black Mamba? The appy didnt know but spoke a bit of Shona and answered , with confidence "Mukuru Black Nyoka"(big black snake). It has to be said that a Mukuru black Nyoka is the most common description of any snake ever seen in Africa....oh and add as thick as your arm to that description!!!!

Bakes, that fired-up brown snake looks damn near like a Cape cobra on the point of multiple strikes. Scary bastards!!
Snake-bite serum in this house and Santa refreshment is usually Glen Fiddich or a drappie of the Dimple. For everyday and the plebians, Bells will have to pass muster.