The Garden

Recently I was on a short walk in the woods with a friend and her little son. It was a lovely summer morning and we were in the foothills of Bridger range just outside of Bozeman Montana. At the end of the walk, as the trail neared the parking lot I looked down and saw a small snake in the weeds along the path, and at the same moment she looked up and saw that we were in a patch of seviceberry bushes.

It’s unusual to see snakes in the northern Rockies. It was a just a small garter snake, but a rare sighting none the less.

She began picking the ripe berries and offering them to me, insisting that I try them.

I immediately recognized the mythic imagery of a woman offering me fruit from a tree in the company of a serpent. I pointed this out to her, and she took it upon herself to really play up the role of Eve. I ate without any hesitation.


Less than a week later I was working in the Gallatin range (also near Bozeman) and I was leading a team on a week long hiking trip. At one point, we walked out of the trees to an open meadow and I saw another snake. My first thought was, “Huh, I guess it’s normal to see snakes around here.”

At that instant, my hiking partners walked out of the bushes to meet me, and one fellow exclaimed: “Jacqueline just made me eat Serviceberries, they are SO good!”

Sure enough, our lone female teammate offered one of men fruit from a tree in the presence of a snake.

Then we all looked at the snake together, and to our surprise, it had it’s mouth wrapped around a big mouse with the hind feet and tail poking out. The little snake looked sort of ridiculous with it’s porky meal stretching its girth in a way that seemed impossible. It was like some creepy scene on The Nature Channel.

Any mythologists wanna chime in and tell me what this means? (especially the mouse)