I afterward tied a long string to the snake's neck and let him go. He climbed from the lower branches clear to the top of a tall maple tree on our lawn. A black snake climbs a tree by lifting his head as far as he can, hooking his neck over a limb and then working his body up. A snake cannot climb the smooth trunk of a tree. Most country boys have the greatest string of yarns to tell about snakes.
Many boys are full of the most absurd beliefs concerning snakes.
I knew some boys once who insisted that if one were to put a horse hair in a barrel of water the horse hair would turn into a snake. None of the numerous hairs that we put in water ever turned into snakes. I reckon we didn't have the right kind of horse hairs or the water was not right, or the Moon was not right, or something. I caught a thing like a snake once. It was about a foot long and as large round as a knitting needle.