Not too relevant for this thread but in the general snake banishing vein.
Legend has it that one of our local christian saints, Saint Hilda, was so plagued by snakes at her abbey in Whitby that she banished them by driving them over the cliffs, were they instantly became petrified.
Evidence of this is the abundance of serpent stones (ammonites) to be found in the cliffs around Whitby.
This legend has had a scientific 'nod' towards it. One local species of Jurassic ammonite has the latin name Hildoceras.