Facade of Saint Jouin de Marnes Abbey, France. Source: Images of Lust, p61

In France, these images are called femmes aux serpents. In English: "women with serpents."

Orthodox historians claim these serpents represent spiritual punishment.

Fair enough. But look at her chest:

Blue lines trace out a bridle and halter.

The serpents hang from a bridle slung around her neck. If you can't see the bridle, tap on the first image to load a higher definition version.

If the serpents represent spiritual objects, why would they hang from a bridle?

The serpents' skin is depicted as deeply ridged. But no serpent or snake has deeply ridged skin.

Deep ribbing is, however, characteristic of traditional rubber hose. The ribs help the hose flex and helps reduce wear when the hose is dragged over hard surfaces.

We don't use ribbed host so much because modern plastics can be very flexible. But ribbed hose is still manufactured for the steam-renovation market:

And it's fully wired. Source: Heritage Steam Supplies

The hose seems to be made up from somewhat fish-like segments. It seems an unlikely use of fish skins or of serpent-fish skins. So perhaps these are extendable sheaths that encased and protected more delicate tubing inside.

This next sketch - also from Images of Lust - attempts to show a complex femme aux serpents carving:

From figure at Archingeay, France. Source: Images of Lust, p70

This image suggests a lot.

The ridged 'skin' of the 'serpents' is less obvious but still visible top left (to her upper right) and perhaps bottom right (her lower left).

Her enlarged vulva suggests she is post-partum. She will produce milk for a year or two after the birth. But only if her milk is continually extracted.

The two rounded 'legs' extending down from the horizontal bar beneath her chin would be a mystery to most of us. Perhaps they would be more familiar to dairy workers:

Rounded frames of milking stalls. Source: Dairy Stalls

During milking, females must be able to shift position and relieve itching or irritation without shaking or stamping. Critically important is to prevent them stretching or stressing their milking lines. So these frames limit the female's movement but don't prevent it altogether. The dairy industry calls these frames 'milking stanchions'.

Clearly, these french carvings depict hominins - presumably homo sapiens and not a genetically engineered homo lactans - amid recognisable dairy technology.

This pairing of breasts with technology may not have been restricted to France. Folklore evidence of high-volume demand for both milk and the maidens that produce it is also presented in Ice Age Sites of Britain's Serpents - Part Four.

And from Chicksands Priory, Bedfordshire, England:

The remains of the priory... reminded John Byng, Viscount Torrington, who came on a visit in 1791, of nothing so much as a dairy

For the most part, French monastic houses were destroyed, just as they were in Britain. These sketches of femmes aux serpents were drawn from fragments found on the sites of destroyed structures.

Their locations in France are associated with medieval British rule and Eleanor of Aquitaine:

French locations in this evidence collection.

It's not always obvious how thoroughly these buildings were destroyed because some were subsequently rebuilt:

Saint-Jouin-de-Marnes Abbey, France. Source

Despite the losses due to destruction and the losses due to reconstruction, we can tentatively theorise about the circumstances in which breast milk was harvested.

Milking doesn't work with females that fight. So regardless of what we think of them, these images hint that the stock cooperated:

Oh the bovinity! Source: The Time Machine

Perhaps the milk was donated to feed babies surviving in a post-catastrophe environment. However, that makes the equipment we see depicted seem a little over the top. As does the destruction and removal of imagery depicting these women's sacrifices.

If they were being harvested without consent, it's unlikely their milk was being extracted as raw stock for the same processes for which cow's milk was sometimes used. Ie for cheese-making and for extracting casein for paints and wall finishes.

Christina Z. Anderson's experiments also showed breast milk contains too little casein to be used for casein-dependent processes like photography.

So perhaps it was extracted for its hormone content. As medicine. Even today, breast milk successfully competes with modern cosmetics as the modern woman's cure-all:

• Kourtney Kardashian downs entire glass of breast milk to cure nausea
• Mum smears breast milk all over her face and claims it's 'like Botox'

Both of these traditions may be based on sound science. Among breast milk's many bioactive compounds are two categories that might provide real benefits to Kourtney Kardashian and Skye Hitchcock:

• Growth factors (EGF, IGF-1, TGF-β) - tissue development and repair
• Oligosaccharides - prebiotic compounds affecting gut microbiome

Plus: - Hormones (prolactin, oxytocin, insulin) - endocrine modulators - Lactoferrin - antimicrobial and immune-enhancing protein - Immunoglobulins (IgA, IgG, IgM) - immune system modulators - Cytokines - immune system signaling molecules

Images of Lust also includes this simplified sketch of a french femmes aux serpents carving. It's a very curious depiction:

Sketch of figures found at La Charité-sur-Loire, France. Source: Images of Lust, p72

The sketch is too simple to convey much but the expression of the consumer on the right suggests he is unwell or even stoned.

Most of us would struggle with this depiction perhaps because most of us don't appreciate the scope of breast milk harvesting:

Kabukicho district, Tokyo. Source: Lactating ladies nurse customers

From Tokyo Serves up Lactation Bars:

Bonyu Bar seems to be the most popular such bar in Kabukicho. It employs three nursing women, all under the age of 30 and willing to let you partake in their mammary secretions.

Modern milk-bars offer us clues about the health status of the human stock apparently depicted in femmes aux serpents imagery.

From Lactating ladies nurse customers:

The first serving is supplied from Yui, age 28, who takes a shot glass from off the shelf, leans over, and begins filling it with mammary extract. Kajiyama samples it pensively. No odor and no flavor, he shrugs.

But Mari’s milk is another story altogether. This 21-year-old’s is rich and sweet, and definitely a treat.

But 27-year-old Kaho’s output is awful... It’s yellowish, sour and repulsive - virtually undrinkable. It turned out Kaho happened to be slightly indisposed with a cold, and her physical condition had a pronounced impact on the quality of her milk.

It goes without saying that city centre 'churches' with enigmatic layouts like Lincoln's 'church of St Paul in the Bail' may just as easily have been urban milk-bars:

No tower. Not cross-shaped. And not a church. Source: Physical Remains - Lincoln

Images of Lust often mentions carved depictions of hags in European churches. Folklore also recounts many connections between witches, serpents and dragons.

The lost technology of breast milk harvesting invites us to try to make more sense of hags, serpents and dragons.

Starting with a summary of the evidence trail:

1. Fragmented remains of lost or discarded farming technology
2. Destruction of so-called religious buildings
3. Accompanying social upheaval, hunting of witches, wise hags, vicars, and priests
4. Selective rebuilding (and rebranding) of some ruins as religious structures

Ten miles south of Lincoln lie remnant villages of Temple Bruer's once notorious military and farm complex. Among them is Wellingore village - home of the farming college at Wellingore Hall.

Wellingore Hall's large chapel was allegedly built in 1882 for local judge, keen chemist, well-known engineer and electrical device inventor Ralph Neville. Upon its alleged 1882 completion, a 'mysterious fire' burned down the 'chapel', prompting the 1885 rebuild we see today:

Not so old as it looks. Source: Wellingore Hall

Neville helped develop machine farming and modern agriculture. Given the vexed history of 'religion' in his part of 19th century Lincolnshire, he was likely also involved with the introduction of modern ethics and morality under the system called Christianity. This vexed history is what Rev George Oliver is hinting at in his religious histories of this part of Lincolnshire.

Prior to Neville's coming - not to mention Oliver's - predation on commoners seems to have been a dreaded feature of Temple Bruer land until Temple Bruer was itself destroyed in a mysterious fire.

Perhaps this is why villages around Temple Bruer - Wellingore and nearby Navenby - are associated with predatory witch folklore and surprisingly recent 'witch' artefacts. Such as this 1830 'witch bottle' found near Navenby's Methodist chapel:

Source: Mysterious charm 'used to ward off bad spells' unearthed

This alleged former ink-pot apparently contained human hair, urine, leather and bent nails. Although it looks a bit like an electrical insulator, it's not at all easy to guess what technological use this collection of items might have had.

And that's unlike many other accounts of witches, dragons, serpents and their activities.

From Black Annis - Leicester Legend or Widespread Myths:

Annis's howling could be heard as far as five miles away and, when Annis ground her teeth the sound was so loud that all the people had time to lock and bar their doors.

From British Dragon Gazeteer:

Manaton, Devon: A winged dragon made its lair in an old tin mine here (Manaton, Devon). The dragon’s hissing was said to be audible for miles around.

What technologies might have been transformed into narratives of howling witches and hissing dragons?

Steam power for one:

Secret underground hissers. Source: Shadow Rome - II: Secret Technology

From British Dragon Gazeteer:

Nant Gwynant, Wales: Every time work began upon Dinas Emry, it would be destroyed by earthquake-like disturbances.

The Stoor Worm, Orkneys: when it yawned the earth shook and great waves spewed over the land.

That sounds like earth-moving equipment and possibly water-pumping activities - reported by people who didn't understand what they were seeing:

You say 'warlocks'; HG Wells said 'Morlocks'. Source: The Time Machine

That may well be because industrial technologies had been re-classified as secret. Such as how to refine and work good quality iron:

A blast from the past. Source: Shadow Rome - II: Secret Technology

if iron production technology and steam power were classified it's perhaps no surprise that folk memory 'remembers' the technology's operators better than it 'remembers' their technology.

From Paranormal Database: Dragons:

Cissbury Ring hillfort, Worthing, Sussex: another legend says the structure was formed by earth falling off the Devil's shovel as he tried to dig a hole in the South Downs.

From What is the Black Annis in English Folklore?:

One of her most striking features are the discoloured, razor sharp teeth that protrude from her mouth when she brandishes her evil grin.

A bit like this perhaps:

Cat Anna's 420f wide bucket. Source

Coincidentally (or not), west Leicester's Black Annis witch was also nicknamed 'Cat Anna'. She was said to live in a cave she dug with her own iron claws.

You get the picture.

Here is the same picture seen from another angle. And possibly at night.

From Black Annis - Leicester Legend or Widespread Myths:

Annis was said to be very tall with a blue face and long white teeth. Other descriptions say Annis's teeth were yellow rather than white and that she only had one eye.

Backhoes carved themselves a place in British folklore. Source

Perhaps her changing colours capture maintenance crews occasionally changing Black Annis' excavator buckets. Certainly, several British folklore accounts suggest 'serpents' were repairable.

From British Dragon Gazetteer:

The Lambton Worm, Durham: Many tried to slay it, but it could rejoin severed portions of its body

The Dragon of Loschy Hill, East Newton, Yorkshire: The monster could rejoin severed sections of its body so the knight brought with him his trusty hound that snatched up the pieces of the monster’s coils and ran off with them, thereby preventing the creature from rejoining.

From Paranormal Database: Dragons:

Nunnington, Yorkshire: The dragon which set up home near here possessed the ability to heal itself.

It was finally defeated by Sir Peter Loschy and his dog; as Sir Peter cut pieces of the monster off, the dog picked the segments up and ran away with them

Poisonous gasses and environmental contamination

Garbled accounts of mining and quarrying technology may explain a common feature of British serpents. Their tendency to poison the surrounding area.

From Dragons in Folklore - Icy Sedgewick:

An old ballad told that she was so venomous that no grass or corn could grow in a seven-mile radius.

Perhaps they combined polluting fuels to boil their steam water and produced poisonous exhaust fumes.

From British Dragon Gazetteer include:

Sexhow, Yorkshire: As well as breathing fire it spouted poison gas, killing anyone who ventured too close.

The Stoor Worm, Orkneys: Its breath was a vast cloud of poison that withered crops on the land.

Cynwch Lake, Moel Offrum, Wales: It emerged to poison the countryside

From Paranormal Database: Dragons:

St Leonard's Forest, Horsham: it killed men with its poison

Newcastel Emlyn, Dyfed, Wales: When the dragon's body hit the nearby river venom gushed out, killing all fish.

Nunnington, Yorkshire: The dragon ... possessed the ability to ... spit poison.

the knight also died when his dog jumped up and licked his face in celebration, rubbing some of the dragon's poison on to his master.

Slingsby, Yorkshire: both the victors died soon after the battle due to the delayed effect of the dragon's poison

Uffington, Oxfordshire: where the beast's blood fell, the grass died

These accounts sound very like descriptions of toxic chemicals and gas.

Many serpent and dragon accounts have them living in tunnels and breathing out clouds of poisonous gas. A serpent account from St Osyth, Essex, claims a serpent lived in the abbey's cellars.

Here's a guess at one form of 'poison breath' that might have been seen beneath an abbey-toir:

Elevator to Heaven. Source: AMI: Tour of a Pork Plant

From what we're told, medieval day labour didn't know how to read or write. The dairy stall image above and the plentiful evidence provided by sheela na gigs perhaps suggest work areas were labelled with graphic signage.

In modern abattoirs, they still are:

Beware the serpent's poison breath. Source: MySafetySign

Flight

Less easy to unpack is why folklore claims some serpents and dragons could fly. Also, certain features of their flight are hard to account for as folkloric whimsy.

Three of them were alleged to regularly fly the same routes:

Flight paths of the flying serpents

Key:

• Red marker: Daily morning flights between Burley, Hampshire and Bisterne, Hampshire
• Yellow marker: Periodic flights between Serpent's Well, Cawthorne and Cawthorp Hall (probably Cannon Hall Park)
• Dull yellow marker: Nightly flights between Dolbury Hill (fort), Devon and Cadbury Castle, Devon

Where would earlier airships get lighter-than-air gasses?

From British Dragon Gazetterr:

Norton Camp Hillfort, Norton Fitzwarren, Somerset: Over the centuries a dragon is said to have grown from the corruption of the rotting bodies (this spontaneous growth of creatures from rotting matter was a common belief in Medieval times). The dragon took up residence in an Iron Age hill fort and preyed on the populace

Shoulsbury Castle, Challacombe, Devon: They flew around snorting fire and would perch upon Bronze Age burial mounds across the region.

See Primitive Balloons for evidence of early lighter-than-air freight flight.

See Gas Stations of the Past - Part One for more evidence of lighter-than-air gas production facilities.

Iron Age hillforts are star actors in Britain's serpent and dragon folklore. They're a focus for earth-moving and transportation machinery caught in the legends of the past. They must have been very important.

Other dragons repeatedly flew over towns, spitting fire:

From Paranormal Database: Dragons:

Leicester, Leicestershire: Seen flying and spitting fire, the dragon passed over the town many times during the month (of, allegedly, April 1389).

Sometimes they dropped fire or rocks.

From British Dragon Gazetteer and Paranormal Database: Dragons:

Helston, Cornwall: a huge fire-breathing dragon was seen flying over the town, clutching a ball of flames in its claws. The dragon dropped the flaming mass just outside the town where it cooled down, forming a huge rock that is still there

Sometimes deliberately.

From Paranormal Database: Dragons:

St Osyth, Essex: a large dragon attacked a house in St Ostwyth, the air surrounding the creature so hot that it set the area alight.

Wiveliscombe, Somerset: the devil manifested riding a green dragon and began hurling rocks at the construction

From Paranormal Database: Dragons:

Christechurch, Devon: The dragon was said to have emerged from the sea and taken flight towards the town, destroying the church and many of the surrounding houses (but not those occupied by the abbot and his entourage). The dean of the destroyed church tried to escape by boat, but the vessel was also incinerated

Flying fire spitters and rock throwers

Key:

• Fire marker: Fire-spitting or fire-blasting dragon
• Yellow marker: Rock-throwing rider mounted on a flying dragon
• Dull yellow marker: Dragons witnessed over gas filling stations

Analysis

In many cases, the folklore of serpents, dragons, wyverns, wyrms, griffins and cockatrices seems have been created by folklorists to explain away memories of:

• Earth-moving machinery
• Steam powered plant and its furnaces
• Freight airships and freight balloons
• Processing equipment in abattoirs and butcheries
• Farm processing equipment
• Underground facilities (abbey-toir cellars, processing plants)

Similarly, the equipment's owners and operators seem to have been rewritten as the Devil, as witches and pilgrims.

More:

• For more about chemicals used in abbatoirs and butchers, see Meatpacking: Hazards and Solutions.

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