《山海經．海內南經》載有「巴蛇食象，三歲而出其骨」之記錄。此記錄後來成為成語「巴蛇吞象」、俗語「貪心不足蛇吞象」以及部份文學的典故。但從古文字，特別是楚系簡帛文字的書寫習慣來看，「象」字當是「兔」字、「三歲」當是「三月」字之誤。「巴蛇食兔，三月而出其骨」，符合「巴蛇」的生物學特徵。其又提及「君子食之，無心腹之疾」，不論君子所食為巴蛇或其排遺，在中醫用藥習慣裡都能找到相關的應證。

Shan Hai Jing”(《山海經》) is one of the important classic documents in
Chinese long history. There are lots of fairy stories and biological knowledge in that.But there are few worng records in that, too. Now we try to take over the verb “python eats elephant and drains three years later”, figuring out what it really means. Finally we find the original verb should be “python eats rabbit and drains 3 month later”.