Serpents of the Wilderness of Shur and King Shapur's Trap

Rabbi Yose said: In the Wilderness of Shur there were serpents as thick as the beam of an olive press, and scorpions as large as would fill a house. There is a story about King Shapur, who was passing through there. The first caravan crossed and the serpent swallowed it; a second crossed, and a third, and it swallowed them. The king sat distressed. With him was a chief of his army. They said to him, "Why do you just stand there? Bring ten mighty men." And he brought them. He said to them, "Let them fill rows of straw." They did so, and they rolled the straw into the serpent's mouth, and it kept swallowing until its belly swelled and it could no longer cope with them, and they rose up and killed it. Rabbi Yose bar Rabbi Hanina said: Great is our God, who saved us from that wilderness.