[jamest (OP)]

Sva with an interesting question:

'In Africa, there are stories of snakes becoming tame when around breast feeding babies. There would even be instances when a breast feeding mother would spray breast milk on the snake to tame it. Is this a legend or is there a scientific explanation to this phenomenon?'

[alancalverd]

Not sure how a "tame" snake would behave qualitatively differently from a wild one. Pet snakes arguably learn to tolerate being handled by humans, but even a pet dog will bite you if you annoy it enough or if it is hungry enough - it's a matter of quantity of provocation.

A snake will only attack  if it is threatened or alarmed, or if it is hungry and sees edible prey that is necessarily smaller than itself. The characteristic qualitative behavior of a breastfeeding mother and child is stillness and relaxation: no sudden movements. And most humans are much larger than most snakes. So (a) no provocation and (b) no contest.