Snakes mateing?

how do snakes mate?

they lay eggs I thought

not all snakes lay eggs. some like the anaconda and the garter snake give birth to live babies.
how they mate, the female gives off a pheromone that attracts lots of males, these males swarm her in an attempt to be her mate, this is called a 'mating ball' eventually male and female join together- fertilization takes place- and a little bit later- little live snakes crawling around.

The eggs comes AFTER the mating, of course. And as baldwinwolf points out, some snakes lay eggs that hatch later, and some snakes give birth to live young.

But let's go a little further:

... there are all sorts of legends and myths of mating snakes - what happens if you see them mating, or disturb them. Almost always, it brings bad luck.

The most famous legend certains the prophet Tiresias in ancient Greek. As a young man, he disturbed two snakes when they were mating, and was immediately changed into a woman. Later (some say it was seven years later) the same thing happened, and then he was changed back into a man.. Now, having been both a man and a woman gave him all sorts of insights. Once Hera (wife of Zeus, the 'king god') was quarreling with Zeus about whether the man or the woman gets the most pleasure from sex. They called in Tiresias, who said 'the woman'.

Now, isn't that interesting to think about?.