In an old Chitimacha legend, a huge venomous snake measured in miles stretched from what is now Morgan City beyond St. Martinville and Breaux Bridge to Port Barre and for many years threatened and damaged the Chitimacha way of life. The Chitimacha chief gathered his warriors to fight it using clubs, bows, and arrows tipped with large bones from local garfish because they had no guns and did not use flint arrowheads. The warriors fought courageously, and as the snake slowly died, it turned, coiled, and twisted, broadening, curving, and deepening the place where its body lay. As its body decomposed, that place deepened further, and Bayou Teche, with Teche meaning snake, is held to mark the exact position where the Chitimachas overcame their enemy in the days of their strength.