In the book it said: ” boa constrictors swallow their prey whole without chewing. Afterward, they are no longer able to move and they sleep during the six months of their digestion.”
There's just something about clenching most of the basic food groups in your fist and then horking them down like a snake smuggling dinner through airport security.
In the revised story, the Hopping Pot protects an innocent wizard from his torch-bearing, pitchfork- toting neighbors by chasing them away from the wizard's cottage, catching them and swallowing them whole.