I can't attack anything?

I started playing Guild Wars (even though it feels the need to redownload the first city every time it loads) and went to the southwest gate into the first instance area, which I don't remember the name of and my first quest was to kill some snakes by the lake. I went down there and clicked on the snakes and tried every other possible key I could think of and my character would never actually attack them. What's going on?

Sorry if this is a stupid question and I'm missing something.

Do you have a weapon equipped? Press 'I' to open your inventory and you should have some sort of starter weapon to use, drag it to your weapon slot and then you should attack.

Yeah that was it. I don't know why I didn't think of it.

Also, I'm not sure if you get any right from the beginning, but check your skills (press "K") as well. Make sure you have the ones you want equipped.