diff --git a/CHANGELOG.rst b/CHANGELOG.rst
index 56c9c585..e28afe80 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.rst
+++ b/CHANGELOG.rst
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ Bug Fixes
 * Installation doesn't always fall back to no cython in Windows (PYTHON-763)
 * Avoid to replace a connection that is supposed to shutdown (PYTHON-772)
 * request_ids may not be returned to the pool (PYTHON-739)
+* Fix murmur3 on big-endian systems (PYTHON-653)
 
 Other
 -----
diff --git a/cassandra/murmur3.py b/cassandra/murmur3.py
index 61180c01..7c8d641b 100644
--- a/cassandra/murmur3.py
+++ b/cassandra/murmur3.py
@@ -7,7 +7,9 @@ def body_and_tail(data):
     nblocks = l // 16
     tail = l % 16
     if nblocks:
-        return struct.unpack_from('qq' * nblocks, data), struct.unpack_from('b' * tail, data, -tail), l
+        # we use '<', specifying little-endian byte order for data bigger than
+        # a byte so behavior is the same on little- and big-endian platforms
+        return struct.unpack_from('<' + ('qq' * nblocks), data), struct.unpack_from('b' * tail, data, -tail), l
     else:
         return tuple(), struct.unpack_from('b' * tail, data, -tail), l