Indian Fairy Tales

<h2><SPAN name="The_Gold-giving_Serpent" id="The_Gold-giving_Serpent"></SPAN>The Gold-giving Serpent</h2> <div class="figleft1"><ANTIMG src="images/image_0180.jpg" alt="N" width-obs="150" height-obs="154" /></div> <p>ow in a certain place there lived a Brahman named Haridatta. He was a farmer, but poor was the return his labour brought him. One day, at the end of the hot hours, the Brahman, overcome by the heat, lay down under the shadow of a tree to have a doze. Suddenly he saw a great hooded snake creeping out of an ant-hill near at hand. So he thought to himself, &quot;Sure this is the guardian deity of the field, and I have not ever worshipped it. That's why my farming is in vain. I will at once go and pay my respects to it.&quot;</p> <p>When he had made up his mind, he got some milk, poured it into a bowl, and went to the ant-hill, and said aloud: &quot;O Guardian of this Field! all this while I did not know that you dwelt here. That is why I have not yet paid my respects to you; pray forgive me.&quot; And he laid the milk down and went to his house. Next morning he came and looked, and he saw a gold denar in the bowl, and from that time onward every day the same thing occurred: he gave milk to the serpent and found a gold denar.</p> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[113]</SPAN></span>One day the Brahman had to go to the village, and so he ordered his son to take the milk to the ant-hill. The son brought the milk, put it down, and went back home. Next day he went again and found a denar, so he thought to himself: &quot;This ant-hill is surely full of golden denars; I'll kill the serpent, and take them all for myself.&quot; So next day, while he was giving the milk to the serpent, the Brahman's son struck it on the head with a cudgel. But the serpent escaped death by the will of fate, and in a rage bit the Brahman's son with its sharp fangs, and he fell down dead at once. His people raised him a funeral pyre not far from the field and burnt him to ashes.</p> <div class="figcenter"> <ANTIMG src="images/image_0181.jpg" width-obs="400" height-obs="397" alt="" title="" /></div> <p>Two days afterwards his father came back, and when he learnt his son's fate he grieved and mourned. But after a time, he took the bowl of milk, went to the ant-hill, and praised the serpent with a loud voice. After a long, long time the serpent appeared, but only with its head out of the opening of the ant-hill, and spoke to the Brahman: &quot;'Tis greed that brings you here, and makes you even forget the<span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[114]</SPAN></span> loss of your son. From this time forward friendship between us is impossible. Your son struck me in youthful ignorance, and I have bitten him to death. How can I forget the blow with the cudgel? And how can you forget the pain and grief at the loss of your son?&quot; So speaking, it gave the Brahman a costly pearl and disappeared. But before it went away it said: &quot;Come back no more.&quot; The Brahman took the pearl, and went back home, cursing the folly of his son.</p> <hr style="width: 65%;" /> <p><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[115]</SPAN></span></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />