Reading Notes, Italian Popular Tales, Part A: The Ingrates

Coast Garter Snake

(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Once upon a time there was a man who was gathering food in a forest when he saw a snake stuck under a big rock. The man used his axe to lift the rock and let the snake out. As soon as it was freed, the snake turned to the man and said, "I am going to eat you." The man said "Wait. Let's ask someone if they think this is okay and if they agree with you, you can eat me." They met a horse that was skinny and malnourished and asked it "Is it right for me to eat this man even if he saved my life?" The horse said, "Of course! I supported my master all of his life and look at where it has gotten me. I am going to die of hunger. Don't be a fool like me and eat the man."

Then they came across a mulberry tree that was old and riddled with holes of old age. The snake asked it if it was okay to eat the man who had saved its life. The tree said, "Of course! I have given my owner the finest of fruits and now that I am rotting, he's going to chop me up and burn me for firewood. Take care of yourself and eat him." 

Later they met a fox and the man took the fox aside and told her his situation and begged her to side with him. The fox said, "I can't make a decision until I hear both sides." They went back to where the man freed the snake only to see the snake under the stone. The man cried out, "Where you are, there I will leave you." The snake stayed under the rock. The fox sided with the man and then the next day, the man went to go pay the fox, as he promised her a bag of hens. The man instead gave her a bag of dogs that ate her.

Story source: Italian Popular Tales by Thomas Frederick Crane (1885).