for having sent him away, and all was joy and peace again.



THE GOLD-GIVING SERPENT

Now 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, "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."

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: "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." 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.

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: "This ant-hill is surely full of golden denars;
I'll kill the serpent, and take them all for myself." 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