Week 11 Story: A Den of Snakes

Once, there lived a boy. He lived a peaceful life with his grandmother and family in the village. He would often go into the woods, hunting birds and bringing them back to feed himself and his grandmother.

The rest of his family was jealous, for he did not share the birds with them. The rest of the village was jealous, for he would not teach others how to hunt the birds as well as him.

The boy's family and his village treated him cruelly. They never caused his body harm, but instead wore him down with cutting words. Despite his love and loyalty for his grandmother, the boy's mind slowly sunk further and further into anguish.

When she learned of what was happening, the grandmother was furious. She threatened all the villagers and her family, telling them that if they continued to act as deceitful snakes, then it would be their fate to turn into snakes.

They laughed at her, and refused to stop.

At last, the boy broke. He left, wandering into the forest and straight into the river. The villagers were smug, and the boy's family celebrated. 'This selfish boy is now gone from our lives,' they cheered.

But then.

From the river that the boy had walked into, a giant snake emerged. It slithered its way to the center of the village, leaving a trail in its wake. Horrified yet curious, the boy's family and the rest of the villagers gathered to watch from what they believed to be a safe distance.

However, the boy's grandmother walked past them all, moving right up to the snake, and greeted him warmly. It took the villagers many moments to realize, but the snake was the boy transformed.

The enormous snake - the boy they had driven out - turned his eyes onto the villagers and his family. He let out a hiss, and all who heard it would swear that they heard a single word in it: 'suffer.'

And they did. A sudden pain came onto each and every member of the village but one, and they writhed as their bodies transformed. From the feet up, they slowly changed into snakes, the agony only increasing the longer this transformation went on.

By the end, every person in the village, the boy's family included, had become a snake, and they mindlessly slithered about on the ground.

The boy's grandmother had not been saved from this fate. However, her change had been free of pain, and so her mind was untouched. Turning her new head to face the boy-turned-snake, the grandmother wrapped her new body around his in a hug. Together, they left the snake-filled village and went to the river.

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Author's Note:

In "The Snake Boy", a boy is treated horribly by his family until he leaves. When he returns, he transforms into a snake and goes into the river. His grandmother grieves until the family's horrible treatment of her drivers her to walk into the river as well.

In "The Snake Man", two hunters go into the woods and one breaks a taboo about eating squirrels, where the price is transforming into a snake, which then happens to him.

I tried to combine these two stories into one, with the boy turning into a snake after he first leaves the village. When he returns, the grandmother's words - that the villagers acting like deceitful snakes would result in them becoming snakes - come true. The boy-turned-snake's gaze transforms everyone into snakes, but the grandmother is the only one who retains her human mind through the transformation.

Bibliography: "The Snake Boy" and "The Snake Man" from Myths of the Cherokee by James Mooney. Web Source.

Image:  Dangerous Cobra by Peka on Pixabay. Web Source.