THE LANGUAGE OF ANIMALS
By W. S. Karajich
A certain man had a shepherd who had served him faithfully and honestly for many years. One day, as the Shepherd was tending his sheep, he heard a hissing noise in the forest, and wondered what it could he. He went, therefore, into the wood in the direction of the sound, to learn what it was. There he saw that the dry grass and leaves had caught fire, and in the middle of a burning circle a Snake was hissing. The Shepherd stopped to see what the Snake would do, for the fire was burning all around it, and the flames approached it nearer and nearer every moment. Then the Snake cried from amid the fire—
“Oh, Shepherd! for heaven’s sake save me from this fire!”
The Shepherd stretched out his crook over the flames to the Snake, and the Snake passed along it on to his hand, and from his hand it crawled to his neck, where it twisted itself round.
When the Shepherd perceived this, he was greatly alarmed, and said to the Snake—
“What have I done in an evil hour? Have I saved you to my own destruction?”
The Snake answered him, “Fear not, but carry me to my father’s house. My father is the King of the snakes.”
The Shepherd, however, began to beg the Snake to excuse him, saying that he could not leave the sheep; but the Snake answered—
“Be not troubled about the sheep; no harm shall happen to them; only go as fast as you can.”