THE WHITE SNAKE

Every day at noon a covered dish was placed on the king's table. Then, after everyone left, the king would eat alone from this dish, and nobody in the entire realm knew what kind of food was in it. One of the servants became curious and wanted to know what the dish contained. On one occasion, after the king had ordered him to take the dish away, he could no longer restrain himself. So he took the dish to his room and uncovered it. As he lifted the cover, he found a white snake lying inside, and once he laid his eyes on it, he felt a great desire to taste some of it. So he cut off a piece and began eating it. No sooner did his tongue touch the flesh of the snake than he understood the language of animals and heard what the birds on the window sill were saying to each other.

On this very same day the queen lost one of her most beautiful rings, and the suspicion fell on him. The king also said that if he was not able to find the thief by morning, he himself would be punished as if he had been the guilty person. The servant became sad and went down into the courtyard, where some ducks were resting in the water. As he was watching them, he heard one of them say, "There's something heavy in my stomach. I ate a ring that the queen has lost."

The servant took the duck and carried it to the cook, "Kill this one. It's fat enough."

So the cook cut off the duck's neck, and when he began cleaning it, the queen's ring was lying in its stomach. The servant brought it to the king, who was astonished and happy. Since he was sorry that he had treated the servant unjustly, he said, "Demand whatever you would like and whatever position of royal honor you would like."

However, the servant declined every offer even though he was young and handsome. His heart was sad, and he didn't want to remain at the court any longer. So he asked only for a horse and for money to travel and see the world. Well, he was provided with everything in the very best way.

The next morning he rode off and came to a pond where three fish were trapped in the reeds and were wailing that they'd have to die if they couldn't get back into the water. So he dismounted, took them out of the reeds, and put them back into the water. Then the fish cried out: "We'll remember you, and one day we'll repay you."

He rode on, and a while later he heard an ant king crying out: "Get away from us! Your enormous beast is trampling us with his large hooves!"

The young man looked down to the ground and saw that his horse had stepped on an ant hill. So he turned his horse away, and the ant king called out: "We'll remember you, and one day we'll repay you."

Soon the servant entered a forest where two ravens were throwing their young ones out of their nests. They said that their tiny ones were now big enough and could feed themselves.

The young birds lay on the ground and screamed that they would die from starvation because their wings were still too small, and they couldn't fly yet and search for food. So the young man dismounted, killed his horse with his sword, and threw the horse to the young ravens. They hopped over to the horse, ate their fill, and said, "We'll remember this, and one day we'll repay you."

The young man moved on and came to a large city, where he heard a proclamation that whoever wanted to marry the king's daughter would have to perform a task given by her, and if he didn't complete it successfully, he would forfeit his life. Many princes had already been there and had lost their lives, so there was nobody any more who dared to try. This is why the princess had the proclamation issued again. The servant thought about it and decided to declare himself as a suitor. So he was led out to the sea, where a ring was thrown into it. He was to fetch it, and if he came out of the water without it, he'd be pushed back into the sea and would have to die in the water. As he was standing on the shore, the three fish that he had taken from the reeds and thrown into the water came swimming toward him. One of the fish held a shell in its mouth, and the ring was in the shell. The fish set it down on the beach at the feet of the young man, who was full of joy. So he brought the ring to the king and demanded the princess. However, when the princess heard that he wasn't a prince, she refused to accept him. Instead, she scattered ten sacks full of millet seeds in the grass. He was to pick them all up before sunrise the next day, and every single grain was to be gathered or else he'd lose his life. All at once the ant king came with all his ants whom the young man had protected, and they picked up the millet seeds during the night and poured them back into the sacks. By morning they had finished the task. When the princess saw that the sacks had been filled, she was astonished, and the young man was brought before her. Since he was handsome, she liked him but demanded that he perform a third task: he was to fetch an apple from the Tree of Life. As he stood there and thought about how he might get it, one of the ravens whom he had fed with his horse came and brought the apple in its beak. This is how he became the princess's husband, and, when her father died, he became king of the entire country.