—then only a few days had passed before the snake bit the man’s son. His father was terrified; he sent for khawāʾ, for theriac (antidote), and for every other remedy, but nothing helped, and the boy died. The parents’ anguish grew so severe that it blotted out every pleasure they had ever drawn from the snake.
They declared, “Keeping this snake near us brings no benefit; the sound judgment is to kill it and be rid of it.” When the snake heard their words, it disappeared for several days; they saw nothing of it and collected none of its eggs. As the absence dragged on, the couple began to long for the wealth they had once obtained from it. They went to its burrow with incense, repeating, “Come back to what you used to do; harm us not, and we will not harm you.” Hearing this, the snake returned, and their happiness revived, though it was laced with the bitterness of their loss. For two full years after that they noticed no mischief from it.
Then the snake crept up to the man’s wife as she slept beside him and bit her. She screamed; her husband leapt up and treated her with theriac and every remedy he knew, but it was useless, and the woman died. The man was left solitary, lonely, grief-stricken, and fearful.
He revealed the whole affair to his brothers and close friends, who urged him to kill the snake. They said, “You were negligent once its treachery and evil companionship became clear; by tolerating it you have been gambling with your own life.”
So the man set out, firmly resolved to kill it, convinced there was no other course. While he was watching for it, he peered into its hole and found a flawless pearl inside, weighing a full mithqal. Greed seized him; Satan deceived him, and a joy even greater than his first swept over him. He said, “Time itself has changed the nature of this snake; I suppose its venom too has changed, just as its eggs have.”
From that moment he began to tend its burrow—sweeping it, perfuming it with incense, sprinkling it with water and sweet basil. The snake grew precious to him, and he delighted in that pearl with intense pleasure, marveling at it and forgetting all that had happened with the snake before, and he set about to