The Python - A Folk Tale

Once upon a time, the python was very poisonous, while no other animal had any poison. One day, the python bit an old man and he died and his friends carried him home.

The python wanted to make sure that the old man had indeed died. So it sent a smaller snake to go and see if he had really died. The small snake went to the old man's place, but could not see him. All it could see was a lot of people making a lot of noise with trumpets and guns.

The small snake thought that the people were rejoicing because the old man had come home alive. It hurried back to the python and told it what it had seen. On hearing this, the python was so annoyed that it spat out its poison and swore never to bite anyone again. Some of the poison fell on some thorns, and they began to sting from then.

The rest of the poison landed on the ground and was eaten up by the ants, wasps and the smaller snakes.

From then on, all these have been poisonous, while the python has been non-poisonous.