The Doe Friends
The rattlers' father returned to his nest of vipers at day's end.
“Tomorrow we ssshall all go to sssee what I have found that will bring usss all the tender rabbitsss we can sssting and ssswallow.”
And for sure, the next morning, the viper family followed their father for a long journey, until at last, they slithered out of the tall grass into an open area beneath a shade tree. There, at the foot of the tree, lay the body of a dead deer, reduced now to nothing more than its skin and bones.
“The deer and the rabbitsss are friendsss,” the father of vipers said. “Ssso here isss my idea: we ssshall fill the ssskin of the deer and asssk the sssimple-minded rabbitsss out to play. When they have left the sssafety of their warrensss far behind, we ssshall fall on them and eat our fill!”
And so the snake family labored all that day to remove the bones from the dead deer, and then they themselves moved into the hollow carcass:
The strong young brothers occupied the legs and practiced together to make the dead deer seem to walk;
The supple young sisters occupied the head and neck and they learned to work together to make doe eyes and to wiggle the long ears;
The murderous father, whose evil idea it was to take on the appearance of the harmless deer, occupied the central position of the heart to give directions, and;
The mother of the family of deadly snakes, who had the most enticing and sweetest of voices, filled the dead deer's mouth.
As evening approached, the snakes knew that the rabbits would emerge from their warrens to eat and play, so they maneuvered the carcass of the deer on strangely wobbly legs to the fields nearby.
When the first rabbit mother, also called a doe, poked her nose out of the warren to sniff and look for danger before sending out her family toward the dangerous but sweet tall grasses for their dinner, she was surprised to see her friend the doe deer, standing there.
“Hello, my friend deer! We haven't seen each other for many days! I thought perhaps harm had come to you!” said the rabbit doe, still showing only her face out from the warren's door.
“I have been away,” the snake mother said, impersonating well the voice of the departed doe. “Come outssside and eat, my friend, and bring your family!” said the false friend, her head bouncing on her contorting neck, and her body wriggling on top of her oddly wobbling legs. “It isss a fine evening, and we can cavort together in the long grassesss yonder!”
“I know those slitted eyes, and I know that forked tongue,” said the rabbit doe. “And I think that tonight, Mother Snake, the rabbit family will be better off going to bed without any supper at all!”
Moral:
A lying tongue will reveal an evil heart.
posted by Mique @ 4:10 PM
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