Reading Notes: The Water Snake

Water Snake: Source

• A group of girls went down to the water to swim
• A snake was on the girls clothes and would not get off unless she agreed to marry him
• Some time then passed
• A couple weeks passed and then snakes all came to the house
• They broke in with a ball and grabbed the wailing girl and took her back into the pond
• The snakes all turned into men and women and she lived down there for 3 years and had children with her snakey new husband
• The girl ended up liking it in the pond and eventually came home to show her mother her children
• She had the daughter rest and tricked the snake and cut its head off
• The pond filled with dark red blood
• The daughter ate breakfast then went back to the pond and noticed that the mother had killed her husband
• She weeped with her children and they all turned into birds as they weeped

 Story source: Russian Fairy Tales The Water Snake by W. R. S. Ralston (1887).