The Tale of Two Snakes

In a certain city lived a king named Godlike. His son was wasting away a little more every day, because a snake had made its home inside the prince’s belly instead of in an ant-hill. Sad and ashamed, the prince left home and went to a far-off country. In one of its cities he lived as a beggar and spent his days in a great temple.

The king of that city was called Gift, and he had two grown-up daughters. Every morning they bowed at his feet. One of them greeted him with “Victory, O King!” The other always said, “May you get what you deserve, O King.”

This greeting made the king angry. “Counsellors,” he said, “this girl wishes me ill. Give her to some foreigner, and let her get what she deserves.” The counsellors agreed, and they gave the princess, with only a few maids, to the beggar prince who lived in the temple.

The princess was not upset at all. She was happy to have him, treated her husband with great respect, and travelled with him to another country. In a distant city they made their home by the edge of a pond. One day she left the prince to look after the house while she went to the market with her maids to buy butter, oil, salt and rice.

When she came back, she found her husband asleep with his head resting on an ant-hill. A hooded snake had stuck its head out of his mouth to take some air. At the same moment another snake crawled out of the ant-hill for the same reason.

The two snakes saw each other, and their eyes went red with anger. “You wretch!” said the ant-hill snake. “How can you torment such a handsome prince?”

“Wretch yourself!” said the snake in the prince’s mouth. “How can you spoil those two pots of gold?” So each one told the other’s secret.

“You villain,” said the ant-hill snake, “does nobody know how easy it would be to kill you? He only has to drink black mustard.”

“And does nobody know how easy it would be to kill you?” said the belly snake. “Someone only has to pour hot water into your ant-hill.”

The princess was hiding behind a branch and heard every word. She did exactly what the snakes had said. Her husband was cured, and she dug up the gold. When she went back to her own country, her father, her mother and all her family honoured her, and she lived happily. She had got what she deserved.

About this story

Arthur W. Ryder’s 1925 translation of the Panchatantra calls this tale “The Snake in the Prince’s Belly.” It is told in Book III, “Crows and Owls,” to show how two enemies can ruin each other by revealing each other’s weak point.

The princess’s greeting, “May you get what you deserve,” is the joke of the story. Her father means it as a punishment, but in the end it comes true in her favour.

Read the original: Arthur W. Ryder, The Panchatantra (1925), Internet Archive

Best for ages 9–12 — a fairy-tale shape with a sharp lesson about secrets and enemies; the snake-in-the-belly idea may upset very young listeners.

A closer reading

Both conflicts begin with an interpretation of speech. King Gift hears a wish for justice as an insult. The snakes, intent on insulting each other, speak more revealingly than they intend. The princess succeeds by listening to the actual information instead of reacting to wounded pride.

Her father’s punishment does not produce the happy ending by itself. Her travel, attention and action do. ‘Getting what she deserves’ therefore carries irony, but it should not imply that illness or poverty is deserved by everyone who suffers it. The snake in the body and its cure are magical story elements, not a description of illness or medical treatment.

Try this with the story

Compare the daughter’s greeting with the snakes’ insults. For each, write what the speaker intends and what the listener understands or gains. Explain how the princess’s response differs from her father’s.

Talk about it

• Why does the king hear a wish for fairness as a threat?
• What information do the snakes reveal while trying to hurt each other?
• Which actions by the princess change her circumstances?

More stories like this

• Of Crows and Owls — the Book III frame story
• The Brahmin and the Cobra — another Panchatantra snake and hidden gold
• Frogs That Rode a Snake — a snake who outwits his enemies