0024. The Frog and the Snake

From The Talking Thrush and Other Tales from India by William Crooke and W. H. D. Rouse with illustrations by W. H. Robinson, online at: Project Gutenberg.

Notes. The author's note to the story gives the folk source: "Told by Akbar Sháh, Mánjhi, one of the jungle-folk of Manbasa, Dudhi, Mirzápur, and recorded by Pandit Ramgharíb Chaubé."  You can read more about the city of Mirzapur at Wikipedia.

Summary: A story about an overly confident frog and a decidedly poisonous snake.

Read the story below:

---

THE FROG AND THE SNAKE

(W. H. Robinson)

A Frog and a Snake had a quarrel as to which could give the more deadly bite. They agreed to try it on the next opportunity.

A Man came to bathe in the pond where these two creatures lived. The Snake bit him under the water, while the Frog floated on the top.

"Something has bitten me!" the Man called out to his friends.

"What is it?" they asked.

Then he saw the Frog swimming on the top of the water. "Oh, it's only a Frog," said he. Then he went away, and no harm came of it.

The next time that Man came to bathe in the pond, the Frog bit him under the water, while the Snake swam on the top.

"Oh dear!" said the Man, "a Snake has bitten me!"

The Man died.

"Now," said the Frog, "you will admit that my bite is more poisonous than yours."

"I deny it altogether," said the Snake.

So they agreed to refer their dispute to the King of the Snakes. The Snake King listened to their arguments, and decided in favour of the Snake, and said the Man had died of fright.

"Of course," grumbled the Frog, "the Snake King sides with the Snake."

So both of them bit the Frog, and he died, and that was the end of him.