once began to question his
mother about his marriage; his mother told him that they intended to
have the bride brought home that year, but the prince was impatient
and proposed that he should go off at once to his father-in-law's and
see his wife, and try to persuade them to let her come back with him
without any ceremony; his mother made no objection, so he got ready
for the journey and started off on horseback. He had not gone far
when he saw a field of thatching grass on fire, and in the middle,
surrounded by the flames, was a huge poisonous snake, unable to escape.

As the prince rode by, the snake called out to him "Prince, you are
going joyously to bring home your bride, and here am I in danger of
being burned alive; will you not have pity on me and save me? If you do
I will confer a boon on you." "But if I save you," objected the prince,
"you will only eat me: snakes do not know what gratitude is." "I am
not of that kind," answered the snake: "here I am in danger of death,
I beseech you to have pity on me." These pleadings prevailed and the
prince got off his horse and beat out the fire and then spread a cloth
over the embers so that the snake could crawl out. When the snake was
safe the prince asked for the boon that had been promised him: "No boon
will you get" said the snake: "you did a foolhardy thing in saving me,
for now I am going to eat you, and you cannot escape from me."

The prince saw that there was little hope for him but he begged the
snake to allow two or three judges to decide whether it was fair that
he should be killed, after what he had done. The snake agreed to this
provided that the judges were not human beings; he was willing to be
bound by the opinions of any one else.

They set out together to look for judges and soon saw a herd of cattle
resting under a banyan tree by a pool of water, so they agreed to
make these their judges; then the prince explained to one of the
cows and the banyan tree and the water what they were to decide,
whether it was fair for the snake, whose life he had saved, now to
want to kill him. The banyan tree was the first to answer: it said
"You did good to the snake and your wages for doing good are evil;
you saved his life and he will now kill you, this is fair, this is
the justice we have learnt from human beings; you enjoy the shade of
us trees and in return you lop off our branches and sit on them, and
do us all manner of injury; it is right that the snake sho