Character Index | Proverb Index
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| Character Index | Proverb Index |
One winter a Farmer found a Snake stiff and frozen with cold. He had compassion on it, and taking it up, placed it under his coat. The Snake was quickly revived by the warmth, and resuming its natural instincts, bit its benefactor, inflicting on him a mortal wound.
Townsend version
One winter a Farmer found a Snake stiff and frozen with cold. He had compassion on it, and taking it up, placed it in his bosom. The Snake was quickly revived by the warmth, and resuming its natural instincts, bit its benefactor, inflicting on him a mortal wound. "Oh," cried the Farmer with his last breath, "I am rightly served for pitying a scoundrel."
Moral
The greatest kindness will not bind the ungrateful.
L'Estrange version
A countryman happen'd in a hard winter to spy a snake under a hedg, that was half frozen to death. The man was good natur'd, and took it up, and kept it in his bosom, till warmth brought it to life again; and so soon as ever it was in condition to do mischief, it bit the very man that sav'd the life on't. Ah thou ungrateful wretch! says he, is that venomous ill nature of thine to be satisfi'd with nothing less than the ruine of thy preserver.
Moral
There are some men like some snakes; 'tis natural to them to be doing mischief; and the greater the benefit on the one side, the more implacable is the malice on the other.
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Tom Simondi, All Rights Reserved