Man ran to see who needed help. It was Snake, trapped under a fallen tree. Man lifted the tree, and Snake slithered out.
"Now I'll bite you!" she said.
"That's not fair!" Man protested.
"It is!"
"It isn't!"
Rabbit heard them arguing. "What happened exactly?" he asked.
Snake and Man explained.
"I still don't understand," said Rabbit. "Show me!"
So Snake got back under the tree, and then Rabbit yelled, "Quick, Man: hit her in the head with a branch and kill her."
Man did so.
Rabbit laughed, and then ran before Man could do the same to him.
Inspired by: Young Brer Rabbit and Other Trickster Tales from the Americas by Jaqueline Shachter Weiss.
Notes: This story is on p. 60: "The Fair Judge." Weiss notes that the story comes from Colombia. Weiss has a detailed version where they go first to Ox as judge who says ingratitude is the way of the world, and then they ask Horse, who also rules against Man, but then Rabbit gets Snake to crawl back under the tree and urges Man to kill her, but he then runs off, afraid the man might kill him and eat him too. For the Brer Rabbit version collected by Harris, see: Brer Wolf under a Rock; in this version, Rabbit foolishly rescues Wolf, and Tortoise is the judge.
Haha the snake is too gullible for words!
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