The Kindness of the Heron (2)

"Help!" shouted the farmer. "There's a snake in my belly, and he won't come out!"

"I'll help you," said a kind-hearted heron. She reached down into the man's belly with her long beak, pulled the snake out, and killed it.

"I still feel sick from the poison inside me," the farmer said.

"To counteract the poison, you must kill a white bird, cook it, and eat it," the heron explained.

Seeing that the heron was a white bird, he grabbed her by the neck and took her home. "Kill this bird," the farmer told his wife, "and then cook it."

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Inspired by: "The Nature of the Beast" in African folk tales by Roger Abrahams, 1983.
Notes: You can read the original story online. This is a Hausa story, and it starts here: The Kindness of the Farmer. See what happens next: The Kindness of the Farmer's Wife.

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