THIS story was told me by a woman who lives here in Genoa during the
winter, but goes up into the mountains for the summer. She says she is
quite sure it is true: “_ma poi non lo so_.” I wish I could tell it as
well as she did:—
* * * * *
Not far from the villa where she goes in the summer, a stream makes a
pool where the women go to do their washing. The pool is surrounded by
stones and rocks, and once when the women were washing they noticed a
very large snake (_biscia_) gliding among the rocks. They watched him
and saw that at a certain place he stopped, put something down behind
a stone, and went away. The women went to look, and found his poison
like two little horns. In the evening he came back, went to the place
where he had hidden his fangs, found them, and fixed them in position
again. This happened several days in succession, until one of the
women suggested that they should steal the poison-fangs, and see what
happened. So the next day they took them into the house with them, and
stood at the window to watch the _biscia_. When he came back and could
not find his poison fangs, he gave every sign of the utmost surprise;
he looked again and again behind the stone where he had left them, as
though to say:—“This was certainly the place!” He examined all the
stones round the pool, and at last, hissing with rage, began to dash
his head against the stones. And the women were watching him all the
time from the window. After a while he was so overcome with despair
that he gave his head an extra hard knock and split open his skull so
that he died.