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古时候，有一个很漂亮的女人，男人见了她没有一个不回头的。后来，她结婚了，可不久丈夫就死了。但是她马上又找了一个。一年里,她就找了五个丈夫，他们都是部落里最聪明、最帅气、最勇敢的人。后来她又一次结婚了。 她的第六任丈夫，是个沉默寡言的人,人们把他当作傻瓜。但是他比人们想象得要聪明。他仔细考虑了之后认为这个女人一定有一些奇怪的秘密。他决定查个明白。因此，他白天黑夜一直留意着她。 时值夏天，女人提议去森林里摘浆果，然后在那里宿营。不久，他们来到了森林里，女人建议他去他们打算宿营的地方建个棚屋。丈夫答应会去的，但只是稍稍走进了林子一点儿,在那里观察她。 女人确信他离开了，就起身快步向前走。他跟着她，没有让她看到。女人一直走,来到一个池塘边。她坐下来，唱了一首歌。一股巨浪在水面上升起，然后浪花里出现了一条大蛇的尾巴。这个动物身躯非常庞大。 女人脱掉所有衣在一边，拥抱着大蛇。蛇缠在她身上，裹住她的四肢和身体。丈夫看到了这一切都明白了:蛇的毒液渗进了女人的身体，女人随后把毒液传给别人来挽救自己的生命。 他接着去宿营的地方建了一个棚屋，做了两张床，生了一堆火。妻子回来了，说应该只有一张床。但丈夫强烈地要求她一个人睡。妻子很怕他。 妻子躺下就睡着了。夜里他起来三次添柴。每次叫妻子都没有反应。早晨他推了推她，发现她已经死了，被蛇的毒液毒死了。 人们把她放进了池塘里,那是她爱的大蛇居住的地方。 The Woman Who Loved a Lake Serpent In old times, there was a very beautiful woman. She turned the heads of all the men. She married, and her husband died very soon after, but she immediately took another. Within a single year she had five husbands, and these were the cleverest and handsomest and bravest in the tribe. And then she married again. This, the sixth, was such a silent man that he passed for a fool. But he was wiser than people thought. He came to believe, by thinking it over, that this woman had some strange secret. He resolved to find it out. So he watched her all the time. He kept his eye on her by night and by day. It was summer, and she proposed to go into the woods to pick berries, and to camp there. By and by, when they were in the forest, she suggested that he should go on to the spot where they intended to remain and build a wigwam. He said that he would do so. But he went a little way into the woods and watched her. As soon as she believed that he was gone, she rose and walked rapidly onwards. He followed her, unseen. She went on till she came to a pond. She sat down and sang a song. A great foam rose to the surface of the water. Then in the foam appeared the tail of a serpent. The creature was of immense size. The woman, who had laid aside all her garments, embraced the serpent, which twined around her，enveloping all her limbs and body in his folds. The husband watched it all. He now understood that, the venom of the serpent having entered the woman, she had saved her life by transferring it to others, who died. He went on to the camping ground and built a wigwam. He made up two beds. He built a fire. His wife came. She said that there should be only a single bed. He sternly bade her lie by herself. She was afraid of him. She laid down and went to sleep. He arose three times during the night to replenish the fire. Every time he called her, and there was no answer. In the morning he shook her. She was dead. She had died by the poison of the serpent. They sunk her in the pond where the snake she loved lived. |
