Note 2 — The Cobra and the Polan̆gā

The account given to me is as follows:—[The Paṇḍitayā said,] “O Lord, Your Majesty, I myself will tell you a story, be pleased to hear it.” Having said this he began thus:—“At a time, at a city a widow-mother reared a Mungus. The widow-mother alone takes firewood and water home. One day the woman having placed her child in the house, while the Mungus stays there she went for firewood. Having gone for firewood, when she was returning, the Mungus,2 having blood smeared on its body and head, came in front of the widow-woman. The woman thought that having indeed bitten her child it came here. At the time when through anger at it she struck the Mungus with the firewood sticks that were in her hand, causing it to fall, it died.