When the little daughter-in-law saw them all wriggling
about, she was frightened out of her wits. She let the lamp slip
out of her hands. It fell on the ground and burnt all the little
snakes' tails off. The snake-queen did her best to comfort them,
but the stumps of the little princes' tails ached so dreadfully that
it was ever so long before the snake-queen could put them off to
sleep. When the snake-king came home that evening, she told him what
had happened. And she was so cross with the little daughter-in-law,
that the snake-king had to promise that she should go back to her
father-in-law's house. A few days later, the snake-king assumed once
again the guise of a Brahman, and, loading the little daughter-in-law
with presents, took her back to her husband's home. In the course of
time the little snake-princes grew up, but their tails never grew
again. So their father, the snake-king, called one little prince,
No-tail; and the second little prince, Cut-tail; and the third little
prince, Dock-tail. And one day they asked the snake-queen how it was
that their tails had been broken off.
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