Snakes
Poisonous snake (lit. needle snake) sings mostly when it wants to go inside someone. It would be singing more or less like a grasshopper: chirp, chirp, chirp. People nowadays don’t believe anything anymore, but the snake may get angry at someone, then get up and run after them. Sometimes it throws itself in a ring in the air and follows you. Then it may want to jump at your neck and when you forget that your mouth is open while running, it climbs straight into your mouth. When I was a young man, a young girl was buried in Koeru Chapel. People said that the snake had been running after the girl for so long that she got tired, and then it climbed into her mouth and thereafter the girl died. But other people told that there had been one man who wanted this girl but she did not want him, and so he let a witch send a snake after her to get into her and kill her.
Nõeluss laulab enamasti siis, kui ta tahab kellegile sisse minna. Ta laulvat umbes nagu rohutirts, ikka sirts, sirts, sirts, jn. Nüüdse aja inimesed ei usu enam midagi, ega usta kedagi. Mõne inimese piale ta saavat vihaseks, siis ajavat teine kohe püsti ka jookseb järele ka. Vahest viskab ennast kohe rõngas õhus sinule järele, siis tahtvat kaela karata ja kui sa jooksmisest suu lahti unustad ronib kohe suhu. Kui mina alles noormees olin, siis maeti Koeru kabelis ühte noort tüdrukud, siis rahvas rääkis, et ajand ka tüdrukud nii kaua taga, kui see ära väsind ja siis läind suhu ja tüdruk surnd siis selle pärast ära. Mõned rääkisid siis jälle nii, et olnd üks mees, kes taht seda tüdrukud ja tüdruk põle teda taht, siis see mees oli last nõiduda nõida ühte ussi, kes ta sisse läks ja ta ära tappis.
A woman went to prepare young leafed branches . She saw a snake having babies, and she was thinking to herself that the snake also has the suffering of a woman in delivery. Thereafter something is taken to such women, but who would give something to the snake? The woman had a sandwich with her. She split it into two and gave half to the snake. Thereafter some time passed; a long time passed. One day this woman went to the sauna with her old mother and her children. While she was in the sauna she saw a snake come in from under the wall with a rouble coin in her mouth. She had come to give a rouble coin to the woman who had given her a sandwich when she was in delivery.
Naine läinud lehiseid tegema. Näinud, et uss poegib. Mõtelnud endamisi, et näe, temal ka tarenaise (nurganaise) haigus. Siis ikka käiakse ja viiakse midagi, kes temale viib? Olnud naisel võidleiba ka ühes. Murdnud siis võiuleiva pooleks ja viinud ussile. Läinud siis aega mööda, kuipalju läinud. Lehesel käija naine läinud oma vana emakese ja lastega sauna. Olnud parajasti saunas, kui näinud, et uss tuleb müüri alt sisse, rublatükk suus. Ta tuli sauna toda rublatükki naisele tooma selle eest, et naine talle sünnitamise aegu võidleiba andis.
When Noah went to the Ark before the flood, he took along all kinds of animals with him but he did not take the poisonous snake1. When during the flood, the Ark set sail, the poisonous snake pressed himself into a gimlet hole in the bottom of the Ark that Noah had forgotten to close, and this is how the snakes survived on the earth.
1 Viper, lit. ‘needle snake’ here.