An old woman lived with her daughter near a lake where the girl often bathed with her friend. One day, when they were bathing, a water snake came out and sat on the girl’s dress on the bank. So, the old woman’s daughter could not wear it, because the snake sat on it.
“I’ll let you take your dress if you agree to marry me,” said the snake.
Her friend whispered, “No one can marry a snake. Just try to understand. Then he’ll return your dress and we can go home!”
So, the girl agreed and the snake slid back into the lake. The girl ran home to tell her mother what had happened.
“Don’t be silly! Who has ever heard of a girl marrying a snake?” said her mother.
And so they forgot all about it. After one week, the girl looked out of the window and saw a huge collection of snakes coming towards their house.
She called out to her mother, terrified. They shut the doors and the windows to keep out the snakes. The snakes, however, rolled themselves into a large ball and hurled themselves at the window, breaking it and entering the room.
The woman shrieked and climbed on to a table. The snakes carried off the girl to the lake.
Underwater, they all became men and women. The girl married the snake, who loved her dearly.
Three years passed by. The girl was very happy and had a son and a daughter. One day, she wished to meet her mother. Her husband led her to the bank.
“To return, call out, ‘Osip! Osip! Come to me!’ And I will come to you,” said her husband. He returned to the lake, while she went with her children to her mother’s home.
Her mother was delighted and they had dinner. She asked her about life in the lake.
“I have a wonderful life there,” said the girl, “Much better than your life here!”
The old woman asked her daughter how she would go back, and her daughter told her.
As she slept, her mother took a sharp axe and went to the lake. When Osip came in reply to her call, the old woman chopped off his head with the axe. Then she returned to her cottage and said nothing to her daughter.
In the morning when her daughter returned to the lake, she saw Osip’s head floating in the water.
Heart-broken, she turned her daughter into a wren and her son into a nightingale. She became a cuckoo and lived near the lake.
