Snake In The Grass

When Appacha was young, people were aware what a gift life was. In a second's time you could lose your life from disease or a falling tree or lightning. 

When Appacha was only a toddler, he remembers watching his older sister die of diphtheria. This terrible disease almost doesn't exist any more because of vaccines but there were no immunisations in those days. 

However, running around on the farm and in the surrounding fields with his twin sister, Appacha the boy did not waste time worrying about death and dying. 

Until, one day, he ran across a field overgrown with weeds and felt a sharp sting on his leg. He kept running, climbed over the fence and then froze. Sitting astride the fence, he slowly looked down ; two tiny beads of blood had appeared on his skin. 

In his mind's eye he could almost see the snake he had stepped on as he ran, it's wide open jaws, it's angry fangs, it's long body arched before it bit him. He began to shiver with terror.

His sister Maria who had run ahead suddenly stopped. It must have been the twin telepathy that told her something was not right. When she saw her brother sitting unable to move from sheer fear, she ran home shouting and screaming. 

The family rushed to the scene. Appacha's mother began to wail. Several of the women joined her. She had already lost one child and now, to lose another... and that too, a boy!

From the neighbour came an idea. There was a famous medicine man who lived nearby. His specialty was curing snake bites. The child must be taken to him and treatment must be started immediately if there was to be any hope of survival.

Appacha was taken in a procession to the medicine man's house. The old man with his glowering eyebrows and wrinkled skin was almost as frightening to the boy as the thought of dying from snake bite. Sweat ran down his shirtless chest. His fingers were gnarled and he had dirty nails.  After a careful examination, the doctor began to grind leaves and powders together to make a foul smelling paste. 

The paste was put on the wound and a night long vigil was ordered. 

In the meantime, the young men had gone to the field to find the snake. Armed with beating sticks they searched the undergrowth. The medicine for the bite would work better if the attacking snake was dead. 

They couldn't find a snake but they found a sharp twig sticking up out of the mud in the middle of the field. 

The next morning, Appacha was still alive. The medicine man received much glory for saving the boy. The wound became infected but that was a minor price to pay for the child's life. Appacha still has the scar on his leg.