THE MOSQUITO AND THE GRASS SNAKE
A mosquito was out on patrol, buzzing over a pond, when she saw a very long grass snake slithering in the mud.
She approached cautiously, and said from above: “Slither along! Slither along! Go on eating slime and rotten things, there really isn’t a more wretched being than you in this world! And
while you roll around in the greenish slime, I fly around in the deep blue air.”
The grass snake somehow managed; maybe it was a miracle from some God, to stand up completely straight in the middle of the mud and water. She glared at the mosquito and said angrily: ” If you came down for just a moment, the first thing I would do would be to eat you! I may live in the stench, but I’ll never be as despised and loathed as you!
On the contrary, compared to you I’m happy and don’t envy you at all: you who feed off the blood of children and the young, and in return with the diseases you bring, you give them death…”