Atondido Stories
The Story of a Shepherd Who Slept all Winter
Once upon a time there was a shepherd who was called Batcha.
During the summer he pastured his flocks high up on the moun-
tain where he had a little hut and a sheepfold.
One day in autumn while he was lying on the ground, idly
blowing his pipes, he chanced to look down the mountain slope.
There he saw a most amazing sight. A great army of snakes,
hundreds and hundreds in number, was slowly crawling to a
rocky cliff not far from where he was lying.
When they reached the cliff, every serpent bit off a leaf from
a plant that was growing there. They then touched the cliff with
the leaves and the rock opened. One by one they crawled inside.
When the last one had disappeared, the rock closed.
Batcha blinked his eyes in bewilderment.
"What can this mean?" he asked himself. "Where are they
gone? I think I'll have to climb up there myself and see what that
plant is. I wonder will the rock open for me?"
He whistled to Dunay, his dog, and left him in charge of the
sheep. Then he made his way over to the cliff and examined the
mysterious plant. It was something he had never seen before.
He picked a leaf and touched the cliff in the same place where
the serpents had touched it. Instantly the rock opened.
Batcha stepped inside. He found himself in a huge cavern the
walls of which glittered with gold and silver and precious
stones. A golden table stood in the center and upon it a monster
serpent, a very king of serpents, lay coiled up fast asleep. The
other serpents, hundreds and hundreds of them, lay on the
ground around the table. They also were fast asleep. As Batcha
walked about, not one of them stirred.
Batcha sauntered here and there examining the walls and the
golden table and the sleeping serpents. When he had seen
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