Lac venenatum
The Poisoned Milk
A man holds a grand banquet, and runs out of milk to serve to his guests. He sends out a servant girl to buy more. As she returns from the market with the jar of milk balanced upon her head, a bird flies overhead carrying a poisonous snake in its beak. The snake's venom drips from its body and fangs, and falls directly into the open mouth of the jar of milk. The servant does not notice, and serves the milk to her master and his guests, all of whom sicken and die.
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Nishimura notes relevant motifs and analogues: Motifs: TMI N332.3: Serpent carried by bird lets poison drop into milk and poisons drinkers. See also B331.3: Faithful falcon killed through misunderstanding, B521.1: Animal warns against poison, B521.2.1: Eagle saves man from falling wall. Analogues: Gobu Ritsu, 27 (Taishozo, 22, 180a); Juju Ritsu, 41.17.2.3 (Taishozo 23, 297b~c); Arabian Nights, Night 5, ‘The Tale of King Sindibad’ (A hawk warns of poison); The Twenty-five Tales of the Corpse, 13 ‘Who Killed the Brahmin?’; Kathasaritsagara, ch. 87, ‘163G(13): The Brahman Harisvamin, who first lost his Wife, and then his Life’; Aesop’s Fables, 395 ‘The Serpent and the Eagle’ (After being saved from a snake, an eagle warns of poison in man's cup); Aptonius 28 and Ailianos, On Animals, 17.37); Nihon Mukashibanashi Tsukan, 28, ‘Type Index’, 385 ‘Requiting Chicken’. See also Aesop’s Fables, 296 ‘The Farmer and the Eagle’ Additional bibliography: Chauvin VIII 25; Landau 20; Nihon Mukashibanashi Tsukan, ‘Kenkyuhen 2’, 385. |
| Critical Literature |
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| Nishimura (2001), Clouston (1884), Perry (1959) |
| Lac venenatum appears in the following versions and secondary versions |
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| Lac venenatum is narrated in the following occurrences |
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| Lac venenatum appears in the following manuscripts |
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