Why Snakes and Frogs are Enemies

The Snake and the Frog were once neighbours, but they were not friends. The Snake was proud and looked down on the Frog. One day, the Snake's child and the Frog's child were playing near the river when the Snake's child fell in and was drowning. He cried for help. The Frog's child bravely jumped in and, with great effort, pushed the young snake to the bank, saving his life. When the mother Snake found out, she was not grateful. Instead, she was angry. "How dare a Frog, a creature of the mud, touch my child?" she hissed. She went to the Frog's house and said, "Your child put his filthy hands on my child. For this insult, I will eat him." The mother Frog pleaded, "But my child saved yours!" The Snake did not care. She ate the young frog. The mother Frog was heartbroken and went to Nyame, the Sky God, to seek justice. Nyame listened to the story and was very angry with the Snake. He declared, "For your pride and your cruelty, you and all your children will forever be cursed. You will crawl on your bellies in the dust, and because you ate the child who saved your own, your greatest enemy and your most desired food shall be the frog." And so it is that snakes crawl on their bellies and will always hunt frogs, who, in turn, flee in terror from the descendants of the one who repaid a great kindness with wicked cruelty.