Being Mindful Stories

Story · Ajahn Brahm

The Pinjarra girl who fed the tiger snake

As told by Ajahn Brahm in Learning How to Live Together | Ajahn Brahm | 2 February 2018

2 min read

Content note: animal death; child death

The story — as told by Ajahn Brahm (verbatim captions)

old people's home in Pinara and because they didn't get any visitors and seeing a monk in there was great you know this old old uh people and one of them told me this wonderful story I don't know how many years ago this would have been maybe 60 or 70 years ago when he saw this he was a young man at the time and this was about 30 years ago. He told me this story and he was you know in the old people's home now so maybe even older but he said that in that area in Pinter one of his friends you know living in one of these simple old houses and saw a um uh he had a daughter maybe four or five years of age and the daughter would ask the mother for a source of milk every morning and the mother you know they thought milk was going to be very healthy for the kid and asking for something We give the daughter a saucer of milk. Now why not a glass? She said no a saucer please. So after a while mom being very busy decided you know what's why does she want a saucer? Why does she drink it you know in the kitchen? Why does she take it outside? And so she followed her little five or six year old daughter and saw the five or sixyear-old daughter place the saucer of milk just on the foot of the house. you know, the the houses on stumps, raised on stumps, just and call out to whatever was living underneath the house. And a big tiger snake came out. And of course, the daughter was only a maybe a foot away from the tiger snake. And the mother freaked out because the tiger snakes were deadly, as many of you know, and her daughter was so close. And the daughter was feeding this tiger snake every day with a saucer of milk. And so she froze and waited for the snake to drink the milk and then slither away and told her her husband the next that evening. And the husband said, "I'll look after this. No need to do anything. Just give our daughter the source of milk tomorrow." Which she did. And so the little girl, five or six years of age, it went outside the house, put the source of milk down, and called out to its friend, the tiger snake. And the tiger snake slithered out. And just before it drank the milk, its head was blasted off by her father's gun, killed right in front of the girl. From that day on, the girl refused to eat. There's nothing they could do to make it to eat. And this old man said, you know, he called it she started ftting. Never heard that word in that context before. Was ftting and ftting. Eventually, she had to be admitted into the local hospital. But even the local hospital couldn't help her and she died in the hospital. Just so much sadness. so much trauma of seeing this snake killed right in front of her. And this old digger said the father might as well shot her daughter's head off at the time

▶ Watch Ajahn Brahm tell it from 36:12 (to 39:37)

A reflection (in the spirit of Ajahn Brahm's talk)

An old digger in Pinjarra told of a little girl who fed a tiger snake milk under the house every morning. Her father shot it in front of her. She stopped eating, faded and died. He might as well have shot her, the old man said. Fear can wound more than we know. Treat animals, and children's bonds with them, with respect.

In brief (our summary)

Elder in a Pinjarra home recalls: a little girl takes a saucer of milk under the stumped house each morning for a tiger snake. Mother finds out; father says leave it — next day he blasts the snake's head off in front of the child. She stops eating, fades, dies in hospital. 'He might as well have shot his daughter.'

Teaching point

Fear that kills the bonded animal can kill the child's heart too.

When this story may help

Themes

Source & credit

Told by Ajahn Brahm in Learning How to Live Together | Ajahn Brahm | 2 February 2018 · 2018-02-02 · ▶ watch from 36:12 to 39:37 · Buddhist Society of Western Australia

1 other telling of this story

Caption notes: YouTube auto-captions: unpunctuated, words left exactly as captioned. 'Pinara'/'Pinter'/'source of milk'/'ftting' = Pinjarra / saucer of milk / fading.

The narrative is Ajahn Brahm's own telling, quoted from the talk captions. The summary and reflection are Being Mindful Stories's editorial notes. Please credit the teacher and link the original talk. Markdown version

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