The sun baked it hard, Piru stretched it long.
St. Peter sees the 'toad's' slaver on the rock,
The evil one's slime upon the weathered rock.
21He looks at it, he turns it [to see] what the clod on the rock is.
He began to talk about it.
"What would become of that and into what would it take shape,
If thou, Lord, bestowed life, if thou, O God, gave it eyes by spells?"
25The great Creator says, the spotless God speaks thus:
"Evil would come from evil, a 'toad' from a 'toad's' seed,
A hideous one from a fatherless one, a useless one from a motherless."
St. Peter says—breaks forth in words a second time:
"Kindly accord it life, O Lord, form eyes for it by spells, O God,
Let it move through withered grass, go rustling through grassy tufts,
Creep among roots of trees, observe the heather stalks."
Immediately the Lord gave life—God made it eyes by spells,
To the vomit of the evil man—the slaver of the hideous 'toad'
From that then the "cunning one" originated—the evil 'pod' increased,
A snake began to hiss—a black 'worm' to writhe,
To move on its belly along the ground, to crawl upon its stomach.
Variants.
21. He turns it with his stick, v. He tried it with his ringer,
25. Good Jesus made reply: "No need to give an evil being life."
(c.)
