The River Snake in Bompas’s Ho Tale

Overview

A woman returning from a distant village finds her way blocked by a flooded river. She cannot wade through its depth and strong current, and night is approaching when a great snake emerges and offers to carry her across for a reward. With no possessions to give, she promises a relationship with her unborn child: a daughter will marry the snake, while a son will become his name friend, called juri in the printed account. The snake carries her safely on his back. A daughter is born, but years pass and the mother forgets her oath until the snake confronts her while she fetches water.

The mother brings her daughter to the bank. The snake draws the girl beneath the water, and she lives with him at the bottom of the river. Over the years they have four snake sons. When she later visits her mother, her brothers assume that she had drowned; she explains that she is married and has children, and tells them to call her husband from the river. He accepts their invitation. They give him a great quantity of rice beer, and he coils himself up and falls asleep. Disliking their serpent brother-in-law, the brothers kill him while he sleeps. Their sister then remains in their household. The ending supplies no transformation of the wife or children into birds, no resurrection of the husband and no later fate for the four sons.

Origins & earliest records

The opening story of Bompas’s separately introduced Ho appendix centres on a promise made at a flooded river. The collector associates the appendix with the Hos of the Kolhan in Singhbhum. It is not attributed to Bodding or Sagram Murmu, whose work supplies the Santal main collection. The particular river, village and storyteller are unnamed.

Records & interpretation

Complete Ho appendix tale (1), The River Snake, printed pp.452–453, together with the complete appendix introduction and collection preface. Existing source transcription read continuously through the ending.

Selected bibliography

Documented works and useful reading. This is not a list of every appearance.

1. 01

   Folklore of the Santal Parganas

   Cecil Henry Bompas, translator of main collection and collector of the Ho appendix · 1909

   London: David Nutt. Appendix: Folklore of the Kolhan; the selected Ho tales have a separate collection attribution from Bodding–Murmu’s Santal material.

Family & connections

A source-supported family tree or inspiration record has not yet been compiled for this profile. Related reading below indicates a connection in subject matter, not a proven lineage or creative influence.

References

Sources supporting this profile. Linked pages have their own scope and editorial standards.

1. Historical collected English narrative; existing original-text transcriptionBompas 1909 — complete Ho appendix tale and its introductionResearch access: 2026-10-21

Image credits

The river-snake husband beside the river; species, appearance and landscape interpreted from Bompas’s Ho tale.

Original interpretation of a specific collected narrative; unspecified visual details are imagined, not authenticated community appearance.