Snake Husband of Ugi

Overview

A couple find a short, fat snake while working in their gardens and bring it home in bamboo. They treat it as their son. When it wants a wife, they purchase the elder of two sisters, who discovers only on arrival that her husband is a snake. She handles it with a stick and throws it into the river. The couple return her and purchase the younger sister, who carries it in a basket and bathes it gently.

While the family works in the gardens, the snake removes its skin and becomes a handsome man. He goes fishing and then puts the skin back on. The parents spy on him and burn the empty skin. The man mourns the loss of his skin, while his wife rejoices.

The envious elder sister asks to join the household as a servant. She is refused and hangs herself. The narrative therefore includes marriage by purchase and a suicide, and this profile reports both plainly. The tale contains no prince and no stated curse, and it is separate from the Magyar snake-skin prince tale.

Origins & earliest records

Narrative by an unnamed Ugi islander, printed in Florence Coombe, Islands of Enchantment (1911), Part III ch. I, pp. 242–244.

Records & interpretation

Coombe 1911, pp. 242–244, read from archive.org OCR. The narrator is not named. No other sources examined.

Selected bibliography

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

1. 01

   Islands of Enchantment: many-sided Melanesia seen through many eyes

   Florence Coombe · 1911

   Selected bibliography; Part III ch. I, pp. 242–244; anonymous islander narrative in a missionary compilation.

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. Digitised historical book (OCR)Islands of Enchantment (full OCR text)Research access: 2026-10-07
2. Catalogue recordIslands of Enchantment (Internet Archive catalogue record)Research access: 2026-10-07

Image credits

A sourced illustration has not yet been added. This gap is included in the coverage record.