Again, I warn you that you had better not go there.”  The fortune-teller’s voice showed that she regretted her words.

After giving many thanks to the old woman, the young lady entered her house.  She hurried to cook breakfast and told her husband that she was going out to pick an excellent wild medicinal plant, and might return late—she dared not tell him where she was going.  Refusing her husband’s affectionate efforts to detain her, she set sail for the magic island on his fishing boat.  The island did not seem so mysterious and dreadful when she saw it herself; it had the same kinds of trees and grass as found in the mountains on the mainland.  As soon as she reached the island, she searched for the wild medicinal plant like a madwoman but couldn’t find it easily. She didn’t become discouraged, and she continued to walk around the island looking for the medicine.  Indeed, sincerity moves heaven—at last, she discovered a strange-looking medicinal plant growing in the cranny of a rock.

With an exclamation of delight, she picked the magic plant carefully.  At that moment, a sound of Sh! Sh! came from all around.  The leaves of the trees were rustling and then she heard a strange, unpleasant, ghastly sound.  She stopped moving her hand, turned around, and saw a great number of snakes.  Then she screamed for help and fainted.  Numerous snakes, large and small, were crawling toward her flicking their tongues in and out.

It took quite a long time for her to recover her consciousness.  When she looked down at her body, she screamed again—her arms and legs were gone; her body had changed into a snake’s body, covered with glittering scales.  She was terror-stricken.  Trying to recover her dim consciousness, she decided to save her husband’s life and not to be concerned about her weird transformation if it were a way of paying for the magic medicine.

The next morning, seeing a big serpent swimming toward the shore, a group of villagers at the seaside began to shout and point to the sea.  As soon as the snake reached land, it went directly behind the village.  Although the people were afraid of the snake, they followed it. 

The snake entered the cottage where the fisherman had been ill in bed.  However, the fisherman had died the night before while waiting for his wife to return home.  He died of grief over the loss of his wife, because the fortune-teller had visited him to tell him that his wife had gone to the islands from which no one ever returned alive.  Early in the morning the villagers had buried the fisherman’s body in the mountain.