Madam White Snake

PROLOGUE

The snake sisters

Once upon a time, there were two snake sisters. The elder sister was white, white from the top of her head to the end of her tail. She was whiter than the whitest cloud. The younger sister was green, green from her tail to the top of her head. She was greener than the greenest wood in spring. They lived in far away hills, among the clouds and the stars.
There Death came to the mountains every year. It carried off the young and the old, the sick and the healthy. The white snake hid in the clouds and the green snake hid among the trees. Death was never able to catch them. They lived for many hundreds of years.
They knew every tree on the hills, every cloud that flew by. They made friends with the wind, and learnt about the ways of the earth. They talked to the stars, and they came to understand the ways of sky. They became wise, and the secret of life was shown to them.
On the night that they became a thousand years old, they took human shape and turned into two beautiful women. The elder sister dressed in white, the younger sister in green.
They walked day and night in the woods, they talked and sang on the mountain tops. But soon they became tired of this way of life. They wanted to see what lay beyond mountains.
One night they said goodbye to the woods and the hills, the wind and the stars, and left for the cities.