Mikhail Bulgakov. The Fateful Eggs -
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with a round yellow spot on an olive background. In the roof of the head sat
a pair of lidless icy narrow eyes, and these eyes glittered with
indescribable malice. The head moved as if spitting air and the whole post
slid back into the burdock, leaving only the eyes which glared at Alexander
Semyonovich without blinking. Drenched with sweat, the latter uttered five
incredible fear-crazed words. So piercing were the eyes between the leaves.
"What the devil's going on..."
Then he remembered about fakirs... Yes, yes, in India, a wicker basket
and a picture. Snake-charming.
The head reared up again, and the body began to uncoil. Alexander
Semyonovich raised his flute to his lips, gave a hoarse squeak and, gasping
for breath, began to play the waltz from Eugene Onegin. The eyes in the
burdock lit up at once with implacable hatred for the opera.
"Are you crazy, playing in this heat?" came Manya's cheerful voice, and
out of the corner of his eye Alexander Semyonovich glimpsed a patch of
white.
Then a terrible scream shattered the farm, swelling, rising, and the
waltz began to limp painfully. The head shot out of the burdock, its eyes
leaving Alexander Semyonovich's soul to repent of his sins. A snake about
thirty feet long and as thick as a man uncoiled like a spring and shot out
of the weeds. Clouds of dust sprayed up from the path, and the waltz ceased.
The snake raced past the state farm manager straight to the white blouse.
Feight saw everything clearly: Manya went a yellowish-white, and her long
hair rose about a foot above her head like wire. Before Feight's eyes the
snake opened its mouth, something fork-like darting out, then sank its teeth
into the shoulder of Manya, who was sinking into the dust, and jerked her up
about two feet above the ground. Manya gave another piercing death cry. The