There was once a huge black serpent called Mahahaya, who was proud of his strength and size and was therefore  arrogant and reckless. One day, instead of coming out  of the hole through the big vent, as usual, he wanted to  come out by the small vent which was slightly less then  his size, saying to himself, “I am so strong. The earth  will surely make way for me.”

He did succeed in getting  out through that hole. But the earth was hard, and  inflicted terrible wounds on him in the process of getting  through. Thousands of big black ants saw him covered  with blood and, exhilarated by the smell of blood, fell on  him to eat him up. He killed hundreds, and wounded  hundreds more. But the remaining thousands bit him  fiercely and enlarged his wounds, and killed him, and ate  him up.