An old widow has three beautiful daughters who she hopes to marry to grandees and princes, and always does the heavy chores at home herself, like fetching firewood and catching fish.
This goes on for many nights, until, one day, the elder sisters question her how she can live with a reptile as a husband, and the girl answers he is not snake at all, but a handsome youth underneath it.
The elder sisters convince her to burn the snakeskin one night, which she does; despite some physical pain, the nat husband is content with assuming a definite human form.
While he is away, her elder sisters, jealous of her fortune, plot to get rid of her: they try to convince her to catch fish with them, then to break firewood - which she refuses - and to play with them on a swing over a river - which she agrees to do.
The giant storks are reluctant to part with the mother and child they protected in their nest, but the nat husband offers to give them a pile of fish as reward for saving his family.
During some days, the nat gives meals in secret to his wife in his room, and a raven appears at the window to sing some mocking verses to him and the two elder sisters.
[16] Bernard Houghton published in the journal Indian Antiquary a tale from the Arakanese people that he translated from a Burmese manuscript furnished by a Maung Tha Bwin, Myôôk of Sandoway.
In this tale, titled The Snake Prince, a man named Sakkaru, from fairy-land (Tâwatinsa), is reborn in the human realm in the form of a hamadryad (a spirit that lives in a tree), by orders of King Sakrâ (Indra).
Seizing this opportunity, Shwê Kyên tries to get rid of her sister (who is pregnant at the time) by shoving her into the river, but she is saved by a great eagle and taken to a silk-cotton tree.
Seeing that her plans failed, Shwê Kyên asks her father, the washerwoman's husband, to bring her a snake from the jungle, hoping to experience the same luck as her sister.
That night, the girl begins to scream that the boa is devouring her; her father dismisses any danger, but Dwê Pyû begs her husband, the Snake Prince Sakkaru, to save her sister.
[17] Author John Nisbet published a Burmese tale with the title The Tree-Snake Prince, which he sourced as an "abbreviated form of an Arakanese legend".
To atone for evil deeds, he is sent to Earth for three months by Thagyá Min in the form of a snake, to be a guardian spirit living in a wild fig-tree.
The mother goes with her daughters to wash clothes at the river, and, on the road back, stops to rest by a fig tree, atop of which she sees the animal.
Some time later, the deities are convening in Tawadeingtha, and the Sakaru, shedding its skin, joins its divine companions in human form, leaving behind the snakeskin.
Ashamed, she leaves Dwe Pyu to her devices and returns home to ask her father to find her a similar tree-snake husband, believing she will have the same luck as her younger sister.
[22] In a Burmese tale titled Ma Htwe Lay and the Snake Prince, an old woman with three daughters goes to a fig tree (tha phan) to fetch fruits for her family.
Her mother promises to investigate into her dreams, and decides to spy on her room at night: she discovers a prince comes out of the bamboo basket to sleep by Ma Htwe Lay's side.
[23] In a Vietnamese tale titled "Как девица питона в мужья взяла" ("How a girl married a python"), an old widow lives in a poor hut with two beautiful daughters.
The old woman goes home and asks which of her daughters will take a python for a husband; the elder sister declines, but the youngest accepts and leaves with the snake to its lair.
[25][26] In a tale collected from a informant named Phon Homdee, in Ban Nai village, Central Thailand, and translated as The Black Crow, a rich man with no family wishes to marry and have children, so he consults with an astrologer to divine his future.
[27] Scholars Kristina Lindell, Jan-Öjvind Swahn [sv] and Damrong Tayanin collected a tale from a Kammu storyteller named Mr. Cendii.
The elder sister, Nga, wants to experience the same fortune, so she finds a snake in the forest and brings it home in a calabash to rear it until it grows large enough.
Pôt's elder sister, seeing her cadette's good fortune, decides to find herself a snake husband and brings home a small python in a calabash.
[33] In a tale from the Kucong people, collected in Yunnan and published in 1982, then translated as Two Girls and the Boa, a binbai ('old woman') buries her husband, and has to take care of her two daughters, the elder nineteen, the younger seventeen.
Feeling calmer, the girl lives with the young man a luxurious life, until one day, she decides to return home to pay her family a visit.
Yu Duo is hardworking, and has to perform double the tasks for the family, since Xi Ti's daughter, Xiang Han, is fat and lazy.
Meanwhile, back to Xi Ti's family, his wife and daughter become jealous of Yu Duo's fortune, and the woman orders Xiang Han to replicate her success.
The lord returns home and asks his three daughters which will accept the snake's proposal: the elder two, K'Kruah and Püon, refuse, save for Luiˀ, if only to please her father.
The snake is put to the same test of raw eggs and rice beer and acts on instinct, like the animal it is, then is moved out to the lord's daughter's room.