AS BLACK-EYED, black-haired Eva Sauvet was walking one day in Jersey she saw a lozenge-marked snake, whereupon she ran away frightened.
When she got home and told her mother, the old woman said:
“Well, child, next time you see the snake give it your handkerchief.”
The next day Eva went out with beating heart, and ere long she saw the snake come gliding out from the bushes, so she threw down her handkerchief, for she was too frightened to hand it to the snake.
The snake’s eyes gleamed and twinkled, and taking the handkerchief into his fangs, he made off to an old ruin, whither Eva followed.
But when they got to the ruin the snake disappeared, and Eva ran home to tell her mother.
Next day, Père Sauvet and some men went to the ruin, where Eva showed the hole where the snake had disappeared.
Old Père Sauvet lit a fire, and smoked the snake out, killing it with a stick as it glided over the stones.
After that they dug out the hole, when they found the handkerchief. Digging still further along, they came upon a hollow place, at the bottom of which they found a lot of gold.
Source: A Jersey fisherman. Reliable. He also informed me that large stones, supported on others, were called “Fairy Stones” in Jersey.
