It's a retelling of the story of Noah's ark, embellished

with elements from Romanian folklore, including how the

devil sneaked aboard, why Noah threw a cat overboard, and

the role of a snake in saving the ark. In this Romanian

folk version of Noah's Ark, getting the animals to march,

two by two, onto the ark is the easy part. It's Noah's

stubborn wife who insists that she's staying on dry land.

Frustrated, Noah finally declares, "Oh, you devil, come in!"

With that, the devil creeps on board the ark in the form

of a mouse and once inside, tries to sabotage the ark by

nibbling away at the planks, but Noah throws a fur glove

at it, which turns into a cat that catches the mouse, and

Noah throws them both overboard. The devil-as-mouse escapes

and the cat comes back on board to dry itself in the warmest,

sunniest spot, a habit that continues to this day.

But the problem of the hole in the ark remains.

Noah makes a deal with one of the snakes on board that if

the snake will plug up the hole with his tail, then Noah

will give him whatever he desires when they reach land.

The snake complies and, according to the legend, this is

why snakes to this day do not have tails.

Once Noah reaches land, the snake asks Noah to provide

"a human being every day, for me and my children to eat."

After the animals disembark, Noah realizes that if he

fulfills his part of the bargain, humans will soon become

extinct. "So Noah seizes the snake and threw it into the

fire, where it was burned to ash. Then God sent a wind to

scatter the ash all over the world, and from each fleck of

ash a flea was born ... And from that time to this, in

fulfillment of Noah's promise to the snake, together all

the fleas in the world suck just enough blood from people

to make up one whole human being a day."