Tuesday, November 29, 2011

A COLLECTION OF CAMBODIAN FOLK TALES

A Long Eel and A Long Cooking-Pot

Once there was a family, a husband and a wife. One day the husband went out for a walk and bought a long eel for his dinner. He thought " I will have a good dinner today. " He gave it to his wife and said " Cook some soup for dinner! " His wife look at the eel and wondered " Where could I find a cooking-pot long enough to cook this eel? "

She went to a shopkeeper and asked the man if he had a long cooking-pot. The man replied " I'm sorry, there is no long cooking-pot in my store. But if you want it, you had better wait for it, I will ask the potter to make a special pot for you. " So she returned home and told her husband " I could not find a long cooking-pot to make eel soup for you. "

* What?
* No cooking-pot long enough to put in your eel, and to cook it.

Her husband looked over his shoulder and said " If you can't cook it, you should hang it up on the wall. " He lay down on his bed, his right hand on his forehead and thought " How stupid my wife is! " Then he went into the kitchen to cook it and after finishing the work called her to eat the dinner. After the dinner her husband went out. When she was alone, she went into the kitchen and looked around to find out the long cooking-pot in which her husband had cooked the eel. For a long time she could not find it. But finally she found it.

- Hey! How could my husband cook it with the short cooking-pot?

She was very much surprised. She looked into the cooking-pot and finally saw that there was a little piece of eel at the bottom of the cooking-pot. She put her head into the cooking-pot to lick the little piece of eel. She cleaned the cooking-pot with her tongue and she hummed alone " It is so delicious! " When the pot was dried, she could not get her head out of the cooking-pot. She didn't know how to take the pot off and so she went to hide behind the granary. 

The Fisherman and His Wife

There was a man who went fishing with his son in a river. When he dropped his fishing line into the river, it got tangled around the root of a tree, but the man thought that his fishing line caught a big fish, he could not lift the line, then he told his son to go home and tell his wife to quarrel with the family and the neighbors, because he did not want his relatives to ask for some fish. Then his son went to his house to tell his mother to provoke a quarrel.

She put on only a strip of cloth round her chest and a sampot under her navel and she pretended to be like a foolish woman, then she painted her face black, and then went to her relative's houses.


All her relatives saw her in a strange condition, so they asked her " Hi! why did you do this? why do you put black coal on your face? " Then she blamed them and called them names " Damned! are your heads heavy, when I paint my face black? What is that to you. Do I hurt you, when I paint my face black? "


All her relatives heard her calling them names and they were very angry with her, then they called her names in return. Some were very angry, they took her to the judge. The judge asked her to pay money to those whom she called names. After the fisherman had told his son to ask his wife to provoke a quarrel with his relatives, he dived to take the fish that the fishing line had caught.


When he dived into the water, his head was hurt by the tree which got tangled with the fishing line, his eyes began to bleed, then he fumbled around to find the fish, but he found only the root of the tree, then he got out of the water and put up his hands to shield his eyes, and finally he went to the place where he had took off his clothes. But while he dived into the water his clothes were blown away by the wind.


The fisherman felt very cold, his eyes pained him very much, and he wanted to go home but he could not go because he was naked, then he hid within a bush till night came. At night he crept in to his house, but he could not get into his house because it was lighted, then he called his wife to give him some cloth, after putting this on, he entered his house.


His wife told him that she gave as a fine all the money and goods to their relatives because she called them names. The two lost everything, the man did not catch the fish, his eyes were hurt, his clothes were gone, and his wife was fined by the judge. 


 Fours Liars

One there were four liars. They planned playing tricks on people. When they were all ready and agreed with one another, they left their house to go far away from their village. They met two persons, husband and wife, who worked by the river far away from anyone's home. The four liars knew that the two were rich, so they said " We must stop here and tell them a lie to cheat them of their goods.

And then they asked them " Oh! old ones! we come form far away. We seek someone who knows an ancient tale, because we want to know it. Now we meet you who, perhaps, can tell us an ancient tale. Could you tell us one? The two old ones told them " Oh, young ones! old ones have not heard any tale since they were children. Please young ones go to ask someone who knows one. "

The four liars told them " Oh, old ones! If someone knows an ancient tale, do you want to listen to it? " " Yes, young ones! We would like very much to listen to it, but we cannot find someone who is able to tell us an ancient tale " said the old ones.The four liars told them naughtily " We all know one because we heard it from our ancestors, but when we tell it to you, you must believe us. " Then the old ones said " We must believe

The first one began his lie, he said " When I was three months old in my mother's womb I scented, a ripe fruit in front of my house. That tree was about sixteen feet and it had only one fruit. My mother did not know how to pick the fruit to eat, when I thought that my mother wanted to eat it, I came out of her womb, then I climbed up the tree to pick up the fruit for her. Finally I got into her womb again. "

The second one said " When I was six months old in my mother's womb, my mother was very busy working in the field, so I came out of her abdomen. I worked with her, tending oxen and buffaloes, cooking for her in the morning. At night when there were nothing to do, I got into her womb again. "

The third one told them " I am a god coming down from heaven to be born in my mother's abdomen. When I come out from her womb, I go to serve her in every thing. I will get in her abdomen again before I die and I will be born young again. "

The fourth one said " When I came out from my mother's womb I practiced five commandments and waited for eight commandments very different from others. I can drink, smoke and kill, when I die, I will be born in heaven. "

The liars told the old ones these lies and asked them " All the tales that we told you are true. Do you believe us? " The old one answered " Yes, I believe all you said. " but the old ones know that the boy were liars.

When the liars could not play any more tricks on them, they asked the old ones to tell them some tales. But before the old ones had told them a tale, they asked them to promise to believe their tales as the four liars did.

The old man said " Oh, young ones, my children! Since I had planed cotton for five or six years, I made enough money to spend and to feed you. But this year, the cotton plants do not yield anything. I do not know why. One day as I went to my field, I saw a cotton plant as big as a palm tree with a fruit. I took the fruit home and when I stripped it, I saw four seeds each of which was a boy, I told my wife to feed them, when all the boys grew up, they went away from us. Now I see they have come back to live with us. You are those boys. "

The four liars were afraid and said " We do not believe this " But the old ones told them " If you do not believe this, you break your promise, so you must live with us and serve us as good sons should serve their parents. The four liars then became their servants.  


 The Hunter and The Bird


 There was a hunter who had caught a black bird, a peacock and a heron. He taught them to play circus. He taught the black bird how to speak like men, and the peacock and the heron how to dance. When the hunter taught the tree birds skillfully, he took them to play circus for the king in his palace for gift and money from the king as he wanted. The king asked him " What do the tree birds know "

The hunter replied " This blackbird can speak like men " then he let the blackbird talk. The blackbird spoke, showed his knowledge in talking the human language, then he asked the peacock to dance for the king. The peacock danced as well as he was taught. The king was delighted to see the two birds and he told his men to put them in the cage to be in the care of servants.

Next the hunter took the heron off the cage and let him act for the king, but the heron was a clever bird and knew bad times and good times. He thought that the blackbird and the peacock who showed their skill to the king who was delighted at their acts, were put in the cage to be in the care of the king's servants. If I showed my skill to the king he would put me in the cage as he did the two birds.

Being always in the cage, I shall have no freedom and no happiness. So it is not good to show my dancing. Let me pretend to be ignorant. Then the heron did not dance and cried " krack! krack! " The hunter tried to make him dance, but the heron did not do anything, he just cried " krack! krack! " then the king saw that the heron did not know how to act, so he told the hunter to free him.

The hunter freed the heron as the king told him. When the heron was free from the hunter he flew up and talked to the peacock and the blackbird " Being clever and proud and making people amused you both, peacock and blackbird are in the cage. It is wonderful and happy for you, but for me, it is unhappy to be in the cage, so I did not show my knowledge, I pretended to be ignorant and I became hated by people, then they freed me, and now I will see my family whom I left.

You, peacock and blackbird, showed your skill which tied up your neck. I do not admire at all the skill which put you in the cage. Oh, poor birds, peacock and blackbird, you did not know what was good or not good for you in showing your skill, so you had better live in the cage for you can not go anywhere. " Thus the heron told them proudly and he flew away to his place. This story tells of the person who does not know how to use knowledge in good or bad conditions and has it tied around his neck.

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