The tale of Betel, Areca and Limestone

Once upon a time, those were two men named Tan and Lang who were near and dear brothers. Especially, they look very like the other that even their parents also didn’t recognize. Their father who was a tall, burly man and great in art of fighting was the King gifted a last name which was Cao. Cao families had been famous since they had the last name.

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When Tan and Lang had grown up their parents died. They still lived together they always went with together.

The father had entrusted Tan to a great teacher who named Luu before he died but when Tan went to study, Lang also wanted to go with he didn’t want be at home alone. Therefore, they went together.

Teacher Luu had a daughter who was a beautiful, clever girl. She was curious to know how to distinguish them. One day, she gave them little porridge that was only enough for a person. She hid herself behind a corner and observed. She saw a man (who was Tan) gave up the bowl of porridge to the other. She mumbled:

“Oh, the man, who was happy man, was you”.

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Tan and the girl had made few dates since that time. Then they fell in love with the other. The teacher realized their love and agreed them to marry.

After marrying, they came to a new house with Lang to live. Although Tam still loved his bother as previous time, he now spent lest time for him.

To Lang, he felt that Tan was keeping away him. He thought: “Maybe, he leaves me because of his wife”. Therefore, he felt so sad.

One day, Tan and Lang went to field together but Lang came back early. When he had just landed his feet into the house, the wife from the kitchen ran out and hugged him.

“Sister, It’s me, Lang”, he said loudly.

While they was feeling confused, Tan came in.

Lang realized Tan was jealous. He also knew that Tan had not loved him as previous time so he planned to go away. He followed a road until he saw a river which flowed so strong. He couldn’t go cross the river. He looked around, didn’t see any house and any animal but he didn’t want to come back. He sat on riverside; his head was down on the pillow and started crying. He cried and cried until the next day he died. Exactly, he was petrified.

Tan had not seen Lang came back for few days. He felt very sorry so he came to all people they knew to take a look. But, he couldn’t find Lang. He was frightened, ran to find Lang. He followed the road Lang had passed, arrived the river. He couldn’t get pass the river so he went along the riverside. At last, he saw Lang who had been petrified. He stood by the limestone and cried until he died. He transformed into an areca tree which stood by the limestone.

The wife had waited his husband for few days but she didn’t see he came back. She was so worry, and went to find him. The river, another time, prevented from crossing. The poor woman sat by the areca tree and cried until tears were dried. Then she died, transformed into a betel tree which twined around the areca tree.

The teacher and his wife had waited for them but they had not come back for a long time. They and other people went to find them but they only found out strange trees and a strange stone. They built a temple on the riverside for them.

One year, it wasn’t rain all trees were dried but two trees near the stone front the temple were still green. One day, when the King passed the temple he was surprised because of strange trees. He asked his servant.

“What are the trees? Why was the temple built?

Servants didn’t know the answer so they found old people to ask.

The King felt moving as he heard the whole story about three of them. He forced servants to climb up the areca tree, took down its fruit and tasted it. It had acrid flavor but when he ate it with a leaf of the betel tree, they had sweet and spice taste.

“Bloooood!” said a noble loudly.

He spitted immediately on the stone. The place where the stone had saliva was changed to red color. The King felt curious, he took three things and chewed them. A felling that made people who chewed fell warm as though they drunk, their lips and their cheeks became ruddy.

“That is so marvelous as though their love, so warm” said the King.

He made a rule that people who want to marry had to collect enough three things: betel, areca and limestone for people ate in order to remember the love of Tan, Lang and the wife.

Now day, betel, areca and limestone still are important things in the vietnamese wedding

THE END

"Translated by Hung Nguyen"

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List of Vietnamese fairy tales

Vietnamese fairy tales includes many stories as Tam and Cam; So Dua; Hundred – knot- bamboo tree... which were spread in folk. Each stories has its own meaning. I think I can not translate exactly each word into english but I will try my best to convey its meaning to you. Hope you like them!

Bài 1.5: Cách sử dụng at, on, in cho thời gian, ngày, tháng, năm, mùa.

Chào các bạn! Bởi vì mình có hay dich truyện và một vài thứ linh tinh khác nên thường bắt gặp ngày, tháng năm. Thật ra khôngkhó để sử dụng đúng nhưng mỗi lần cần đến mình lại phải tra lại tra cứu. Điều đó rất mất thời gian nên hôm nay mình viết một bài liên quan đến at, on, in + thời gian để giúp bạn nào chưa biết và giúp chính mình nhớ được cách sử dụng của các giới từ at, on, in và dạng thời gian được theo sau giới từ đó.

Thanh Giong

Once upon a time, a woman was old but she had not given birth a child. One day, when she went to her field, she saw a stranger footsore on the ground. The big footsore made her surprise and said: “omg, this footsore is so big” the she put her foot into the footsore. More 9 months later, she gave birth to a little boy named Giong. The boy was extraordinary that he was over three years old but had not spoken. He only knew lying and smiling. vietnamesefairytales.blogspot.com That year, the enemies they were known An planed to attack the country of the boy. They were merciless. Wherever they had gone, houses were ruined, fields were fired, people were killed. The sight behind them is mess of corpse and blood and ashes.The King was worry he forced his servants to look for person who could fight against the enemies. One day, a servent went to Giong’s village while the woman was holding the boy in her arms, she said sadly that: “Giong, I wonder that when you hav...

The tale of Da Hoa village hall

Once upon a time, Da Hoa village was where a mage named Dong lived. He had powerful magics and was kindness. People in the village all respected him they had voted him to be head of village. There years, farmers had a poor crop because it had not rained for long time. Therefore, they had very little rice to eat. Besides, price of rice increased highly which made them sell their farm farms to get money for food. At last, it seemed almost farms fell into rich mans in area. Dong wanted to help farms and had a plan. Dong called rich mans to his home. “God is kindness helping you all have much wealth. That is a gift god gives you. And now is the time you must show god your gratefulness”, said Dong. Rich mans knew Dong was a mage who could connect gods so they asked him seriously: “What do we need to do?” vietnamesefairytales.blogspot.com “We don’t have any village hall that gods can not stay in our village as they come on ground. Therefore”, he said firmly, “we have to ...

Wishing pearl

De was a young boy. His parent was servants of a landlord. Every morning, De led landlord’s cattle to meadow and brought them back at nightfall. De used to be excited in playing with his fellows and when he was in his game he didn’t care anything. Many times the cattle he herded ate rice on field and the owners used to beat him pained but he still left cattle and joined in his fellows. One normal day, he and his fellows had a swimming competition. An award was given to the winner that he couldn’t refuse. Therefore, he participated in the competition and left his cattle on a wild hill. They swam and dived in water until noon and when they walked on ground, a cow had disappeared. The cow belonged to no one but his master. Children separated to find the cow but the cow seemed to vanish they couldn’t find it. Sun was going to down, children made their ways to home they left De staying at there. Day stayed at there alone crying. After that, he fell in sleep. Latter, he was woken up b...

My Chau and Trong Thuy

Once upon a time, there had a king, named An Duong Vuong. After many years fighting, he get a large area. The king planed to build a castle but whenever it had been built as tall as a men’s height then it was ruined. The king was unhappy. Therefore, the king had made an altar to pray God for few days until an early morning, a old man from seaside went to talk him God Turtle was going come to help him. The king was very happy and forced soldiers to wait on the seaside. The next day, in the water appeared a big gold turles toward seaside. The soldiers invited God Turtle to set sat on a big gold platter and brought to the king. The God Turtle told the king that the castle couldn’t have finished because of demons. God Turtle helped the king to kill the demons so all demons was killed. Besides, the God Turtle help the king design a castle look like a seashell with many gate levels. Half a month later, the castle had been finished. The king was very pleased but a little worry. He a...

Bài 14: Danh từ đếm được số ít và số nhiều và quy tắc thêm chuyển từ danh từ đếm được số ít sang số nhiều.

Như chúng ta đã biết danh từ thường phân thành nhiều loại nhưng về mặt ngữ pháp bạn chỉ cần biết danh từ gồm hai loại: danh từ đếm được và danh từ không đếm được. Về cơ bản mình sẽ nói qua một chút về danh từ đếm được và danh từ không đếm được vì bài này chủ yếu xoay quanh danh từ đếm được. Về bản chất danh từ đếm được là những từ bạn có thể kiểm soát nó bằng mặt số lượng tức là bạn có thể đếm 1, 2, 3 cái gì đó và nó có sự phân biệt giữa số ít (một) và số nhiều (hơn một) của loại từ này trong ngữ pháp của câu. Ví dụ: I have bananas và I have a banana có sự khác biệt rõ ràng, bạn có nhận thất mạo từ “a” ở trước banana không? Thêm nữa Bananas are yellow và a banana is yellow bạn có nhận thấy động từ đi kèm có sự khác biệt không; danh từ số nhiều sẽ tương đương vói ư chỉ ngữ they và danh từ số ít sẽ tương đương vói it. Cơ bản là thế. Còn về danh không đếm được thì bạn phải cân, đo, đong như những...

Tam and Cam

Once upon a time, there had a little girl named Tam. Her mother died early so her father decided to remarry on purpose the stepmother would take care of his little daughter. The stepmother gave birth to a girl, named Cam after that. Then, her father died after few years. Tam had to live with her stepmother and her sister, Cam. Since the time, she was forced to work hard, all housework, while Cam had to do nothing. One day, the stepmother gave Tam and Cam each one a corf to caught fish. She promised that who caught full her corf would receive a piece of red silk. Tam and Cam went to field together. She was hard to catch fish while Cam only wondered around till afternoon and had nothing in her coft. Cam pointed at Tam’s coft and realised it is full, thinking seconds, she said gently: “sister Tam, your head is mud, you should wash it or mother will punish you” Belive Cam, Tam went to river nearly. She left her corf on the shore, waded into water to wash. Cam, meanwhile, stayed on t...

Yet Kieu

Once upon a time, in Ha-bi village lived a man named Yet Kieu who worked as a fisher. One night, while he was strolling along the seaside he saw two large buffaloes fighting on the beach. He sprinted to poke them apart. Buffalos were beaten painful they ran toward to the sea then disappeared. “Those creatures aren’t normal”, he thought then he turned back where buffaloes had been fighting and picked up some fur they had left. He gazed them then suddenly swallowed them down. From that he had the strength that nobody could fight against. Especially, he could stay in the water longer than any people in the world. He spent six or seven days fishing whenever he dived in water. vietnamesefairytales.blogspot.com That moment, their enemies had an invasion. A hundred ships approached and covered seaside of Van ninh. They caught all fishing boats and fired them. They robbed assets and took lives from people living around the beach. Warships following king of the countr...

Vietnamese fairy tales

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