Once upon a time, two sons of a mandarin who had a travel met a mage. The mage sat by the road they crossed with a bird in a cage. They approached and said:
“This bird is ugly. Can it sing?”
“It is not used to sing”, replied the mage.
“What is it used for?” they asked.
“This is a marvelous bird that anyone who could eat its meat will become king”, said the mage.
“Do you sell it?” they asked.
“I only sell to person who has enough four thousand units of money (I don’t know what unit of money that time called is in English). You have to take care of it in three months before you slaughtered it. You only need to eat a piece, the fortune will come to you”, said the mage.
“Are you sure?” they asked.
“If you want it, don’t doubt and if you doubt, don’t buy. Remember not all people can buy it and also not all people can eat its meat. That is fate”, said the mage.
They both believed mage’s words. They sprinted back home and stole his mother’s money to have enough money to give the mage.
They brought the bird to him and forced three maids to take care of their bird. One fed the bird each day, one washed the bird and cleaned its cage every day, and the other guarded the bird from things which could harm it. They said seriously:
“Your lives attached to its life. If the bird die or fly away, we will punish you. Course, if you take care of it well, we will gave each you a thousand units of money”.
Later, they found their way back their school and continued studying.
Meantime, a foreign mage who could know every things in the world. He found out thing about the bird. He also to be king so he sold all his assets found the way to the country on a ship.
After days searching and asking others, he came to exactly the boys’ home. The fence around the house was high wall and was guarded carefully that was very difficult to sneak in. But, the owner of this house was a widow who had two sons studying away and only three maids served her. Therefore, he planed to go in the house by other way. He asked trader to bring him in the house and introduce he was a jewelry trader front the widow. When he met the widow, he gifted a precious ring to make friend with her. Day by day, he went to and conversed with her. At last, he became her paramour.
One day, he asked her about the bird and knew that the bird was guarded carefully by three maids. He had found a chance to approach the bird but he couldn’t. At last, he stacked his clothes and pretended that he was going to go back his country. The widow insisted him to stay.
“How can I keep you by me?” asked the widow.
“I will stay by you the rest of my life if I can eat the bird”, he replied.
“Realy. What you say is true”, said the widow happily then he called maids and forced them to give her the bird but three of them didn’t.
“Madam, your sons, masters of the bird asked us to take care of the bird so we can not give them if they are not allowed”, said one of maid.
Immediately, the widow asked guards to torture them. Maids could not bear the torture, they had no choice but to give her the bird.
Her sons, that moment, was on class studying but flies flew around and landed on tops of their brushes and prevented them not to push in ink whenever they needed more ink. They both thought that something was happening in their home so they asked their teacher to come back home at one.
When they just stepped through the gate, maids sprinted to them and pulled them into a room. They talked to them about things happened in the time they were absent. At last, they said that the bird had been robbed.
“Where is the bird now?” they asked maids.
“The bird has been slaughtered and cooked in kitchen”, replied a maid.
They made their way to the kitchen ate bird’s meat without leaving a piece. Later, they stole their mother’s money and gave maids and asked them to go away. They also left after them. Though they didn’t know where they should go, they only go straight to get away their house. They had to cross a hill on way and when they climbed to the top of hill, it was dark. They helped themselves lie on grass and slept.
While they were sleeping, two gods flew cross the place and saw them.
“Look, They are beautiful boys. I see they will be kings. But, why are they here? They don’t fear beast, do they?” the god turned to the other, “I think we should bring them to capital and help them to be kings”
The other god was evil god he said:
“Don’t. A king should be challenged in hardships before he ascend the throne only that helps them have enough king’s qualities”.
Two gods had an argument and none was convinced by the other. At last, one brought old brother to Te (name of a country) and the other brought the young brother to So (name of a country). They were left on ground when sun not yet rose.
The old brother was dropped in a poor family. Though they were only workers and usually didn’t have enough food to eat, they kept the boy in their home and treated him well because they thought that the beautiful, knowledge was gift god gave them. The boy was also a good boy he did any work he could but it didn’t help him to have enough food. Famine turned more serious that made many people died. At last, They were forced to become robbers, they robbed rice from province stockpile. The man who let him stay in his house followed the crowd joined in robbers. Therefore, the boy also joined in robbers and became one of pioneers. Later, robbers voted him to be their leader. Unfortunately, the recent king of Te heard about them, he ordered soldiers to come and destroy them. Many fights happened and many people died, soldiers and robbers. But, the boy was very talent that he gathered robbers and organized them as army. He led them fought against soldiers of recent king. Soldiers of recent king were destroyed whenever they went to their area. At last, a fierce battle between his soldiers and royal soldiers happened. The recent king lost, the boy ascended the throne.
The young brother was dropped in a citadel where a python was staying. The python liked to eat human flesh and ate some people each day. The python lived in a cave and used to go out to hunt at 1:00 pm. The python would come back its cave and stayed in it till 1:00pm next day if it filled full his stomach. Therefore, people living in the citadel found the way to hide themselves at noon every day. Unfortunately, the python was wise that it had never been hungry for years. None could count how many people had died because of the python. The recent king of the country was unhappy, he promised that he would let the person who could kill the monster marry with his only daughter.
The young brother dropped in the citadel while the python was hunting. He wandered in crowded streets but later, all people disappeared left him alone on street. While he was wondering where people went, a python suddenly rushed to him. He knew at one that he was in dangerous case so he grabbed his sword and was ready to fight against the python. The fighting happened in long time he had stabbed to python’s head few times and at the last time, his sword was broken and a piece of the sword stuck in its head. The python was injured but it was still strong. He and the python wrestled till they exhausted. At last, he grabbed the rest of his sword and cut the python. He python died but he also lost strength he fainted next to the python.
When people felt safe, they went out. A low mandarin went to the dead python firstly. He cut off the python head and brought it to the king. He said that he was the person who had killed the python.
The king agreed to let him marry with his daughter. A royal wedding was organized. While people were enjoying the party happily, a young boy, also the young brother, went in and requested the king to return his piece of sword. Immediately, the king ordered soldiers to bring the head out. Course, the soldiers could found out the piece of sword. The low mandarin, the liar, was prisoned at one and the young brother replaced him, being groom.
Short time later, the king died without heir. Therefore, the young brother ascended the throne.
In a meeting between Te and So, two kings met the other in their border. They recognized the other at one. Very happy, they kept the peace between two countries till they died. In the time they reigned people living in countries had the peace they had never had before.
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THE END
"Translator: Hung Nguyen"
Book Introductions
1. Complete Collection of Vietnamese Fairy Tales - A Treasury of Legends and Folklore
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