Tam Cam

Once upon a time, there were Tam and Cam, two sisters with the same father but different mothers. The two sisters were almost the same age. Tam was the daughter of the first wife, Cam was the daughter of the second wife. Tam’s mother died when Tam was young, and Tam’s father remarried. A few years later, Tam’s father also died. Tam lived with her stepmother, Cam’s mother. But Tam’s stepmother was a very cruel person. Every day, Tam had to work hard, from herding buffaloes, carrying water, to cutting potatoes, collecting duckweed; at night, she had to grind rice and pound it without finishing her work. Meanwhile, Cam was pampered by her mother, had enough to eat and wear, and stayed at home all day without having to do hard work.

One day, the stepmother gave each of the two sisters a basket and told them to go to the fields to catch shrimps and prawns. She promised: “Whoever fills the basket will be rewarded with a red shirt!”. When they went to the fields, Tam was used to catching crabs and snails, so in just one session she had a full basket of fish and prawns. Meanwhile, Cam leisurely wandered from one field to another, until the afternoon she still hadn’t caught anything. Seeing Tam had caught a full basket, Cam told her sister:

Sister Tam, Sister Tam! Your head is dirty, dive deep, or your mother will scold you when you get home!

The news was true, so Tam went down to the pond to bathe in the deep part. Cam took the opportunity to dump all of Tam’s shrimp into her basket and ran ahead. When Tam stepped out, her basket was empty, so she sat down and covered her face, crying.

At that time, Buddha was sitting on a lotus throne. Suddenly, he heard Tam’s cry and appeared and asked:

why are you crying

Tam told the story to Buddha. Buddha said:

Stop crying! Look in the basket and see if there’s anything else.

Tam looked at the basket and said:

Only one goby left

I brought the goby home and put it in the well to raise. Every meal, out of three bowls worth of food, I ate two, and put the other one down for the goby. Every time I fed it, I remembered to call it like this:

Bong bong, bang bang
Come eat our golden rice and silver rice,
Do not eat stale rice or porridge from other people’s houses.

Buddha added:

If you don’t call it right, it won’t come up, remember that!

After saying that, Buddha disappeared. Tam followed Buddha’s words and let the fish down the well. From that day on, after every meal, Tam would save some rice and hide it to give to the fish. Every time Tam called, the fish would come up to the surface to eat the rice grains Tam threw down. The fish and the fish became more and more familiar with each other, and the fish grew visibly larger. Seeing that Tam often brought rice to the well after every meal, the stepmother became suspicious and told Cam to go and spy. Cam hid in the bushes by the well and heard Tam calling the fish, so she memorized it and went back to tell her mother.

That night, the stepmother told Tam to get up early tomorrow morning to herd the buffaloes, and instructed:

My child! The village has started to ban buffaloes from going to the fields. Tomorrow when you go to herd buffaloes, you must herd them in a field far away. Don’t herd them in our own field or the village will take them away.

Tam obeyed, the next morning she took the buffalo out to eat far away. At home, Cam’s mother and daughter brought a bowl of rice to the well, and called the carp to eat just as Tam had called. Hearing the call, the carp surfaced. Cam’s mother and daughter were ready, caught the carp and brought it home to slaughter. In the afternoon, Tam took the buffalo home, and after eating and drinking, Tam brought the bowl of rice she had saved to the well. Tam kept calling but the carp did not surface as usual. Tam kept calling, and finally only saw a clot of blood floating on the water’s surface. Knowing that something bad had happened to the carp, Tam burst into tears. Buddha appeared again and asked:

Why are you crying?

Tam told the story to Buddha, Buddha said:

Someone has eaten your goby. Stop crying. Then go home and collect its bones, put them in four jars, and bury them under the four legs of your bed.

Tam returned as Buddha told her to look for the fish bones, but she searched every corner of the garden and yard but could not find them. A chicken saw this and said to Tam:

Cluck, cluck! Give me some rice, I’ll dig up some bones for you!

Tam picked up a handful of rice and threw it to the chicken. The chicken ran into the kitchen and after digging for a while, found a bone. Tam picked it up, put it in a jar and buried it under the bed as Buddha had told her.

Not long after, the king held a festival that lasted for several days and nights. Old and young, men and women from all the villages eagerly went to watch. On the roads, many kinds of clothes flowed into the capital like flowing water. Cam and her mother also bought beautiful clothes to go to the festival. Seeing that Tam also wanted to go, the stepmother glared at her. Then she took a bushel of rice mixed with a bushel of paddy and told Tam:

You should finish picking up this rice and go, don’t leave it unfinished, when you come back there will be nothing to cook rice, you’ll be dead.

Having said that, the mother and daughter dressed up and set off. Tam sat and picked for a while but could not finish picking up half of it. She thought she did not know when she would finish. Tam was sad and cried alone. At that moment, Buddha appeared and asked:

Why are you crying?

Tam pointed to the basket and said:

My aunt made me pick the rice so that it was separate from the grain, and then I could go see the festival. By the time I finished picking, the festival had already ended, so there was nothing left to see.

Buddha said:

Don’t cry anymore. Take the basket and put it in the middle of the yard, and I will send a flock of sparrows to help pick it up.
But unfortunately the sparrow ate it, so when I came back I was still beaten.

Just tell them this:

The sparrow came down to pick me up,
Eating any grain my mother beat.

Suddenly, a flock of sparrows landed in the sky, picking the paddy in one direction and the rice in another. They were so busy that in a moment they finished, not leaving a single grain behind. But when the sparrows had flown away, Tam burst into tears again. Buddha asked again:

Why are you still crying?

Tam said:

Your clothes are so ragged, they won’t let you in to see the festival.

Buddha replied:

Dig up the jars of bones that were buried long ago and you will have everything for the festival.

Tam obeyed and dug up the jars. Digging up the first jar, she found a three-piece dress, a silk dress, a red silk blouse, and a gauze scarf. Digging up the second jar, she found a pair of embroidered shoes that fit perfectly. Digging up the third jar, she found a tiny horse, but as soon as she put the horse on the ground, it suddenly neighed loudly and turned into a real horse. Digging up the last jar, she found a pretty saddle.

Tam was so happy that she quickly took a bath, put on her clothes, and then rode away on horseback. The horse galloped to the capital. But when it galloped through a ford, Tam dropped one of her shoes into the water and didn’t have time to pick it up. When the horse stopped at the festival, Tam took a towel to wrap up the remaining shoe and squeezed into the crowd. At that moment, the royal procession had just arrived at the ford. The two royal elephants leading the procession suddenly stuck their tusks in the ground and roared, refusing to move. The king ordered his soldiers to go down to the water to look for it; they immediately picked up the embroidered shoe that Tam had dropped earlier.

The king looked at the shoe without getting tired of it and thought to himself:

Wow, what a pretty shoe! The person wearing these shoes must be a stunning beauty.

Immediately the king ordered an announcement to be made inviting all the women and girls who were attending the festival to come and try on the shoe. Whoever could fit the shoe would be the king’s wife. The festival became even more bustling as the women and girls jostled each other to try on the shoe. Each girl took her turn and went into the tower in the middle of the large lawn to try it on for luck. But none of their feet could fit. Cam’s mother and stepmother were among them. When Cam and her stepmother came out of the tower, they met Tam. Cam told her mother:

Mom, everyone like Tam also tries on shoes!

Tam’s stepmother pouted:

Even the gongs and bells don’t eat anyone, let alone the broken jars thrown on the bamboo bank!

But when Tam put her foot in the shoe, it fit perfectly. She opened her scarf and put on the second shoe. The two shoes were exactly the same. The soldiers cheered with joy. Immediately the king ordered a group of maids to escort her into the palace. Tam stepped onto the palanquin before the surprised and resentful eyes of Cam’s mother and daughter.

Although living in the palace, Tam still did not forget the anniversary of her father’s death. She asked the king’s permission to return home to prepare the offering for her aunt. When Cam’s mother and daughter saw Tam happy, they were jealous and held grudges. Now that Tam had returned, their jealousy flared up again. Thinking of a plan, the stepmother told Tam:

Before, I used to climb areca trees, I climbed and picked a bunch to offer to my father.

Tam obediently climbed up the areca tree. When she reached the room, her stepmother was holding a knife and cutting down the tree’s roots. Seeing the tree shaking, Tam asked:

What are you doing under the tree?

Areca nut tree has a lot of ants, auntie, chase the ants away so they don’t sting me.

But before Tam could tear the areca nut, the tree fell, and Tam fell head over heels into the pond and died. The stepmother hurriedly stripped off Tam’s clothes, put them on her daughter, and brought her into the palace, lying to the king that Tam had accidentally fallen into the pond and drowned, and that she was bringing her younger sister in to replace her older sister. The king was unhappy when he heard this, but he still said nothing. He then told the story of Tam’s death and turning into a golden oriole. The oriole flew straight back to the capital, reached the royal garden, and then flew straight into the palace, perched at the window, and sang very happily. Wherever the king went, the oriole flew there. The king was missing Tam so much that when he saw the oriole following him, he said:

Golden photo, golden photo, is that your wife, crawl into my sleeve

The oriole flew back and landed on the king’s hand, then nestled into his sleeve. The king loved the oriole so much that he forgot to eat or sleep. The king ordered a golden cage to be made for the bird. From then on, the king was only absorbed in the bird day and night, not thinking about Cam. One day, seeing Cam sitting at the well washing the king’s clothes, the oriole stopped on a tree branch and said:

Wash my husband’s clothes, wash them clean. If they don’t get them clean, I’ll slash your face.

When Cam was about to threaten to kill the yellow bird, the bird cried out again when Cam was about to hang her clothes out to dry:

Dry my husband’s clothes on a pole, don’t dry them on the fence, or they will tear.

Cam hurried home to tell her mother. Her mother told her to catch the bird, eat it, and then find something to lie to the king. Returning to the palace, Cam took advantage of the king’s absence to catch the bird, eat it, and then throw the feathers in the garden. Seeing the oriole missing, the king asked, and Cam replied:

I was pregnant and craved bird meat so I killed it and ate it without your permission. I beg your majesty to consider this.

The king said nothing. The golden oriole feathers buried in the garden turned into two peach trees. When the king went to visit the royal garden, their branches and leaves hung down to form a round shade like two parasols. The king saw the beautiful shade of the trees, so he ordered his servants to hang hammocks between the two trees and then he lay down to enjoy the cool breeze. When the king left, the branches of the trees straightened up again. From then on, there was not a day that the king did not lie down to enjoy the cool breeze under the two peach trees.

When Cam heard about it, she went back to tell her mother. Her mother told her to order the workers to cut down trees to make a loom and then find something to lie to the king. When they returned to the palace, one day when there was a storm, Cam ordered the workers to cut down two xoan trees to get wood to make a loom. When the king saw the trees being cut down, Cam replied:

The tree fell down because of the storm, I ordered the carpenter to cut it down and make a loom to weave clothes for Your Majesty.

But when the loom was finished, Cam sat down to weave and always heard the loom cursing her:

creak, creak, creak
Take her husband’s picture,
She gouged out her eyes.

Seeing this, Cam was scared and quickly went back to tell her mother. Her mother told her to burn the loom and dump the ashes far away so she could be at peace. When she got back to the palace, Cam did as her mother said. She took the burned ashes and dumped them on the roadside far away from the palace.

On the pile of ashes by the roadside grew a tall fig tree with luxuriant branches and leaves. When the fruiting season came, the fig tree only bore one fruit, but its fragrance spread everywhere. One day, an old woman selling drinks nearby passed by the tree and smelled the fragrance. She raised her head and saw the fig fruit on the high branch. She held out her bag and muttered:

Thi, thi has fallen fruit, I will let you smell it, but I will not eat it.

As soon as the old woman finished speaking, the star apple fell right into her bag. The old woman carefully took it home and kept it in her room, occasionally going in to admire it and smell its fragrance.

Every day the old woman went to the empty market. From inside the custard apple came out a girl as small as a finger, but in the blink of an eye she transformed into Tam. As soon as Tam stepped out, she picked a broom and swept the house clean, then washed rice to cook, picked vegetables from the garden to cook soup for the water seller. Then Tam turned back into her small form and crawled into the custard apple. Every time she returned from the market, the old woman was surprised to see the house tidy, delicious food and sweet soup ready.

One day, the water seller pretended to go to the market, but halfway there, she secretly returned and hid in the bushes behind her house. Meanwhile, Tam crawled out of the star fruit and did the same things as usual. The old woman tiptoed back and looked through the cracks in the door. When she saw a beautiful girl, she was so happy that she suddenly pushed the door open and hugged Tam, then tore the star fruit into pieces. From then on, Tam lived with the water seller, and the two loved each other like mother and daughter. Every day, Tam helped the old woman cook rice, boil water, wrap cakes, and prepare betel leaves for her to sell.

One day, the king went out of the palace. He saw a clean tea shop by the roadside, so he stopped in. The old woman brought betel leaves and water to the king. Seeing the betel leaves folded like phoenix wings, the king suddenly remembered the betel leaves his wife had folded in the same way before, so he asked:

Who packed this betel?
This betel is prepared by my daughter, the old woman replied.
Where is your daughter? Call her out here so I can see her face.

The old woman called Tam out. As soon as Tam appeared, the king immediately recognized his wife from before, looking younger and more beautiful than before. The king was so happy that he asked the water seller to tell him what had happened, then ordered his servants to carry Tam back to the palace.

When Cam saw that Tam had returned and was loved by the king as before, she could not help but be afraid.

The stepmother and stepdaughter quickly found a way to escape from the palace. They pretended to be civilians and found a way to escape on a boat. But their boat encountered a storm on the river. The stepmother and stepdaughter were not used to the water, so unfortunately, stepmother slipped and fell off the boat. The stepmother held her daughter’s hand to save her daughter, but the storm and strong winds caused them to fall into the river. The storm was so strong that the stepmother and stepmother sank into the river and no one could save them.