Vietnamese Tales - The story of Công-Da-Tràng

[swanchika]

 Once upon a time, there was a hunter called Công-Da-Tràng. One day, as he was lying in wait in a forest, he saw a female snake who took advantage of her husband's absences to visit the nest of another snake. To punish the adultery, Công-Da-Tràng drew his bow, aimed at the male snake and shot an arrow. But just as the arrow was about to hit, the female snake raised her head and the projectile went through her neck. When he came home, her husband found her dead, killed by an arrow that bore Công-Da-Tràng's name. Enraged, he went to the hunter's village and crawled around the house for several days, waiting for an occasion to exact his revenge.

But on one calm night, he heard Công-Da-Tràng and his wife talking about his dead spouse. Thus, he learned that she had been unfaithful, and that the man he had thought of as an enemy was actually his benefactor. So he went to see the hunter and told him : "Công-Da-Tràng, now I know that your intentions were good. You did well to kill my unworthy wife, and I want to thank you." He spat out a magnificent piece of jade, and before leaving, he told the hunter that whoever had this jade on their person could understand the animals' language when they talked between themselves. Công-Da-Tràng promised to keep the beautiful jade.

A few days later, a raven perched atop a tree in front of Công-Da-Tràng's house : "Today, you don't need to hunt", he said. "Near the edge of the forest, there is a dying stag. Go and bring him back. When you cut him up, do not forget to give me his innards." Công-Da-Tràng nodded in agreement. But when he cut and cooked the stag's meat, he forgot his promise, and when the raven came to take his due, the hunter took his bow and shot... The bird dodged the arrow, then took it of the branch where it had planted itself and swore revenge.

A few days later, a dead body was found in the river, and he had in his back an arrow with Công-Da-Tràng's name. The man had in fact committed suicide, and the arrow had been planted there by the furious raven, but Công-Da-Tràng had no way to prove his innocence and was thrown in prison.

One day, in his cell, thanks to the magical jade, he heard ants talking between themselves : "Tomorrow, one of them said, the water level will rise an crops will be destroyed, putting everyone in misery.

– Yes, one of its companions continued, because the moths and us have devoured all the grain that was in the royal granaries !"

Công-Da-Tràng reported those words to his jailers. They demanded audience to the king, and told him the story. The king ordered that the granaries be opened : they were indeed empty. On the next day, it started to rain, and water rose everywhere ; it was a massive inundation. Seeing that the prisoner's predictions had come true, the king called him and asked him how he could have known of those events in advance. Công-Da-Tràng told him the truth. Feeling that he had found an useful and loyal man, the king agreed to amnesty him in exchange for the magical jade. Amazed by its power, he always kept it on him and from then on, he spent all his time wandering the countryside to listen to the animals' conversations, to the point that he forgot his royal duties.

One day, the king was sailing down a river's estuary, listening to the chatter of the aquatic kingdom. As he leaned over the boat's edge, he inadvertently dropped the magical jade into the sea. He immediately ordered his servants to dive and look for it, but all the searches were in vain.

Having learned the jade's loss, Công-Da-Tràng decided to find it. He searched the sea for months and months, and to mark the places he had already searched, he put buckets of sand on the sea floor. But despite all his efforts, he never found the jade. Công-Da-Tràng was so pained by this that he fell ill and died. Moved by his chagrin, Heaven granted him a second life on Earth, in the shape of a da-tràng, a small, grey crab.

When walking on a beach, one often sees those da-tràng that spend all their lives going from the beach to the sea and from the sea to the beach, carrying small grains of sand. Some say that Công-Da-Tràng is still looking for his jade ; others say that, angry that he never found it, he is now trying to fill the whole sea with sand. But his efforts are always useless, for as soon as he puts them on the oceanic floor, all those small grains of sand are carried away by the waves. And today, people sometimes sing :

"The little crab carries sand into the Orient ocean ;

He struggles, but all his hard work is in vain..."