Thursday, November 27, 2014

THE SON OF KENG KANG SNAKE

When Neang Ny's belly was slit, There were a lot of baby snakes crawling out of her belly. Some crawled into the water; some into holes of earth; and some others were mercilessly sliced by her husband. But, one of the baby snakes was luckiest because it had slithered into and hid itself under a rocky outcrop safe and sound. Let's pause for a moment about the story of these baby snakes and get to a miserable life of a woman, Soriya. How miserable her life was as she was living with her wicked stepmother, Lvea Chek, who always envied Soriya. She cursed Soriya everyday. Soriya's father was also aware of such a problem that he felt much pity for his daughter, but did not know what to do.

One day, somehow, the millionaire (Soriya's father) desired to know about his daughter's destiny. He invited a soothsayer to predict her life. He asked the soothsayer, "How will my daughter's life be, since she was always mistreated by lvea Chek?" The soothsayer answered, "Soriya will have a good fortune and more wealth than you has now. But, surprisingly, she will marry a snake." The millionaire felt amazed, but also asked him to predict his wife's fate to see what her life would be in the future. "She will finally be infected with leprosy," said the soothsayer. At that time, lvea Chek, who had eavesdropped, entered with fierce anger. She picked up the stick to hit him. Lvea Chek came up with an idea to make Soriya leave the house so that she would find it easier to manage all of her husband's wealth. She complained to her husband about Soriya's misbehavior toward her. Though he felt pity for his daughter, the millionaire had to evict her to live in the forest, since he wanted to please his young wife and did not want to have any trouble anymore.

Talking about the baby snake hiding in the cave, it was living happily. The longer it lived there, the bigger it was; it could transform itself to a handsome man without any peer. This young man had a diamond ring from a melted pearl in his body. Today he went out in a rowboat to get some fresh air. As for Soriya who had been evicted by her father, she lived calmly and quietly in the forest with the servants sent by her millionaire father. While the man was rowing the boat, he heard beautiful song of a lady. He felt amazed. 'How come in such a quiet forest there was human living?' he asked himself. The song finally disappeared, except for a loud voice - help! This voice was from the servants when their lady was drowning.

Hurriedly, the man rowed his boat towards the place where the voice was. Seeing the bubble of water, the man dived into the river to rescue her life and put her into his boat.

At home, Soriya's wet nurse was looking for her high and low, even at the jetty, but could not find her. The wet nurse only discovered her copper bowl so it made her even more worried about this missing. The old lady (wet nurse) and the servants went to tell the millionaire about this. The millionaire, then, was very concerned and extremely frightened; he ordered his retinues to look for her. In the boat, when Soriya was conscious, she saw a handsome gentleman sitting beside her. This situation made her blush. She sat up and asked, "Do you rescue my life?" The man replied, "Of course!" Soriya thanked him and told him that she wanted to go home. Because she had just been saved from drowning, her clothes were so wet that she shivered. Seeing this, the man took off his shirt and covered. After she had the shirt, she said good bye to the man and traveled straight home. When she arrived home, her wet nurse felt very happy without putting her feeling into words. No sooner had she narrated her story to her wet nurse than she went to her room for sleep.

Talking about the handsome guy, he missed her very much because she was so cute and reserved and her beauty was so perfect that he absolutely fell in love with her. He tried to seek ways to meet her. In the next morning, Soriya sent a dwarf who was a servant in her house to return the shirt to the guy. As told by his master, the dwarf went to the right place and gave it to him. When he arrived at the boat, he saw the boat owner was shivering because he had flu. He ran back to tell Soriya about his illness. As soon as she heard this, she hurriedly hastened to the boat. Soriya prepared tasty food and medicines to cure the handsome man who was sleeping on the boat. As soon as the young man saw her, he admitted his love to her. She also loved him so she went back to tell his father only without letting her stepmother realize about this. And they both lived very happily as a couple in their home in the forest. Later, Soriya was pregnant.
As for Lvea Chek, she was carrying a closely-covered clay pot full of blood walking toward a cave. When she got into the cave, she saw an ugly old woman with white hair-she was a sorceress. When she approached that woman, she said, "I have heard a fortune teller saying that Soriya will marry a snake. And since she has separated from me, I have never seen her come back home. Is she still alive? Has she got married a snake?" That sorceress replied, "She is not dead yet. She is enjoying her happiness. Nowadays she really married a snake, but her husband is very handsome." The witch used her magical mirror to show Soriya and her husband. As soon as Lvea Chek saw the guy, she was very envious of Soriya and wanted to separate them because she did not want Soriya to have something

better than her. After she knew all their stories, she said goodbye to the sorceress. However, before she left, the sorceress said, "If you want to destroy them, try to steal the diamond ring from the guy's finger."

Because of envy, Lvea Chek walked from one village to another village looking for Soriya's house. Eventually, she found Soriya's house in the forest as her wishes. When she saw her stepmother arriving in front of her house, she invited her to have a seat in her house. Lvea Chek pretended to have very important business to talk with Soriya's husband secretly. She asked where her husband was. Soriya called her husband to meet her stepmother, and she went downstairs leaving her husband and her stepmother talking. The lovely guy greeted his stepmother-in-Ia and blew panpipe for her entertainment. When she saw such good chance, she thought she would use her beauty to arouse sexual desire of the guy, but he did not pay attention to her at all. When he saw his stepmother-in-law behavior like this, he thought that there must be unusual things. He hurriedly went downstairs making Lvea Chek tramp her foot alone on the house. Then she returned home.

Lvea Chek continued her journey beyond her house toward the cave of the sorceress and told her all stories. The sorceress handed her a bottle of medicine and told her, “Take this and put it in the rice wine for the guy to drink. When the medicine circulates all over his body, he will turn to the snake for his whole life and to not forget to bring the ring for me”. After she understood what she needed to do, she said goodbye to the sorceress and returned home. Lvea Check was really an envious and full of malice. No matter where the the young man went, she never forgot to revenge him.

Today Lvea Chek wrote a letter to Soriya. In the letter she wrote that her father got serious illness and he requested both of them to visit him. As soon as the couple finished reading the letter, they prepared things and hurried to visit him. When they both entered the house, they asked Lvea Chek about their father illness. While asking how about the millionaire, they saw him coming out in good condition, making Soriya's husband so doubtful , but he did not ask any more. When seeing his daughter and son-in-law visiting him, the millionaire felt excited. Then they had meal happily together.

This was a good chance for Lvea Chek. She poured the rice wine into the glass for this familial meeting. The guy did not want to drink it, but his wife urged him to drink for the honor to her father. After drinking rice wine, the guy reacted with the toxicity making him vomit and go into convulsion suddenly on the house. Seeing this, the malicious stepmother pretended to give a message and then took good opportunity to steal his ring from his finger. Soriya carried her husband back home.

When the guy arrived home, his temperature in the body got so high that he asked his wife to collect water. When she went down to collect water, the guy, realizing about his current condition, felt so pitiful for his wife because he was a snake while she was a human. She would be afraid of snake. Coming up with this idea, he made all of his effort to run away from home. Meanwhile, she glanced at him running, she chased and called him to return home, but he did not listen to her begging.

As for the sorceress, she was very happy with her success because whenever the snake died, she would be immortal. The guy then became a Keng Kang snake crawling into a cave. Soriya ran after her husband until she saw her husband turn to a snake. She bitterly felt pity for her husband. Keng Kang snake spoke in tear to his wife, "I have my last words for you when our child comes out and reaches the age of 8 years old, tell him to get the ring back from the sorceress. Then I will transform into human again. Please take care of yourself. I have to be away from you." Although her husband forced her to return home, she accepted to live with her husband in such state. Because Keng Kang snake was under the effect of poisonous medicine and lost his ring, he turned to be a rock making Soriya weep for separating her husband.

- THE END -

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