THE GRANDDAUGHTER OF KENG KANG SNAKE

Months went past, Soriya delivered a daughter. She bore living and taking care of her daughter in the forest alone until she grew up. Unluckily, her daughter was born different from other children; her head was full of snakes. She looked horrible. Since she grew up, her mother had never let her go anywhere because she might frighten the villagers when seeing her head. When it was necessary to go somewhere, she would cover her daughter's head with headdress.

One day, a couple who did not have any children came to pray to a spiritual guardian for children by giving a lot of offerings. When Soriya's daughter saw such food, she was very hungry for it since she lived in the cave; she had never eaten such good food. She hid herself behind the guardian and took food to eat. The couple at first supposed that they were haunted by ghost, but when they looked for a long time they could see that it was a hand of a child. Then they went to look at the back of it; they saw a child as they had thought. They cursed her, pulled her hair and were about to hit her; then her headdress dropped down exposing the snakes on her head. Seeing like this, they ran to call other people to hit her. Fearing too much, the girl ran into the forest.

Poorly, the girl ran over to the sorceress’s cave. When the villagers saw such situation, they feared to follow her. When the girl got into the sorceress’s cave, she walked and looked at every mysterious place in the cave. While she was concentrating on the mystery, the sorceress jumped up from behind to strangle her throat in an attempt to make her tongues stick out; then she could put poisonous medicine into her mouth so that she became a genie of her.however, her intention was not successful because while she was strangling her throat, the girl cleansed her teeth tight; she did not open her mouth, and the snakes on her head bit the hand of the sorceress to convulse at once. Then the little girl ran out of the sorceress’s cave and returned home safely.

When the little girl arrived at her cave, her mother, Soriya, also came out and saw her daughter's head without headdress. She blamed her and asked her everything. The little girl told her mother what had happened from the beginning till she could run from the sorceress's cave. As soon as her daughter recalled the sorceress, Soriya asked her while the sorceress lived. Then she told her daughter not to leave their cave. Soriya went to the sorceress's cave to look for the diamond ring for her husband.

The title girl slept very well for a while. Suddenly, she seemed to dream of her mother in danger. Because she adored her mother very much, she shouted so loudly that she was awakened. She was very worried about her mother. She came out the cave and waited for her mother under a tree.

Suddenly, a baby parrot fell from its nest on the ground. The little girl helped this small parrot; she put it in its nest. The mother parrot thanked the little girl and asked why she was crying. The little girl told her, "Now I may not have mother any more because she has gone for long time to get the diamond ring back from the sorceress. Yet, she has not come back while my father has turned to be rock because of the sorceress. As long as we are able to get the diamond ring back from the sorceress, he will not become human again." The mother parrot, hearing what the little girl said, felt pity for her very much and she helped the little girl to look for her mother. The 15th night of seventh month of lunar calendar was a time when the sorceress was away from her cave. She had to prey for food like mud and insects, and the ring had to be with her; so they could get the ring back.

How poor Soriya was! No matter how hard she tried to overcome all the obstacles to save her husband, she finally was poisoned by the sorceress and became a cruel vampire. Tonight the sorceress went out to eat mud. Before she left, she ordered Soriya to keep an eye on the cave and gave her a bell to ring if there was something wrong in the cave so that she could come back quickly. She detached her neck from her body and flew away. After the sorceress left, the little girl and the parrot arrived; she opened the door and entered the cave. At that moment the little girl saw her mother being detained in a cage. She ran toward her mother, but Soriya caught her and wanted to bite her. The little girl pulled her hand quickly because she thought that her mother must be under the spell of the sorceress. The parrot reminded her to find the ring quickly because it feared that the sorceress might come back and saw them.

The little girl climbed up on a place. There she saw the sorceress's body without the head. Seeing this, the girl hastened to hook the ring from the sorceress's neck and told the parrot, "I get the ring in my hand. What should I do next?" The parrot replied, "Push the body of the sorceress to the ground!" whereas Soriya rang the bell as ordered. The sorceress heard the bell and flew back very fast to the cave. As soon as the sorceress was about to come into her body, the little girl pushed her body to the ground very timely; hence, the sorceress could not go into her body. Suddenly, her body was flamed.

Now things used to be dark became good. Soriya became a beautiful woman again while her husband also returned to a human. The little girl had a normal hair as other children. All the snakes that had lived on her hair ran to live in other places. After freeing from the curse, the couple, Soriya and her husband, put the diamond ring into the pond and told the public,

"If anyone does good deed and jump into the pond, if they are old, they will become young." In that time, many good doers dived into the pond and when they got up from water, they were young and good-looking as Soriya's husband told. Everybody thanked the couple a lot.

Talking about Lvea Chek, when she and her mother saw the people diving into the pond and coming back with a beautiful look like this, they wanted to dive too. But Soriya's husband told them not to dive into the pond since he had learnt that they both had done many evil things. Though the man tried to forbid them, they paid no attention to him; they were stubborn to dive into the pond. As doing bad deed, when they emerged from the water, they got leprosy. Their bodies were full of wounds. It was then they realized that they really had done so many evil things. That was the result of their deed. Villagers abhorred them and expelled them to live far away; even the millionaire was scared to live with them. So they had to live as the tramps with the leprosy until they passed away.

Soriya, her husband and her daughter became the millionaire in the village. Her family was very famous and respectful in the village. Since then, Soriya's family lived very happily until the end of their lives.

- THE END -

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.

THE KENG KANG SNAKE

Long time ago, there was a man with his wife named NEANG NY and a daughter named NEANG ETH. The name was a beads trader. At that time, there were no other snakes, except for KENG KANG SNAKE (a kind of black and white snake).

One day, the villagers gathered to dig bamboo shoots and NEANG NY did go with her daughter either.

Reach in a Jungle, NEANG NY came across a bamboo shoot III a bamboo bush. She immediately dug the bamboo shoot. Incidentally, while she was digging the bamboo shoot, her digging hoe slipped from its handle and fell into a hole with no appearance. NEANG NY tried to look into the hole for her digging hoe and saw KENG KANG SNAKE nearby. She then said to the snake, "Huh, KENG KANG SNAKE! May you pass me the digging hoe?" The KENG KANG SNAKE replied, "If you agree to be my wife, I will help to pass your digging hoe back".

Due to her fool, NEANG NY incidentally answered, "OK, I agree to be your wife and this evening I will order my daughter-ETH to call you in". Soon after promising, both NEANG NY and her daughter returned home.

At dusk, NEANG NY ordered her daughter to call KENG KANG SNAKE in due time. NEANG ETH reached to the top of hole and called loudly, "KENG KANG SNAKE NEANG NY calls you". The snake heard and crawled toward NEANG NY with great anxiety. After seeing the giant snake, NEANG ETH was quickly dying running away.

When the KENG KANG Snake arrived, Neang Ny told, “Presently, my husband is not here, he went to trade beads. He would come back once for every two or three year”. The KENG KANG snake slept with with Neang Ny until the dawn, before leaving, Neang Ny commanded, “You can come here unless my daughter goes to invite you. But when my husband is here, I will not order Neang Eth to call you”.

The KENG KANG SNAKE slept with NEANG NY until the dawn while NEANG ETH was very frightened and slept alone nearby the house.

Actually, NEANG NY always ordered her daughter to call the KENG KANG SNAIK every day. Although NEANG ETH was very scared of snake, she still committed with her mother order but she did feel angry with her mother having love affairs with the snake.

Every evening, NEANG ETH went to the hole and called, "KENG KANG SNAKE, NEANG NY calls you". The snake crawled up and replied, "ETH! Isn't your father there? Or, he will kill me". "My father went to trade the beads and came back home for every two or three years, he did not come yet", ETH added.

The KENG KANG SNAKE came again and again, NEANG NY got pregnant Everyday NEANG NY was worried because when he.!; husband came he would kill her.

Her husband came and saw her with pregnancy, he secretly asked the daughter, "ETH huh! Why is the matter with your mother's stomach?". The daughter responded, "Pa! Mother has fallen in love with The KENG KANG SNAKE and she orders me to call the snake in every day".

The father heard that and told the daughter, "This evening you have to call the snake normally and don't let your mother know this. OK?"

In dusk NEANG ETH walked forward the hole and called, "KENG KANG SNAKE, NEANG NY calls you." The snake replied, "ETH! IfI go, your father will cut my head." NEANG ETH responded, "My father went to trade the beads and came back home every two or three years, he did not come yet".

The KENG KANG SNAKE heard and crawled happily since it thought that NEANG NY's husband did not come yet.

For NEANG NY's husband, he was standing nearby the door and ready with a knife in his hand. Soon after the KENG KANG SNAKE was crawling into the house, the man did not hesitate to chop the KENG KANG SNAKE into three pieces.

Due to being in love affairs with other wife, the husband killed the KENG KANG SNAKE cruelly and the snake died bitterly.

After that, the NEAG NY's husband took the tail of the snake hung on a jujube tree and dried the head on shelve while the body was taken to make food without letting NEANG NY know.

NEANG NY's husband quickly cleaned the blood stained on the TlCTO and everywhere. At a meal time, NEANG NY asked her daughter loudly, "ETH, ha! What a nice smell of the meal is". ETH replied, "Yes, Mum pork soup."

With her hunger, NEANG NY ate with her family. At that time, there was a crow on jujube tree near tail of the snake said, "KALOV KALOV KHLEM KHLORM, eating your own lover's meat..."

Neang Ny heard that and turned and saw the tail of snake on the branch of jujube tree and the head of snake on the shelve. Since she felt pity to the KENG KANG SNAKE, her tear fell on her cheek and she just whimpered because her husband was next to her.

Then her husband ask her, "Why are you whimpering?". "The rice is hot, so is the soup thus, making me teat”, she stifled.

Neang NY’s husband realized that his wife did get pregnant with the KEN KANG SNAKE and he was very embarrassed. When the delivery wad due, he persuaded his wife to visit a jungle near the pond far from the village.

NEANG NY did not know the killing plan of her husband. She thought that her husband did love her. She therefore followed him. They stopped and relaxed under a tree. It was a good chance for NEANG NY's husband. He pushed NEANG NY a tree trunk with hanger.

NEANG NY slid and her stomach broke. Immediately, there were huge numbers of snake crawled from her stomach. Some crawled into the jungle; pond and several were cut cruelly by her husband. Therefore, there are many species of snake on our planet up to now.

- THE END -