The Story of Tam and Cam

The Story of Tấm and Cám (Vietnamese: Tấm Cám) is an ancient Vietnamese fairy tale.

The original story has two parts. The first part is about the life of Tấm before she married the king. The second part is what happened after she married him.

A man married again, and his second wife gave birth to a child as dark as rice bran, so the baby was named Cám. He also has a very beautiful baby daughter named Tấm, which means broken rice, from his first wife. When Tấm's father's affection for his first daughter diminished soon after (due to the influence of his second wife) and the stepmother began to abuse Tấm and forced her to do all the housework, while Cám lived in luxury. Her hatred for Tấm intensified by the fact that Tấm was much more beautiful than her own daughter Cám, even though Tấm was forced to do all the laboring under the sun.

One day, the stepmother sent Tấm and Cám fishing, promising to reward the girl who caught the most fish with a new yếm. Cám knew her mother would never punish her, therefore instead of trying to catch fish, she bathed carelessly in the river while Tấm was working hard. When Cám noticed all the fish Tấm had caught, Cám advised Tấm to wash the mud out of her hair or else she would be scolded by their mother. As Tấm went out to the river to wash her hair, Cám poured all the fish Tấm had caught into her own basket and ran home.

Upon discovering she had been tricked, Tấm sobbed until a fairy guardian appeared to her and comforted her. She told Tấm to look into her basket to discover the one remaining little goby. She then told Tấm to take the fish home and put it into the well at the back of the house, reciting a special poem/greeting whenever she came to feed it, which meant:

"Goby, goby! Come eat the golden rice, the silver rice of mine. Don't eat stale rice, old porridge that are not mine."

Everyday, Tấm would come out to the well a few times to feed the goby, always reciting the greeting beforehand so that the goby would come up from the water. The fish grew fatter everyday and the stepmother began to suspect Tấm's behavior. One day, the stepmother snuck out close to where Tấm was feeding the fish. She waited until Tấm was gone, and went over to the well, finding nothing. She then repeated the greeting she had heard Tấm reciting, and to her delight, saw the goby come up from the water. The stepmother then caught and killed it and put it in her rice porridge.

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