The Story of Tam and Cam

The story is about two half-sisters; the eldest is named Tam (rice germ) and the youngest is named Cam (rice bran).[1] Tam's mother dies early and her father remarries before dying soon after. Tam lives with her stepmother, who is Cam's mother. The stepmother is very sadistic and makes Tam do all the housework, whereas Cam does not have to do anything.[1]

One day, the stepmother tells Tam and Cam to go to the field to catch "tép" (caridina, a tropical genus of shrimp) and promises to give them a new red yếm (a Vietnamese traditional bodice) to whomever catches the most.[1] Tam soon fills up her basket, while Cam plays in the water and catches nothing. Realizing that her sister actually had a chance at receiving a red yếm and the day is almost done, Cám comes up with a plan to sabotage Tam's work. Cam tells her older sister to wash her hair, saying that the stepmother will scold her if her hair is so muddy after catching all the caridinas, and Tam obeys. While Tam is washing her hair, Cam transfers all the shrimp from Tam's basket to hers and goes home.[1]

When Tam realizes that all the shrimp she has caught is gone, she cries in seeing all her hard work disappear and the impending punishment that will come from her stepmother. A Bụt (a wise old man who helps pitiful people in Vietnamese folklore, sometimes considered a tiên) appears and asks why she cries, and she tells him what happened. He tells her to stop crying and see what is left in the basket, which is merely a goby. Then he tells her to raise the fish in a well with her rice and teach her the words to call the fish up:

O goby, o goby

Go up and eat my golden and silver rice

Don't eat those spoiled rice and porridge of theirs.

(Original:

Bống bống bang bang

Lên ăn cơm vàng cơm bạc nhà ta

Chớ ăn cơm hẩm cháo hoa nhà người.)[1]

Without the exact recitement, the goby would not rise, according to what the old man has said before he vanishes. Tam follows his counsel, and the goby grows noticeably. Tam would spend her time talking to the goby about her thoughts, which the fish would silently comfort her. Suspicious about her behavior, the stepmother and the half-sister discover the fish as well as the poem by which Tấm summons it. The stepmother plans to distance Tam in order to kill the fish:

"My daughter, the village has prohibited using the field; tomorrow you should graze our buffaloes far away, or they shall seize them."

The stepmother also tells Tam to leave her coat behind. Tam obeys her stepmother, unaware of her intent. The stepmother has Cam wear Tam's clothes and recite the line, making the goby mistaken her as Tam, which allows them to butcher the goby.

After coming back home, Tam calls the goby up as usual, but nothing goes up but blood. She sobs again and the old man appears again. He asks why she cries and she explains. He replies: "Your goby they have eaten. Cry no more! Collect its bones, put them in four jars and bury them under your bed legs.", and she does so.

Soon after, the king hosts a festival, which he invites people from everywhere to attend, including Tam and her family. Noticing that Tam also wants to join, the stepmother mixes up the rice and bran that Tam has to separate them before joining the festival, and threatens to punish her if she does not have it done by the time they get back from the festival. Again she cries, but then the old man reappears and she explains what happened. He calls sparrows down to help her and teaches her a poem to prevent them from eating the bran and rice:

O sparrows, go down and separate these grains of rice for me

Eat a grain, and I will beat you to death

(Original:

Rặt rặt xuống nhặt cho tao

Ăn mất hạt nào thì tao đánh chết)

The old man then tells her to dig up those jars that she had buried previously. The first two jars includes silk clothes, a scarf, and a red yếm. The third jar contains a tiny horse which enlarges into a normal horse; the fourth has a saddle for the horse.

Happily, Tam washes up and wears the clothing before rushing to the festival in the capital. Crossing a stone bridge, she drops a slipper and cannot get it back.[2] When the king crosses the same bridge, the elephant on which the king rides suddenly growls and brushes its ivory down to the earth. Curiously, the king commands his mans to look underwater, and they find the slipper. He observes the slipper for a while and comments that the shoe must belong to a gracious woman. Saying so, he tells all the women in the festival to try the slipper to find out the owner, whom he shall wed. No one fits the shoe. Tam arrives, excited about the festivities and notices her slipper on display. She approaches to try it on. Seeing Tam trying it on, Cam and her mother mock her. The slipper turns out to fit her, and she draws the other one to wear. The king commands his people to lead her to his palace to wed her. Tam goes with the king in front of Cam's and her mother's envious eyes.

Tam and the king are happily married. Not forgetting her father's death day, despite the fulfilling life in the king's palace, she comes back home to help her stepmother prepare for the anniversary.

All the hatred the stepmother and Cam have towards Tam rises again, but they kept their thoughts private. Despite their harsh treatment towards her before she was married, Tam treats them kindly during the anniversary.

The stepmother tells Tam to climb on an areca tree to gather its fruit for the ceremony. While Tam is doing so, the stepmother chops down the tree, causing Tam to fall down and die.

The stepmother takes Tam's clothes for Cam to wear. Cam goes to the king's palace and lies to him that Tam had unfortunately drowned in a pond by accident. Cam states she came to the palace to replace her sister's position as his wife.[2] The king is saddened to hear so, but with no other choice he marries Cam. He ignores his new wife, mourning for Tam silently, to the other's dismay.

Tam reincarnates into an oriole. She flies straight to the king. On her way, she scolds Cam for not properly washing the king's clothes. Eventually, Tam sees the king, and she sings to him.

Missing his wife, the king says: "O oriole, if you are my wife, enter my sleeve", and she does so. The king immediately believes that she has been reincarnated as the bird and only spends his time with it, ignoring Cam even more. He then builds a cage for Tam to reside in when they are not together.

Following her mother's counsel, Cam butchers the oriole, eats it, and then buries its feather in the royal garden. She lies to the king that she was not aware of the interaction between him and the bird, and the oriole simply fled away when she tried to feed it.

From where the feathers were buried grow two peach trees. The trees bend itself to provide shade for the king. Noticing the two trees that somehow appeared in the royal garden, the king believes they are also a sign from Tam.

The king tells his people to bring a cot so he can nap there every day. Cam chops the trees down and tells the king she did so to weave new clothes for him.[2] While weaving the clothes, she hears Tam accusing her for stealing her husband, cursing her and threatening to "hack her eyes". She then burns the loom and throw the ash far away from the palace. The wind carries the ashes far away before they eventually land. From the ash grows a golden apple tree.

A crone soon crosses by the tree and is enticed by the scent of its only fruit. The old woman says:

O golden Apple, fall to my basket

Your scent I'll smell, eat you I’ll not

(Original: "Thị ơi thị à, rụng vào bị bà, bà để bà ngửi chứ bà không ăn."[2] or "Thị ơi thị rơi bị bà, bà để bà ngửi chứ bà không ăn").

The crone keeps her word and places it in her house as if it were a house decor. She soon notices that the housework was finished, and a meal was prepared for her as well. The next day she pretends to leave, and finds a woman, Tam, appear from the apple. The crone then tears off the peel of the fruit when Tam exits the apple, and she makes Tam her adopted daughter.

One day, the king comes across the crone's house and stops to rest. She offers the king betel leaf. It was prepared the same style Tam did when she was alive, so the king suspects. He asks who made it; the old woman tells him that her daughter did. The king demands to see the "daughter" and Tam appears. The king gladly brings Tam back to the palace.

Later, when Tam has returned to the palace, Cam asks Tam about her beauty secret. Tam does not answer, but instead asks back: "Do you want to be beautiful? I'll help you!"

Cam immediately agrees. Tam tells her to jump down a hole and she does so. Tam then commands the royal soldiers to pour boiling water onto her, killing Cam and uses her corpse to make fermented sauce (in the same way fish sauce is made).[2] Tam then sends the sauce to her stepmother, saying it is a gift from Cam.

The stepmother believes so and eats it every day. One day, a crow flies by the stepmother's house and rests on her roof and cries out:[2]

"Delicious! The mother is eating her own daughter's flesh! Is there any left? Give me some."

(Original: "Ngon ngỏn ngòn ngon ! Mẹ ăn thịt con, có còn xin miếng.")

The stepmother becomes angry, but when she finally reaches the bottom of the jar, she discovers a skull inside. Realizing it is Cam's, the stepmother immediately dies of shock.