A Legend Of The Watermelon/ Sự Tích Quả Dưa Hấu - Mit's Blog

Mai An Tiêm was an adopted child of King Hùng. Although he was considered as a prince but he always liked working and doing everything by himself. The King loved him very much and usually gave him many things. While other people looked at things that the King gave them as the most precious things, An Tiêm did not do like that. He usually said that something which was not made by himself meant nothing but a debt. Therefore, some people told the King what he said. The King was so furious that he told his men to take An Tiêm and his family to a wild place – an island – where no one lived “to see how he manages to survive without my help”, said the King.

So, Mai An Tiêm, his wife and his children were brought into a boat to the wild island. After that, the escorted soldiers left them there. They could not see the mainland or any boats around. They had nothing there, no food, no water, nothing to work. The only thing An Tiêm was permitted to keep was an old blade that he had since he was a little boy. His children cried. His wife was so scared. An Tiêm told them not to be too worried: “Trees and animals can live here, so can us. We have our hands that help we survive.” They found a cave to stay. An Tiêm told his wife and his daughter to find some wild plants and wild fruits while he and his son tried to get some animals by traps. They lived that way, picked up wild plants, caught animals. They used the old blade as thing to dig into soil to plant wild vegetables around the cave. Their hands got hurt. They were tired but they did not give up. However, after a short time, animals got used to with their traps so they knew how to avoid those traps. It became harder and harder to find food.

One day, An Tiêm went to the beach while a bird was eating something, suddenly seeing him, the bird hurried fly away, left a piece of fruit on the ground. That was a piece of a strange fruit that he had not ever seen before. The skin of the fruit was green, the flesh was red and the seeds were black. An Tiêm told himself that if bird could eat this kind of fruit, so could him. He tasted a bit – it was sweet and made him feel comfortable. So he kept the seeds and planted them.

Some days after that he saw the first sprouts show up. An Tiêm and his family were very happy. They looked after those plants very carefully. They watered them and protected them from animals. Those people were excited to see the first flowers and then, the first fruits were there. They saw those fruits bigger and bigger day by day. However, An Tiêm and his family did not when those fruits ripe. That morning, they surprised to hear the noise of ravens and did not know what happened. They went out and saw some birds eating their fruits. When seeing An Tiêm and his family, those birds hurriedly flew away. Now they knew it was time to pick their fruit. So excited, they tasted the first fruit and were so happy to know that from now on, they did not have to worry about how to survive here. This kind of fruit could help them. They called the plant dưa hấu (watermelon).

They kept planting dưa hấu and soon they had a large garden with many fruits waiting for them. Looking at ripe fruits and then, looking at the sea, An Tiêm wondered how he could told other people about his situation. Finally, he had an idea. He picked up two fruits, came to the beach and used his blade to carve some words on the fruits. He put them into water, hope waves brought them to someone. Many fruits were thrown into the sea but no boat appeared. An Tiêm still kept sending his messenger every day.

One day, a boat came to the island. The owner wanted to see who planted such a kind of delicious fruits and wanted to buy to bring into mainland. From that day, An Tiêm got rice and things to work. He even had enough things to build a small house. Many boat came to buy fruits. Many people came to learnt how to plant dưa hấu. The island was no longer a wild place. An Tiêm still thought about the King as his father and he sent some fruits to the King’s palace.

About the King, he missed An Tiêm a lot and soon felt regret about his action but he was too ashamed to admit. He thought An Tiêm was dead. One day, he tasted a very strange fruit that was really delicious. Curiously, he asked about it and surprised to know that it was sent to him as An Tiêm’s presents. He was so glad An Tiêm was alive and could plant such a good kind of plant. The King sent boat to bring An Tiêm and his family back to mainland. He also apologized for what he had done before. An Tiêm and his family were very happy to come back to their house. They brought seeds of dưa hấu with them and taught others to plant.

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