The Betel And The

ArecaRetold by: Hoang Ngoc Bein(Vietnam)

During the reign of king Hang Vuong. There lived in a small village in a highlands of North Viet Nam, two brothers of Cao family. The elder was named Cao Tan, the younger Cao Lang.

They were as like each other as two peas in a pod and were both good-looking, good-tempered, and hardworking.

Cao Lang, the younger, fell secretly in love with a girl of the Luu family called Xuan Phu, who lived in a neighboring village. She was about sixteen years of age and was very beautiful. Not

only was beautiful but also modest, well-behaved, and gentle. Many youth wished to ask for her hand, but she seemed to pay no attention to anyone. But in her heart she had liking for CaoLang.

One day Cao Lang asked his mother differently for permission to get married, but did not say to whom. His mother told him that, as what the custom, he must wait until she has arranged his

elder brother’s marriage. As a dutiful son, Cao Lang could not disobey her and her elder brother, an equally good son, began to look for a suitable girl to be his wife.

The bride he chosen was none other than the charming Xuan Phu. Cao Lang was dismayed and his heart was filled with grief. But his love for his brother was so strong that he did not say anything. When Cao Tan came to Xuan Phu’s

house with his mother and asked for her hand, she agreed to marry him. She mistook Cao Tan for his brother, for she had never spoken to Cao Lang and the brothers were so much alike. So Cao Tan and Xuan Phu were married.

Cao Lang endured his grief as well as he could. Xuan Phu, when she discovered the mistake, accepted her fate and made the best of it. After all, her husband was as hansome, hardworking, and good-natured as Cao Lang. Little by little, Xuan Phu took over all the household

duties from her mother-in-law, cooking meals, preparing tea, Each day, the brother went their water buffaloes to work in the fields, and at the end of the day, Tan would carry home the plough and harrow and Lang would follow leisurely some distance

Behind the buffaloes. In the evening when they all gathered for the family meal, there was a feeling of warm affection and happiness. One day when Xuan Phu had prepared the evening

meal, she hurried out of the gate to meet her husband As it happened that day Cao Lang carried the plough and the harrow and Cao Tan was some distance behind with the buffaloes .

From a distance, Xuan Phu thought Cao Lang was her husband. She ran up to him therefore and took his hand.

Cao Lang guessed at once that she had mistaken him for his brother. “my sister –in-law!,” he murmured.

Xuan Phu realized with a

shock that he was not her husband. Unfortunately, Cao Tan had seen what happened. Taken aback and hurt, he went into the house without even greeting his wife. From that day, atmosphere in the house was no longer happy as it had been before.

Cao Lang felt that this was his fault. He decided therefore that the best thing that he could do for his family was to go away. This he did. Nobody knew where he had gone, and he himself did not know where he had gone, and

he himself did not know where he was bound for. Summer passed into autumn, winter came and spring, and still he wandered over mountains, across streams and through villages and hamlets.

One evening he collapsed, completely exhausted, on the bank of a streams and there he died. Because of his sincere love and self-sacrifice his body was changed into a rock of pure white chalk lime beside which the steam flowed lamenting his lot. At home, Cao Tan’s longing for his

brother’s return grew daily. Tormented by remorse for having allowed his younger brother to go away like that, he set out in search for him. Over mountains and through forest he wandered, looking for a sign of his lost brother. At last he came to a white chalky rock on the bank of stream

Worn out, he sank down and there he died too. Because of his devotion, he was changed into a tall pam tree bearing areca nuts.

After her husband’s departure, Xuan Phu waited hopefully for his return. Two autumns passed without news of her husband or her

brother-in-law. She became desperate and one morning, with the permission of her mother-in-law, she too, set out. She covered long distances travelling through rain and sunshine .once again fate brought her to the very place where the areca tree grew beside the white rock and there her strength failed her.

She collapsed and died. She was changed into a climbing vine, the betel, which twined itself around the trunk of the areca tree. Thus she was united with her husband again. The stream that ran past the rock murmured tragic story. The villagers, hearing the

story, set up a small shrine in memory of the tree, Some time after, King Huang Vuong came that way and was told this tale. Moved by the love of the brothers and Xuan Phu, the king picked a betel leaf and an areca nut and chewed them together.

The mixture had a pleasant flavor and when he spat it out on the white rock it made a beautiful crimson color, the color of faithful love.

The King ordered that

it should always be used in wedding ceremonies, and so it is done to his very day. The sliced areca nuts are mixed with a bit of lime paste and wrapped I betel leaves for chewing.

1. Why do you think are the two brothers very much alike? What do you call them?

2. How many times did Xuan Phu mistake Cao Tan for Cao Lang? Describe the situation.

3. What incident led Cao Tan to become jealous? Do you think this would happen if Cao Tan and his wife live apart from his family? Why?

4. Paragraph 9: How did Cao Lang make his sister-in-law understand that she had mistaken him for her husband? Cite 2 instances where Cao Lang exercised self-sacrifice for the sake of family happiness.

5. What beautiful traits did Xuan Phu show as a daughter-in-law? As a wife? Prove these traits.