There was a family with quite a large family. The whole family worked together to clear a field at the foot of a mountain. Their field was so large that they could not hear each other calling out to each other. They could not walk from one end to the other, and their feet were tired. A troop of monkeys came to destroy the crops in the field. The whole family was worried about chasing the monkeys; when they chased them to the left, they ran to the right; when they chased them from above, the monkeys ran down below; when they chased them far away in front, they came closer behind. They chased and beat them, but the monkeys ran away. They shouted, and the monkeys also shouted back, and the monkeys also cursed at them. The whole family chased the monkeys from morning to evening, skipping lunch to chase the monkeys. When it was almost dark and they could not see the road, the monkeys dragged themselves into the forest.
The whole family was tired, hungry and frustrated. That evening, after dinner, the father discussed with his son a plan to stop the monkeys from destroying the crops. The father said:
- Kids! Tomorrow we will go make traps around the field to catch monkeys.
The next day, everyone was excited to go make traps. They set traps around the fields, on the ground, and even on tree branches. They sharpened spikes and planted them from the edge of the forest to the edge of the fields, all around the fields, so many spikes that even weasels and squirrels could not get through.
The next day, they set traps again. They dug dozens, hundreds of pits, with spikes at the bottom.
Two or three days later, the monkeys came again. Some went up the trees, some went down on the ground. The young ones went first, the big ones and the old ones followed. When they reached the edge of the field, some got caught in the trap on their feet, some got caught in the trap on their hands, and when one got caught, another monkey helped them remove it. In the end, the traps caught none of the monkeys.
The monkeys went to the place where the spikes were planted. When they saw one monkey hit the spike, they broke a tree branch and waved it to knock the spikes down. Once they had a path, the monkeys pulled out all the spikes like weeds. The monkeys went to the fields and destroyed the crops. One monkey fell into a pit and got stuck in a spike. Seeing this, the monkeys picked pumpkins, carried rotten wood, and dropped rocks into the pit, breaking all the spikes, then continued to destroy them. The whole family tried to shout and chase them away until their voices were hoarse. When they shot an arrow at one monkey, another monkey pulled it out for them. They broke the arrow and threw it away. The monkeys destroyed their food until they were full, and at night they returned to the deep forest.
The whole family had to stand by and watch them tearing corn, eating rice, and smashing gourds.
One day, while drunk, the father said to his children:
- Tomorrow, our whole family will go to the forest to collect a lot of dong (wild yeast) and rmuanl (bitter eggplant) plants, all the plants that the M'nong people often use to make yeast for wine.
The next day, the whole family went to get wild yeast. They got beans and corn to make yeast, cooked sticky rice and rice with wild yeast. They prepared chicken and pork, tied many jars of really good rice wine, filled the jars and gourds, put the rice wine in dried gourds around the fields, tied sweet potatoes and corn to yeast and put them in baskets and trays. In the hut, they tied up five or three jars of rice wine, chicken and pork and displayed them as if to celebrate the rice offering. The whole family asked the villagers to help and prepared rattan, rope, black eggplant, and poisonous eggplant.
The next day, the whole troop of monkeys came to the field to eat and destroy. Seeing that the field was empty, no one was there, no traps, no spikes, no pitfalls, the whole troop of monkeys was even happier. They went to the edge of the field and ate the boiled potatoes, and ate the wine lees, and then the whole troop of monkeys went into the hut. Seeing chicken, pork, and sticky rice, the monkeys also ate them all. After eating, the monkeys fought over the wine, and drank all the water in the jar. The monkeys pushed the jar to break, and saw the wine lees inside, and ate them all. The more the monkeys ate, the more delicious they found it. The more delicious they ate, the more drunk they became. The more drunk the monkeys ate, and ate all the wine lees, and all the corn, sweet potatoes, and sticky rice. The alcohol made the monkeys drunk and sleepy. They slept all over the hut, under the trees in the field, hugging the tree roots thinking they were their comrades, hugging the squash and gourds thinking they were relatives. The monkeys were so drunk that they forgot to invite each other back to the forest.
It was almost dark, the villagers were on guard and came together. Some held sticks, some used ropes to tie the monkeys into groups of five or seven, tying them up to the base of the tree, to the rocks, to the pillars of the house, not leaving any monkeys behind. They tied them up for three days and four nights, during the day they let them dry in the sun, at night they lit fires, lit torches and shone them on their faces. The monkeys were hungry and cried for food. The villagers grilled bitter melons very hot and gave them to the monkeys. The monkeys found it hot and bitter, so scared that their foreheads wrinkled and their faces turned red.
Having taken revenge on the monkeys that destroyed their crops, the whole family and the villagers celebrated. They ate pigs, chickens, drank wine for three days and three nights, and also ate monkey meat. They ate not a single one left.
The monkeys were lucky enough to escape and hide in the bushes, on the edge of the field. They felt so sad for their comrades who were slowly dying, being caught and eaten by people that they could not bear it. They cried for days and nights, their faces red and their foreheads wrinkled. They sat in the trees for so long that they did not dare to come down to the ground, so their buttocks became calloused. They also ate bitter eggplants that were so unpleasant that they had to spit them out, so their throats were empty and they could not speak.
Since then, monkeys could not speak like humans and people ate monkey meat until today. Whenever they heard the gong played on bamboo strings, monkeys did not dare to go near the fields. The song “Exchanging monkeys for rice” is still circulated to this day.
Source
Comment (0)