The next morning, Y Rĭt told his friends:
Oh, last night I dreamt that my head rested on the riverbank, my chest against the mountain, and my hands caressed the Wind and the Salt.
Hearing this, his friends said:
- Oh, then share it with us and Y Rĭt! Share it with us and Y Rĭt!
"How can I divide it? This is just a dream!" Y Rĭt replied.
So his friends stopped playing with Y Rĭt, kicking him out of the group and forbidding him from playing with them. Y Rĭt was sad, so he went home and told his grandmother everything:
"Grandma! Last night I dreamt that someone told me this: my head rested on the riverbank, my chest on the mountain, and my hands caressed the Wind and Salt goddesses. I told my friends about it, and they asked me to share it with them. But how could I share it when it was just a dream? They got angry with me and wouldn't let me stay in their group anymore, Grandma!"
Don't be sad, child! It's okay to play alone; you can go crabbing and fishing by yourself.
So, Y Rĭt had no friends to play with because he couldn't share his dreams, so his friends wouldn't let him play with them anymore.
Feeling bored sitting alone, Y Rĭt went fishing along the riverbank, walking alone. He walked until he was tired and sat down to rest on a rock by the river. Soon after, the Wind Goddess and the Salt Goddess appeared, flying down from the clouds to bathe in the clear sky. Seeing their beauty, Y Rĭt gazed at them. The Wind Goddess and the Salt Goddess were incredibly beautiful, truly daughters of fairies. Reaching the riverbank, they undressed and left their clothes on the shore before bathing. The Wind Goddess and the Salt Goddess playfully splashed water at each other, creating a commotion. Y Rĭt hid, afraid of being discovered. After bathing, they flew back to the sky, their flowing robes fluttering as they drifted further and further away. Y Rĭt watched until the figures of the two girls gradually faded away, until they were no longer visible, and the surroundings were silent.
After the Wind Goddess and the Salt Goddess ascended to heaven, Y Rĭt also went home. He no longer fished, and upon arriving home, he told his wife:
"Grandma, I went fishing, and I'm tired now, so I'm sitting down to rest in the shade of a tree. I saw the Wind and the Salt, they were so beautiful, with fair skin, they looked like they came down from the sky."
Oh, if that's the case, then you can go again tomorrow. If they take off their clothes, then take those flying clothes with you. Grandma instructed Y Rĭt.
The next day, Y Rĭt went fishing again at that spot in the river, hoping to wait for the two sisters to come down to bathe. Around noon, he saw the two sisters, Wind and Salt, come down to bathe. Y Rĭt sat silently, hiding, waiting for them to undress. After undressing, the two sisters jumped into the river. While they were playing, splashing water at each other and giggling, Y Rĭt quietly approached from the bank, took the older sister's clothes—Wind's—and carried them away. After obtaining the flying garment, Y Rĭt ran off, keeping the clothes close to him.
After enjoying a refreshing bath, the two sisters, Wind and Salt, went ashore to get their clothes ready.
"Oh! Where are my clothes? Where are my clothes?" asked the Wind, her younger sister.
But her younger sister, Salt, still had her flying clothes. The two sisters searched for her older sister's clothes. How could they find them? Y Rĭt had taken them away. By late afternoon, her younger sister—Salt—flew back to heaven, her clothes flowing gracefully. The older sister watched her go, her heart filled with profound sadness.
As for Y Rĭt, after taking the Wind Maiden's clothes away, he didn't go home either. He was curious to know what would happen to them, so he hid in the bushes and secretly watched.
Now that the Wind saw him hiding in the bushes, she began to weep:
Oh no! Mr. Y Rĭt! Oh, Mr. Y Rĭt, please give me back my clothes! Mr. Y Rĭt, please give me back my clothes! Just look at my smooth, shiny feet, and my beautiful face!
Hearing the Wind Maiden's words, he suddenly turned around to look. Suddenly, Y Rĭt turned into a pile of buffalo dung. The Wind Maiden ran to get her clothes, put them on, and then flew back to the sky.
As darkness approached and Y Rĭt still hadn't returned, the grandmother hurried to look for him along the path he had described. Finding a pile of buffalo dung and his fishing rod, she performed another spell to transform Y Rĭt back into a human. When the two returned home, the grandmother gave him further instructions:
"My dear! If you want to take the Wind's clothes, go ahead, but don't turn around when she calls you! After you've taken them, bring them home right away!"
"Is that so, madam?" replied Y Rĭt.
Some time later, the sisters Wind and Salt went down to bathe again. Fearing that Y Rĭt would steal their clothes, after taking them off, they hid them in the bushes. After hiding their clothes, Wind and Salt went down to bathe. While playing and splashing water, they didn't notice that Y Rĭt had taken Wind's clothes. When they finished bathing and came ashore, Salt's clothes were still there, but Wind's clothes had been stolen by Y Rĭt. Salt flew back to heaven, while Wind chased after Y Rĭt, calling out to him repeatedly.
Oh no! Mr. Y Rĭt! Oh, Mr. Y Rĭt, please give me back my clothes! Mr. Y Rĭt, please give me back my clothes! Just look at my smooth, shiny feet, and my beautiful face!
The more the Wind Maiden chased, the faster Y Rĭt ran. Upon reaching his home, he hid his grandmother in his ancient basket, then he went into hiding. The Wind Maiden chased him to Y Rĭt's house. Upon arriving, the Wind Maiden wept:
Oh no, Grandma! Y Rĭt has hidden my clothes! How am I going to get clothes to fly back?
"Oh, I don't know where it is, dear, I can't find where it's hidden," she replied.
Oh no, Grandma, my grandchild is going to die. Poor parents are searching for him.
"What should we do now, child? Why don't you just stay here?" suggested Mrs. Y Rĭt.
Having no clothes to fly back to heaven, the Wind Goddess had no choice but to stay at the house of Y Rĭt and his grandmother. They stayed for a year, then a month, and after a day of rest, the Wind Goddess and Y Rĭt became husband and wife. They worked hard in the fields from morning till evening, and eventually, the Wind Goddess became pregnant and gave birth to a son.
One day, Y Rĭt went to the fields alone, while the old woman and the Wind stayed at home. The Wind was feeling melancholic and overwhelmed with longing. She looked up at the sky and saw a flock of birds flying. She whispered to herself:
Oh, if only I had flying clothes like in the old days, I could fly higher than you birds.
"What did you just say, child?" the grandmother asked.
"No, not at all, ma'am!" she replied.
Then the Wind continued to watch the flock of birds, and after a while she whispered again:
Oh, if only I had flying clothes like in the old days, I could fly higher than you birds.
Hearing her say that, the old woman pointed to the clothes she had hidden earlier because she wanted to see her fly:
- Yes! Do you really want to fly? If you do fly, don't fly straight home! Just fly for Grandma to see, she wants to see you fly.
- No, ma'am, that's fine. I have children now, and I don't want to fly anymore.
- Try flying, child! You can fly just for a little while!
So the old woman kept urging her to fly up. But she kept refusing. Finally, unable to refuse any longer, she said:
- If that's the case, then please take it, I'll fly it for you to see!
The woman happily went to get the flying clothes for the Wind to wear. After putting on the old clothes, the Wind flew up, flying above the house wall, when she heard the baby crying, "Ooh, ooh..." She came down again to breastfeed. After breastfeeding, she flew up to about the roof level and heard the baby crying again. The woman called out:
- Come down, dear, let the baby breastfeed first!
The Wind Maiden flew down again to nurse her child, who was craving milk. After nursing him, she flew back up, soaring over the treetops. At that point, she couldn't hear her child crying anymore. She continued flying even higher. Then, she was gone, unable to fly down any further. The Wind Maiden flew up to the clouds, returning to her parents' home. Meanwhile, down below, her child continued to cry, crying for his mother, crying for milk.
In the afternoon, Y Rĭt returned from the fields, expecting his wife to be there as usual. He looked around but couldn't find her.
Hey! Where's my house, Grandma?
- It flew back to heaven, my child.
Oh! Why is that?
- You're wrong, dear! Why would you give him those flying clothes? Now the baby is crying and demanding to be breastfed, and we don't know what to do.
Then Y Rĭt went to his uncle's house. His uncle was a very skilled blacksmith. Seeing Y Rĭt arrive with a very sad face, his uncle asked:
- What brings you here? Is something wrong?
- That's true, sir! My wife, Wind, has flown back to heaven to be with her parents. Please forge me a pair of wings so I can go find my wife, sir!
Y Rĭt stayed there to help the forger cast the wings. Then they forged them, working day and night, for several days and nights straight until they were finished. After they were done, the forger said:
- Try putting on your wings and flying, my child!
So Y Rĭt put on the wings and tried flying, but after a short while, he fell back down. He continued forging and refining them, repairing them seven times before finally succeeding. Having finished forging the wings, Y Rĭt returned home, carrying his child, and flew up to the sky to find his wife—the Wind Goddess. He flew up to the blue clouds, and continued through the heavens, until he reached the village of the Wind Goddess and the Salt Goddess. Upon arriving, he saw the village was filled with joy, with the sounds of gongs and drums from a grand feast, a feast of buffalo and oxen slaughtered in a magnificent display. Meanwhile, the Wind Goddess's parents were preparing to go and ask for her hand in marriage. Luckily, Y Rĭt—her husband—arrived in time. When he arrived at the Wind Goddess's house, the little boy burst into tears because his father had brought him along. Hearing her child's cries, the Wind Goddess wanted to run out and embrace him, but her parents held her back and locked her in a room. Y Rĭt, however, refused to give up and tried to get into the Wind Goddess's house. So, the parents of the Wind Maiden wanted to test Y Rĭt's character. The first time, they challenged him to cook rice. They summoned all the young women to cook rice in earthenware pots, then set it out neatly, and demanded that Y Rĭt point out which pot contained the rice his wife had cooked. Luckily, a green fly followed him, and he instructed the fly to sniff out which pot contained the rice cooked by his wife's hands and land there. Thanks to the green fly, Y Rĭt won.
The Wind Maiden's parents were still not satisfied, so they held another competition: lining the wine jars with leaves. They arranged a series of identical jars in a straight line and asked Y Rĭt to identify which one was lined with leaves by the Wind Maiden. Thanks to the green fly, Y Rĭt won again. They challenged him with many things, but Y Rĭt won every time. Finally, the Wind Maiden's parents accepted Y Rĭt as their son-in-law and agreed to let the Wind Maiden, her husband, and their children return to live on land with Y Rĭt's grandmother until they grew old together. Their life was incredibly happy.
The story implicitly portrays the care, love, and mutual support among family members whenever they encounter difficulties in life. It also expresses the desire to live, the yearning to be loved, the happiness of choosing a spouse, starting a family, and the willingness to overcome life's challenges to find the true meaning of love...
Y Son selected these stories from the Ede folk tale collection, compiled by Nguyen Minh Tam, H'Lier Nie Kdam, and H'Juaih Nie Kdam.
Source
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