by Do Tien Thuy
Y Than possessed the beautiful features of a wild flower that attracts lots of butterflies when it opens. Day and night Old Anuk was worried for her in her prime of life. As the head of Sap Village, how could he order his inhabitants to perform their tasks properly when he was unable to persuade his own daughter to get married?
Time passed very quickly. Twenty seasons of slash-and-burn farming had elapsed, yet she remained alone with her father and a little female monkey.
Then one day when she was gathering aubergines in the garden, the little animal climbed down from a high branch and touched her skirt. Feeling a bit worried, Y Than followed the monkey to a shrub and peered through the foliage. To her surprise, a few hundred metres away a herd of elephants was standing by the stream. Next to them, muscular hunters in loin-cloths lay on the ground. One of them was naked – a strong youth with muscular arms and legs like superman, he looked like a real novice among the experienced hunters. In her childhood, while walking to the milpa, Y Khan would hear very interesting stories about elephant hunters of Yook Don jungle.
Of course Krol had not yet caught any elephants. That was the reason for his nudity. These were the rules of his tribe. Nevertheless, he always dreamt of becoming a valiant hunter who would be one day be able to take the place of Gru Nhon, the leader of the group. Now he was on his maiden trip for everybody to assess his capacity and cleverness.
After three days on end in the jungle chasing wild herds of elephants, who seem to have disappeared, they were totally exhausted and had to take a rest to regain their strength. They all fell into a sound sleep, except for the young man. Lying supine, he looked at the green canopy above and thought of the promising day ahead when he would proudly take home a wild elephant amid the admiring eyes of the fair ladies in his mountainous area.
All of a sudden this train of thoughts was interrupted by the rustle of a thick bush nearby. He got up and stared at it. He was greatly amazed and ashamed as his eyes met the gaze of a girl right in front of him. Hurriedly, he covered his belly while stooping under her burning eyes full of passion. Then a few moments later, he completely forgot his shame and he made his way towards her. She was also coming up to him. They approached each other step by step, as if in a daydream, and the plants of the forest opened their branches wide to welcome them.
Their naked bodies twisted together for quite some time. It wasn’t until they heard the roar of the ferocious elephants that they realized what they were doing. Five big elephants were standing around them like a thick black wall. The head of the hunting party Gru Nhon was pointing his spear at Krol.
"Damn you the son of the Eban clan! You must die for your sin," Gru Nhon shouted. "You learnt the hunting rules by heart, and yet you broke one of the most important taboos: not to have sex with a woman for thirty days before the hunt, to bath in the clean water of the Serepox one day before and to offer five bottles of rice wine and one pig to God. Meanwhile our wives are forbidden to pound rice and must evade men’s wanton looks when their husbands join the hunt. What’s more, we have to sleep on the ground to get rid of our scent. But you, a newcomer, dare to break the rules."
Kron turned pale. Kneeling before the leader, he implored in a low voice. "Sir Gru Nhon, I’ve made a great mistake. I’m to blame, but she’s done nothing wrong. Please forgive her because she’s not guity."
Y Than burst into tears. She imagined the sight of her lover, bound to the tail of a strong elephant and dragged along into the thick of the forest. She wept, "If I’m still alive, I’ll try to find you, my dear.’
She returned home in horror and pain. Her father watched her as she ascended the wooden stairs to their home.
Most of the villagers were present at Y Than’s trial. Inside the large rong house, the flame came to life again after being doused for many days. Y Than knelt in the centre of the court, head bent a little. Paradoxically, the so-called judge of that session was none other than her father. In spite of all the angry words thrown at her, she remained silent.
She did not know her lover’s whereabouts or what had befallen him. But he had left something for her in her womb. Biting her lip for quite a long while, she suddenly stood up and stared at her father.
"Esteemed Father Anuk, please don’t accuse me of doing anything wrong. For the time being, I cannot reveal the father of the child in my womb. But he’ll soon return home, father."
"Drive her out of our village," he shouted angrily after breaking his mug of rice wine into pieces then collapsing on the ground.
Silently, Y Than left her home and went in search of Krol. Following the footprints left by the huge animals, she went further and further into the jungle. "What has happened to him? Was he pardoned? Where would he go?" she asked herself. She remembered Gru Nhon’s serious countenance that day.
During the solemn ceremony before the start of the hunting party, Krol had drunk a lot and had taken an oath that he would resign himself to death if he violated the rules. In fact, there had been numerous hunters who had lost their lives so far, but they all died on the hunt. Krol’s case, however, was beyond his imagination.
As the leader of the party, Gru Nhon had to abide by the rules and try Krol in one of two ways: either expel him from his team or to leave him to God’s mercy during a fight with wild elephants. Gru Nhon trembled at the thought.
On the way to the battle ground, the one-tusked elephant driven by Gru Nhon suddenly stopped short and uttered a low cry. That was a signal that wild elephants had been detected. At once Gru Nhon ordered his men to halt and prepare for a struggle. Normally, his herd of elephants would encircle the wild animals, but this time those tactics could not be put into practice.
"Hey Krol of the Eban Clan! Now it’s high time for you to be punished," he said to Krol in a loud voice. Then he told his men to untie him in front of the wild herd of beasts.
"You can have one of the two choices. One of them is to fight against these animals alone. If you manage to catch the lead elephant, you’ll be free and can stay with us. The other is to abstain from the struggle and go home to lead a shameful life, and say goodbye to the career of a hunter forever," he declared resolutely.
Glancing at his boss with eyes gaunt due to lack of sleep, he seemed to entreat something. Fighting against the wild and ferocious herd of huge animals alone meant death. And he didn’t want to die yet, for he could still see in his mind’s eye the shining eyes of Y Than. Gru Nhon stared at him as if urging him to enter into the fatal engagement.
The one-tusked elephant had knelt down to allow Gru Nhon to get off. He kept on looking at Krol in wait. For him, there was no way out. Having a last look at his fellow-hunters, Krol took the staff his boss had flung to him, then jumped upon the back of Gru Nhon’s elephant. The leader glanced at him admiringly, then told his men not to help him at any cost.
At first the wild elephants ran away at the sight of the tamed animals, but then they realized that only one was heading their way. Krol rode forward, while the four others stood aside, watching. Combat began.
The fight between the wild elephants and Krol’s lasted from noon to sunset, trampling all the surrounding flora. Krol’s elephant started bleeding, but it continued to struggle on. Although Gru Nhon felt afraid that such a talented man might be in danger, he did not dare break the rules. With his decades of life and death combat, he knew that Krol might soon face a terrible test. Indeed, the wild elephants changed their strategy. Surrounding Krol, they began to throw stones at him and his courageous animal. To the best of his knowledge, he knew that if he defeated the leading wild elephant, the rest of the herd would run helter-skelter and his task would be achieved easily. With this in mind, he spurred his elephant, which hesitated for a few seconds because it had never been urged to do so, and it beat a retreat. At once the wild lead elephant chased after them. When the two had come close to each other, Krol pulled back the bridle strongly. The four legs of his animal furrowed the ground, then in a twinkling, it turned back. When Krol shouted loudly it darted violently at its opponent. A horrible noise resounded, wild elephants shot away, and yellow leaves showered all over the place. After that, all fell into silence.
When the torches were lit, the hunting party bent their heads in admiration in front of the battlefield. The tusk of Krol’s elephant had pierced a large tree and kept the dead animal standing upright. As for Krol, he was nowhere to be found. Gru Nhon and his men started to disperse in search of his body. What they saw were blood stains on tree trunks and leaves. Soon they found his dead body lying motionless near the injured tree.
When Y Than reached the elephants’ battle ground, she found only a mess of uprooted plants and leaves. She called out the name of her lover. In response to her lamentable cries, she heard only the replies of the forest wind. Exhausted, she fainted. In her nightmare, she found herself lifted up by elephant trunks then placed beside the dead elephant as it stood propped against the tree.
On one morning years later, many inhabitants of Sap Village saw a big piece of a tree trunk with a tusk piercing into it washed ashore near the wharf. They picked it up and put it into a large rattan basket. They hung it on the roof of the rong house because the village head regarded it as a precious godsend embodying the Yang Genie. Every year, Sap residents held a ceremony to wash the tusk for Yang. During the festive days, a strong village youth was chosen to take the basket down. In the wake of mysterious rites, Yang would be lifted out of the rattan basket. It was a moment of paramount importance and hundreds of eyes would stare at the bottom of the basket. Rumour had it that every year, Yang gave the villagers many eggs. When there were a great number of eggs, they would reap a bumper crop and vice versa. At this year, Yang offered them twelve rosy eggs, which looked like those of pigeons.
Translated by Van Minh
(from Viet Nam News)
Your Comments:
Post a Comment