Vietnamese Legend: Partridge Bird

Gather around me with some cookies, will you?

A story is an attempt of Vietnamese people try to explains why a partridge sound the way it sounds.

A long time ago there was a boy who lost his dad at a young age. His mother mourned over the death for a period of time then decided to remarry. Since the child does not have any relatives on either side of his parents', he was forced to go with his mother to live with her and his stepfather.

The stepfather was a brutal and ill-bred person. He viewed both the mother and child as just people living and eating in his house, nothing more. In the stepfather's eyes, the boy especially was an eye sore since he was not old enough to do anything to help around the house.

The bitterness and hatred the new husband has for the child continue to grow as the days went on. When something went wrong for the stepfather, he would take his anger upon the little boy. Soon, every day the child was bruised and purple all over.

There was nothing special in the man's house, when the in fact is he has nothing at all. His living expense was based off going into the forests and getting woods to sell. The woman who he just married, on the first day coming home with him, the man makes her go and chopped down wood so he could sell it down the market.

Unfortunately, that year there was barely any rain, which makes finding food become harder. Before the drought, a batch of lumbers was able to feed the family for a few days but now it was barely enough for a meal. The little boy who was still young and has no life skills to help during this time became a thorn to the stepfather.

"The child only eats and caused me trouble. He does nothing but burdens me," thought the man.

He begged and pleaded with the wife to sell the child to someone else so they can take care of him. No matter what the husband said, the mother refused the idea without a second thought. His mother would rather die with her son than being apart from him.

The desire to kill the child of his wife was all the stepfather could think of. A person's life is at that time is worth less than a weed cutter. Furthermore, the man could care less toward the boy. The numbers of people starving continue to increase rapidly as the big batch of woods now only worth one bow of rice.

That day, when the wife left for the market, the husband used that time to take the child to woods. He lured the small boy by saying, "Do you like to climb the guava trees and catch butterflies? Up in the forests you could do that to your heart content."

Upon hearing this, the boy begged the stepfather to take him along on the trip to the woods. Amazed by the scenery, the little boy happily trotted behind his stepfather not knowing what tired is. The man led the child deep into the forests. When they arrived to where there were a lot of guava trees, the stepfather told the kid, "Here are the guava trees and your bowl of food. I'll come find you later."

With that being said, the man left the boy without a worry and went off somewhere far away to chop down woods. Later that afternoon, as the man stepped into the house he was shocked to see that the child was home before him. As fate turned out, when the boy was wondering aimlessly in the depth of the wood he came upon a group of monks returning home from their pilgrimage.

The boy was then led home by the monks and with the help of the bowl of rice he was able to have enough energy to return. More and more frustrated the stepfather became as the child told his story. He snapped at the boy.

"So that was the reason why I could not find you?!"

And, the legend was born...

That week the stepfather tried another attempt to lure the boy to go with him to the wood. This time he would purposely lead the child into the unknown part of the forest where no one even dares to enter. When he creeps away from the small boy, the stepfather thought to himself.

"If he does not die from the wild beast than he would die from wandering. If that still does not kill him then he would surely die from hunger."

As the afternoon went by waiting for his stepfather returned, the boy grew despair and started to cry out but only the echo of the forest would reply to him. He ran to search in every direction and corner but the child did not even see a person's shadow.

When the boy became hungry and tired, he took out the bowl of food his step father gave him but to his surprise, below a thin layer of rice and vegetable there was only dirt underneath. He was so hungry, the boy started to pick the rice that were cover in dirt and put it into his mouth.

In the end, the boy started to become extremely hungry, he grabbed his bowl and ran everywhere screaming, "Stepfather, where are you? Rice of dirt with pickle eggplant (which translates to Bat cat qua ca) . Rice of dirt with pickle eggplant!" His cried did nothing except startle the birds that were resting in the forests. Then, the boy died and turned into a partridge bird, who always said, "Bat cat qua ca! Bat cat qua ca!"

After waiting and not seeing her son returned, the mother would cry hysterically every day. Knowing that her husband was the one that harm her son, she would insult him to his face. The mother forced her husband to go find her son and not to come home until he do. Otherwise, if he does not show up with her son then she is going to take him to court.

The stepfather could do nothing except follow his wife's orders and into the woods he went. Search and search he did. All of a sudden in the silent forest, a scream that keep saying, "Bat cat qua ca!" A chill came down his spine as occasionally the man would hear the saying. This was as if the boy came back haunting him of his evil deed.

The continuous echoing scared him, making him ran aimlessly in the forests trying to get away from it. Everywhere he went the voice kept getting nearing surrounding him. "Bat cat qua ca." It echos keep haunting the stepfather causing him to keep on running until he was drained out and collapsed into a rock. A few days later, a group of woodcutters found his body still lying on the edge of the woods.

Another sad story. I tried to make it lighter but it's the best I can do and it still came out depressed. Nontheless, I hope you enojy it.

P.S If you still have question, feel free to contact us. Also, you can follow us on Twitter as well. From where we are and wherever you are, best wishes to you and the person next to you. Good night.

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