During
the time of Emperor Hung-Vuong the third, there was an orphan
boy who lived in the countryside, very far from the capital Phong-Chau.
He liked to follow the hunters from his village to the jungle
to hunt. One day, the boy went to the capital. Luckily, he met
King Lac and impressed the king with his intelligence. King Lac
adopted him and named him Mai An-Tiem.
An-Tiem
grew to be a strong young man and a very hard worker. King Lac
was pleased and gave him a lovely wife and a huge plantation.
After a short time, An-Tiem had a beautiful house and storage
filled with rice.
There were people who were jealous of An-Tiem’s success. They
reported to the King that An-Tiem was very haughty of his achievement
and attributed all to his talents, not to the king’s grace.
King Lac was very angry and determined to test An-Tiem’s
resourcefulness. He exiled An-Tiem’s family to an isolated
island with some dry foods and nothing else. The king wanted
to see how long An-Tiem could endure before yielding to his grace.
The island had nothing but sand. Besides some dry food, An-Tiem’s
family had neither knife nor seeds or plants. His wife cried
and An-Tiem consoled her: "We have brains and two hands,
we will overcome any hardships."
The next day, An-Tiem used a pointed stick to dig a well for fresh
water, and used stones and branches to build shelter. His wife
caught fishes and crabs by the shore for food. One day, An-Tiem
saw a yellow bird drop some black seeds on the white sand. He
took the seeds and tried to grow them.
