TAM CAM

Translated based on “Tấm Cám”, Kho tàng truyện cổ tích Việt Nam
Nguyễn Đổng Chi, (Hanoi, 2003)
Once upon a time, there were two half-sisters, Tam and Cam. Tam’s mother died early
and her father remarried. Soon after, her stepmother gave birth to a daughter named Cam.
After few years, her father died. Since then, Tam lived with her step-mother. The step-
mother was very wicked. Everyday, Tam was forced to do all the housework: to tend
buffalo, to carry water, to slide sweet potatoes, to husk and pound rice. On the contrary,
Cam lived luxuriously and did not work much.
One day, the step-mother gave baskets to Tam and Cam and required them to catch tiny
shrimp. She promised to reward the girl who caught the most tiny shrimp with a new, red
silk brassiere. Tam worked hard so she could catch a full basket of fishes and tiny
shrimps, while Cam was very lazy and caught few. When Cam saw the fish basket of
Tam, she advised Tam to wash the mud out of Tam’s hair or else Tam would be scolded
by their mother. When Tam washed her hair, Cam poured all the fish and tiny shrimp
Tam had caught into her own basket and ran home. Upon discovering she had been
tricked, Tam cried vehemently. The Buddha appeared to her and asked: “Why are you
crying?” After hearing Tam’s story, the Buddha told Tam to look into her basket to
discover the one remaining little goby. “You should take the goby home and put it into
the well. Every meal you should leave one bowl of rice for the goby. And whenever you
feed it, you must recite exactly a special poem:
Goby, goby
Please go to feed my own delicious rice
Do not feed inferior quality rice of others”
The Buddha disappeared and Tam came back home to do following the Buddha’s advise.
Everyday, Tam came out to the well a few times to feed the goby, always recite exactly
the poem so that the goby came up from the water. They soon became familiar and the
goby was bigger day by day. The step-mother began to suspect Tam’s behavior and she
asked Cam to watch for Tam. Cam hid behind brushwood next to the well, and then told
her mother what she saw and heard. One day after, the step-mother asked Tam to tend
buffalo in a remote field. When Tam went out, Cam and her mother went to the well and

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imitated exactly what Tam did. The goby came up from the water as usual. Cam and her
mother caught the goby and slaughtered it. When Tam came back home, she brought a
bowl of rice to the well and called the goby. She called again and again but the goby did
not appear. Finally, when she saw a clot of blood appearing on the water, Tam cried. The
Buddha appeared again, consoled her and instructed her to salvage the bones of the goby
and bury them in four separate jars underneath each corner of her bed. Tam did following
the Buddha’s instruction. She looked for the bones of the goby everywhere in her house,
in her garden but she could not find out. Suddenly, a chicken said:
“Cackle, cackle
Give a handful of rice
Receive the bones”
Tam gave the chicken a handful of rice and received the bones of the goby. She buried
them underneath each corner of her bed.
Soon after, the king hosted a large celebration. People of all ages flocked to join the
celebration. Cam and her mother prepared a lot of beautiful clothes to take part in the
celebration. Tam pleaded to go along with Cam and the step-mother but the step-mother
only gave a dirty look at Tam. The step-mother mixed together a peck of unmilled rice
and a peck of milled rice, and ordered Tam to sort them out before she was allowed to go.
Then, they went to join the celebration. Tam picked unmilled rice out for a long time but
she could not finish her task. Tam was sad and cried. The Buddha appeared again and
called the help of sparrows. After a short time, the sparrows sort all rice out. However,
Tam cried again. She said: “My clothes are too dirty and tatters. I can not go to the
celebration”. The Buddha told her to dig up the four jars of the bones of the goby from
the corners of her bed. After digging up the first jar, Tam found a beautiful silk dress. In
the second jar, she found embroidered shoes. In the third jar, she found a horse. In the
forth jar, she found a harness. Tam dressed herself splendidly and made her way to the
celebration, but in her excitement she dropped a single shoe into the river. When she
came to the celebration, she packed the remaining shoe in a handkerchief and joined the
celebration. At that time, the king came to the river. Two elephants did not want to cross
the river, instead they bellowed loudly. The king’s troops picked up a beautiful
embroidered shoe. The king thought: “What a beautiful embroidered shoe! The maiden

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who fits with this shoe certainly looks very beautiful”. The king proclaimed that any
maiden at the celebration whose foot fit the shoe would be made into his wife. Every
eligible lady at the celebration tried on the shoe, including Cam, but no one whose foot fit
the shoe. When Cam and her mother saw Tam going to try the shoe, the step-mother
pouted her lips. However, Tam’s foot fit perfectly into the slipper. She also took the
remaining shoe out of her handkerchief. The step-mother and Cam were shocked and
jealous. Tam was immediately brought on the royal palanquin into the imperial palace for
a grand wedding celebration, right in front of her seething step-mother and step-sister.
On Tam’s father’s death anniversary, Tam proved her filial duty and made a short visit
home to honor the anniversary with her family. Cam and her mother were very jealous
with Tam’s happiness and the step-mother concocted a plot. She asked Tam to climb an
areca tree and gather its betel nuts for her father’s altar. Tam obeyed and as she climbed
up to the top of the tree, her step-mother took an axe and chopped the tree down, so that
Tam fell to her death. Cam wore Tam’s clothes and her mother took her to the palace.
She told the king that Tam unfortunately fell down and died by drowning, so she took
Cam to replace Tam to be the king’s wife. The king was unhappy but said nothing.
Meanwhile, Tam had reincarnated into a nightingale and followed Cam into the palace.
When the nightingale saw Cam washing the king’s clothes, the nightingale said: “Hang
my husband’s clothes on a pole carefully- Do not hang them on fence”. The nightingale
flew following the king and twittered. The king missed Tam so much and he said with the
nightingale: “Little nightingale, little nightingale
If you are my wife
Please fly into my sleeve”
The nightingale flew on his hand and then into his sleeve. The king loved the nightingale
so much and made a gold cage for her. Cam was angry with the nightingale and came
back home to ask her mother what she should do. Her mother instructed her to catch the
bird and eat her. Cam did as she was told and after skinning her, threw the feathers over
the gate of the palace. The king could not find out the nightingale so he asked Cam. Cam
told him lies that she was pregnant so she was crave for eating bird. From the feathers of
the nightingale rose two china- trees. The king liked to hang up the hammock under the
shadow of these trees everyday. Cam was jealous again and she asked her mother what

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she should do. Her mother instructed her to cut these trees off to make a loom. When the
king asked about these trees, Cam told him lies that these trees fell down because of a
storm. However, whenever Cam used the loom made from these trees to weave, the loom
said: “Steal my husband- I will take out your eyes”. When hearing it, Cam was very
frightened. Her mother instructed her to burn the loom to ashes and throw ashes in a
distant place. From the ash rose a tree named “Thi” 1. There was only a fruit but the smell
of this fruit spread everywhere. A poor old woman who worked as a water vendor walked
by one day and saw this fruit. She begged it to fall to her and promised that she would not
eat it. The fruit fell down into her bag. The next day, when she went out to work, Tam
emerged from the fruit and did all housework. When the old woman came back, she
found that all housework was done and there was a hot meal waiting for her. One day
after, she pretended to leave but stayed back to spy and she saw Tam emerged from the
fruit and begin to do the household chores. She was very happy so she tore up the peel of
the fruit so Tam could no longer turn back. Since then, Tam lived with the old women
and they behaved to each other like mother and daughter. Everyday, Tam cooked rice,
boiled the water and prepared betel quid for the old woman to sell them. One day, the
king went out and visited remote places. He went to the tea shop of the old woman. The
old woman offered him betel quid, and when the king saw how the betel had been
prepared, in the peculiar special way his late queen had always prepared it; he inquired as
to whom had prepared the betel. The old woman told him her daughter had done it. The
king wanted to see the old woman’s daughter and when the old woman’s daughter
appeared, he found that she was Tam, his beloved wife. He was overjoyed and brought
Tam back to the palace. Cam was distressed and saw that Tam was as beautiful and pale
as ever. She begged Tam to reveal her secret of how she was so beautiful and fair-
skinned, and that she would do anything to be as fair. Tam told her it was simple and that
she would just have to jump into a basin of boiling water. Cam did and died horribly.
When the step-mother heard about this, she died immediately.

1
“Thi”: This tree is popular in Vietnam. Its fruits are signals of autumn. In the Autumn Festival, people buy
the best fruits to enjoy their sweet smell.