By
Photjanart Kaewyot
Once upon a
time, there was a Chinese merchant on Koh Yor.
He traded along the west coast of
Thailand
and journeyed by junk that carried a lot of goods from
China
. He usually stopped his junk
at the
port
of
Songkhla
. The merchant had a magic
crystal that could protect wind, waves and rainstorm.
He could also walk on the surface of the water while he was
carrying the magic crystal.
One
day, the merchant and his wife went to the market.
They decided to buy a puppy and a kitten, and brought up both pets
on the junk. They journeyed
between
China
and
Thailand
for many years. The dog and
the cat stayed on the junk, and they grew quickly.
Later both pets became bored with
staying on the junk. They
thought of running away to the land, but they didn’t know how to do it
because the junk was very far from the coast. They
might die if they swam there. They
planned to steal the merchant’s magic crystal.
Since the merchant kept it in a locked coffer, they could not open
it. The cat had a secret plan
for this. He caught a small
rat, forced it to go through a hole of the lock and steal the magic
crystal. The rat agreed with
both pets because it also wanted to go to the land.
When the merchant went to bed, the rat stole the magic crystal.
It held the magic crystal in its mouth and led the cat and the dog
along the surface of the sea. The cat
was dishonest. He wanted to
eat the rat, so he grabbed it suddenly.
The rat was very frightened and ran away.
The magic crystal fell from its mouth and sank.
The cat, the dog and the rat could no longer walk on the surface of
the sea, so they all had to swim. The
rat and the cat were very exhausted and both drowned.
Only the dog could swim to the coast.
Since the cat was unfaithful,
both the rat and the cat had to face disaster.
The area that the magic crystal sank, which is now a beach, is
called Hadsai Kaew, and where the rat drowned, which is now an island, is
called Koh Noo, and the last area where the cat drowned, which is another
island, is called Koh Maew. They
are still in Songkhla province.
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