Once upon a time, there was a woman named “Mied” who lived in a village. She was very poor. One day, Miedpersuaded her friends to find firewood in the forest. While her friends could find a lot of firewood, Mied could not find any dried wood. She found only fresh wood so she told her friends to go back home and kept looking for the firewood alone in the forest. Still she could not find any firewood. Mied did not know what to do and she murmured to herself.
“ Is there anyone who can help me find the fire wood? If you are a man, I would marry you and if you are a lady, I would be your good friend.”
There was a monkey king passing by and heard what she was saying. He then asked her from behind the tree.
“ Really? Are you sure?”
Mied replied immediately without thinking because she was too worried about the firewood, “ Of course”
The monkey then helped her find the firewood and he could find a lot of firewood. Mied had to keep her promise. Shewent back home together with her monkey husband. When she got home she told her mother that she had to marry the monkey because of the promise. Fortunately, her mother understood and allowed her to marry him.
The monkey king then took her to his city in the forest in order to get married. He loved her dearly so he tried to please her as much as he could. He told his subordinates to build a beautiful bridal house and ordered them to serve her need. Only one thing that he forbade her from doing was not to eat a chameleon because it would cause her death. Although, the lady was very comfortable living with the monkey husband, she did not really love him. She started planning to go back home. The lady decided to find a chameleon .she found one and ate it.After eating, she pretended to be sick. She then put the fried grains under her bed so that when she moved while she was sleeping it would sound like her bones were broken. Then she pretended that she could not get up from the bed. The monkey husband was very worried. He went to the gecko king for help asking the gecko what he should do to cure her sickness. The gecko told him have Mamod Ceremony ( Mamod is a traditional ceremony of the Khmer Ethnic group for curing sickness. People believe that most sickness is caused by the ancestor spirits or gods because the sick people might intentionally or accidentally did not show their respect to gods or misbehave. People will dance and sing and give offerings to gods in order to apologize for their misbehaviour that they will recover from the illness.)
The monkey did as he was told, however Mied still pretended that she was not well and was dying. She pretended as she was not breathing. The monkey husband did many things to prove that she was not dead. He touched, tickled, massaged her but she did not wake up. Before she died, she had told him to send her dead body to her homeland so that her mother could have a holy ceremony for her. The monkey firmly believed that she was really dead. He was very sad. He asked his servants to build a very beautiful raft for his wife. However, because of his great love for his wife, he put many valuable things on the raft such as silver and gold bracelets and fine silk on the raft to make merit for her. The raft floated along the river until it reached her home. Her mother was very surprised to know that her daughter was not dead as the monkey told her. Moreover, there was a lot of possession with her. The mother and the daughter became rich. When the millionaire’s daughter knew about this, she came to ask Mied. After knowing what Mied did, she planned to do like her because of her greed. The millionaire’s daughter went to the forest pretending to find the firewood and was not successful. She began to murmur like Mied did;
“ Is there anyone who can help me find the fire wood? If you are a man, I would marry you and if you are a lady, I would be your good friend.”
The monkey king passing by heard what she was saying. He then asked her back from behind the tree.
“ Really? Are you sure?”
“ Of course” The lady replied without hesitation because she wanted to get what Mied had told her. When the monkey got the firewood for her, she brought him home asking her mother to allow her to marry the monkey.
The mother who was as greedy as her daughter, agreed immediately for she aimed at the big luck that she thought was waiting for her.
The monkey king took his new wife to his town and served all her need. Like what he had told Mied, he forbade his wife from eating a chameleon. The greedy lady did not keep her promise. She ate a chameleon telling her husband that she was going to have a baby so she felt morning sick and was really hungry for the chameleon. Not long after, she pretended to be sick. As he did before, the monkey went to see the gecko king and asked for some advice. The gecko told him to arrange the Mamod Ceremony in order to cure her sickness. This time the gecko told the monkey to hold a bigger ceremony so that his wife would be saved.
When the Monkey King went back to his palace, he ordered his servant to arrange a big ceremony. However, the wife said she could not stand it anymore and soon she pretended to die. The Monkey King was very miserable for his second loss. He tried to massage her for a while. The lady could not stand it so she breathed. The monkey felt uncertain about her death so he tickled her. The lady could not pretend anymore so she laughed out. When the Monkey King knew the truth he was very angry. He tore her into pieces and told his servants to put the torn pieces in the jar and fermented them like fermented fish. The jar was sent back to the lady’s home. When the mother found it she was surprised that there were no valuable things as she expected. However, she misunderstood, thinking that her daughter sent the fermented fish to her and the food smelt very nice. The mother then took the pieces to cook. Not long after, she noticed the human parts, and suddenly realized that her daughter was dead. The woman cried out loud and said to herself that she should not have sent her daughter to die like this. She came to realize that it was her greed that killed her daughter.