Long time ago, there was an ordinary woman. Her name was Kamakra which meant a rotten comb. One day, this woman went to the palace asking to babysit the two daughters of the king. The king was kind-hearted. He allowed Kamakra to take care of his two daughters, Sumpoong Prakai, the elder and NiangPuew Majasay, the younger.
One day Kamakra persuaded the two princesses to play in the stream. While the two princesses were having great fun, they lost the golden and the silver bowls which they brought with them from the palace. They tried to find the bowl but were not successful in finding it. The princesses were afraid of being punished. They were so worried to go back to the palace and confess about what they did. Kamakra decided to go back to the palace telling the two princesses that she would talk to the king about this and ask him to forgive them.
“ Don’t worry, I will ask for his forgiveness. Everything will be fine. What you should do is wait for me here.”
When she arrived at the palace, she told the king about what happended.
The king said ; “ That’s alright. I won’t punish them. Please bring
them back home.”
On the way to the stream, Kamakra thought of an evil plan. She went into the thorny bush and got hurt all over. She showed her bloody wounds to the princesses and told them,
“ We cannot go back to the palace anymore, the king was very angry. He had his soldiers beat me all over. Where should we go? If we go to the palace we will surely die.”
The innocent princesses fully believed in what the tricky woman said. They decided to go with her to the unknown place. They travelled in the deep jungle until they felt very hungry. When the princesses saw the fruit, they told Kamakra to get it to appease their hunger.
“ Kamakra, we are very hungry, please go get some fruit.”
Kamakra then revealed her maleficence, asked, “ What will I get in return, Princess?”
Sumpungprakai took of her diamond necklace and gave it to Kamakra. The woman was very satisfied so she did not hesitate to get the fruit for the princesses. After eating and having some rest, they started walking. Kamakra would ask for valuable things from the princesses before doing them a favor. Finally, the princesses had nothing left on their body.
They continued walking until they arrived at the wide river. The two sisters cried because they did not know how to cross the river. Kamakra was very annoyed when she saw them crying. She scolded them and told them to stop crying. However, Kamakra herself had no idea of how she could get to the other side of the river. The woman did not know what to do, she then spoke loudly to anyone or anything who would probably hear what she wanted.
“Whoever would take me to the other side of the river, will be rewarded with all precious things I have”
Suddenly, the cr ocodile appeared and said;
“I could do that.”
The crocodile took Kamakra and Niang PuewMajasay first and came back to take NiangSumpoong Prakai. However, instead of taking the princess to the other side of the river, the crocodile took her to its cave.
Niang Puew Majasay, the younger sister cried after she had waited for her elder sister for quite a long time. Her crying annoyed Kamakra, she shouted at her;
“ Don’t be silly. Stop crying. Your sister won’t come back and we won’t wait. Let’s go.”
The princess did not want to go so the woman pulled her hard with all her strength.
Two of them walked for quite a long time until they met the king’s parade.
The king saw the two women and wondered who they were so he came to them and asked;
“ Who are you? And where are you from?
Kamakra who was now wearing beautiful ornaments replied;
“ I am the King’s daughter from a town faraway and this is my servant. We were expelled from the town and did not know where to go.”
The kind-hearted king invited them to stay in the palace and soon after, Kamakra was appointed to be his queen. She lived comfortably in the palace while NiangPuew Majasai had to reside in a small hut where hens were kept. The poor princess 's bed was under the hut where the hens were kept on the second level which was floored by the bamboo net. Surprisingly, the hens knew by their instinct that the poor girl under them was not an ordinry person so they did not let any unpleasant drops on her. It cried out everyday
“ Egg E Egg Kamakra Dek Pook Dek Kaneuy, Niang Puew Maja Sai Dek Krom Toong Muen ( Kamakra sleeps on the mat and a pillow, Niang PuewMajasai sleeps in the hens’house)”
The king suspected, but Kamakra who was always tricky told him that the hen was not a good hen. It will only bring bad luck. In order to please his wife, he told his servant to kill it and cook chicken curry for her. Kamakra was still worried so she went to see NiangPuew Majasai and threatened her. Not only this she also forced her to stay under the bird cage. Similar to what to the hen did, it did not let any dirty drops on her and cried out loud.
“ Kamakra Dek Pook Dek Kaneuy, Niang PuewMaja Sai Dek Krom Toong Maluak ( Kamakra sleeps on the mat and a pillow, Niang Puew Majasai sleeps in the bird cage)”The king heard that and began to suspect. This time he told his soldier to investigate the matter. The soldiers went everywhere to serve the king’s need until they arrived at the town where the princess used to live. Fortunately, the king who was the father of NiangPuew Majasai knew the truth and wanted his daughter back.
He told the soldier to go back to the town where Kamakra lived and tell the truth that Kamakra was in fact a servant, the one who stayed under the bird cage was the princess. When the soldier told this news to the king, he was very angry. He ordered his soldier to execute her and cut her into pieces. Not only this, the pieces were fermented in the jar and the jar was sent to her parents.
People in Kamakra’s village were very excited to see the long parade of the gift from the king .The family received the special gift .When they opened the jar, they thought that it was fermented fish. They did not hesitate to cook it for dinner. Kamakra’s sister was the first one who came across the finger. She told her parents.
“Look, this piece really look like sister’s finger.”
Her mother did not like her interruption. She said;
“ Don’t waste the time saying nonsense. Eat at once.” The mother shouted at her. The girl had to be quiet. Not long after, they found the hand which showed Kamakra’s scar. All the family members were shocked and extremely miserable from what they encountered. Later the parents became sick because of the big loss and eventually died.
When the truth was revealed, the king appointed Niang Puew Majasai to be his queen. The princess had a chance to tell him about her sister Sumpoong Prakai .He promised to help her ,so they both went to the cave where the crocodile lived and begged the creature to give back the princess. Because of the king’s charisma, the crocodile returned the princess without hesitation, After Sampoong Prakai was taken to the palace, the king appointed her to be his second wife. Three of them lived happily ever after.