Land of The Seagull and Fox

Perhaps four thousand years ago -- for who can be sure about legends ? -- a lineal descendant of one of the great emperors of Chinese antiquity is said to have made a tour to the south, into the land known today as Vietnam. There he met a Tie^n or a heavenly spirit so beautiful as to steal the breath, and of their union was born a son who came in time to reign over the land, then known as Xi'ch Quy?, the land of the Red Devils.

This son in turn married the daughter of the God of the Sea, and their son was La.c Long or Fox Dragon, who also ruled the land until he retired to the Palace of the Sea. But another emperor of China coveted this fair land, and Fox Dragon had to return to its defense. Repelling the Chinese invaders, he later took to wife the mountain spirit A^u Co*, whose name means Seagull Maiden, and she bore him one hundred sons at a single time. When the time came for parting, they divided their sons equally, and the father took fifty to live with him in the Palace of the Sea, while the mother took the other fifty to live with her in the high mountains. These were the ancestors of the Vietnamese of today, so the story goes, and in honor of their parents they changed the name of the country form the land of the Red Devils to the Land of the Seagull and Fox....

Collected from "Land of the Seagull and Fox"

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NKD / dn81@lafibm.lafayette.edu