Main Piece

“A long time ago, there was a man and a woman who were married to each other. The wife became sick and was about to die. So, the husband called the witch doctor who diagnosed her and said that if the man gives his wife 3 drops of his blood to swallow, then her disease will be cured. So he gives her 3 drops of his blood and she was cured and wouldn’t die. They lived with each other for quite a while. But one day, the man wasn’t home, the wife got kidnapped by a rich merchant. At first the woman was terrified, but then she got used to a life of luxury and refused to go back to her husband. The man was so outraged and asked for his blood back for her betrayal. So the woman agreed said, “Ok, I’ll give you back your 3 drops of blood!” She gave back the blood and died. But when she died, she became a mosquito. So to this day, she searches, as a mosquito, trying to get her 3 drops of blood back so she can become human again.”

Context

My mom escaped from Vietnam during the war when she was 12. In Vietnam, her grandma would tell her bedtime stories and this was one of them. When I was little, my mom would tell me this story at the dinner table after we ate to entertain me.

Notes

I enjoy hearing legends like this that explain the odd phenomenon of nature that science cannot explain. I think they are a lot of fun to hear and imagine. Science can explain perhaps why it happens, but nobody can really say why it is that way. I also think it’s interesting that the rule of 3’s (common in the U.S.) is in a Vietnamese legend too.