นิทาน เรื่อง พิกุลทอง

Phi - Kul - Thong

Once upon a time there was a beautiful woman named Phikul. She was said to have not only physical beauty but good behaviour as well. Her mother died while she was very young. So she was looked after by her step-mother who also had a daughter named Mali. 

It was very unfortunate that both the mother and her daughter were wicked women. They forced Phikul to work hard every day.

One day after the job of pounding rice was finished, Phikul went to fetch water from a stream which was not far from home. 

On the way back, an old woman suddenly appeared in front of Phikul and asked water from her to drink. Phikul was very pleased to be able to help the old woman. She gave her water and told her to take more water to wash her face and body so as to refresh herself. Phikul told her not to worry if the water was not enough, she would go and bring it more.

An old woman smiled and said, "You're beautiful and kind at heart. Even though I am poor and look shabby, you still treat me nicely,"

After praising Phikul with kind words, an old woman then gave a wish to her and by this time, the golden flowers of bullet wood (Tanjong tree or Mimusops), known in Thai as Phikul, would come out from her mouth whenever she felt sympathy for anyone or anything. Immediately after granting this wish to Phikul, the old woman disappeared in front of her eyes. Phikul knew at once that the woman was surely an angle in disguise who had com down to earth to grant her a wish.

After returning home late, she was scolded by her step-mother who thought that she had gone astray just to avoid daily work. Phikul thus told the whole story to her and feeling sympathy

many golden flowers of the bullet wood came out from her mouth.
The greedy step-mother quickly changed her mood from anger to greed and rushed to grasp them all while cajoling Phikul to speak more to satisfy her greed.
From that day onwards, the step-mother collected as many golden flowers as possible to sell in the market and got a lot of money. All of them now lived a happy lift. Phikul did not need to work so hard as before but she was forced to speak the whole day so that more golden flowers would come out from her mouth.

Exhausted by her step-mother's greedy demands, Phikul got a soar throat and became voiceless. She could not speak for a while. The situation upset her step-mother so much so that she started beating PhiKul, trying to force her to speak but Phikul could not utter even a single word.

To satisfy her greed, the step-mother decided to send her own daughter, Mali, to do the same thing as Phikul did. Mali was sent to the same place as tole by Phikul

but instead of meeting an old woman, she met a beautiful woman wearing an impressive dress standing under the shade of a big tree. The woman then asked for water from Mali to drink.

Out of jealousy,Mali got angry and thought that the woman was not an angle so she refused to give any and used rude words to curse the angel in disguise.The angel thus placed a curse on Mali that whenever she got angry and spoke, worms would com out from her mouth. 

Upon returning home, Mali told the whole story to her mother. From the anger of telling the story, the whole house was full of worms. The mother thought that Phikul was jealous of her daughter so she had distorted the story and that was why Mali did not meet and old woman. 

She beat Phikul and drove her out from home. Overwhelmed by this grief, Phikul wandered in the forest alone.

Fortunately, she walked in the direction of a young Prince who was enjoying a horse ride in the forest along with his soldiers. Upon seeing the young girl crying, the Prince asked her to tell the whole story. At the end of her narration the whole area was full of golden flowers.

The Prince was very pleased and asked for her hand. After marrying, the couple ascended the throne and ruled the city happily ever after.