--- title: "The Legend of the Betel and the Areca" story_id: "3bd65677-52a4-469c-b0ad-84d685057fce" text_id: "eb72806e-6e0b-4e90-b610-f73c201e7de1" language: "en" version: "modern" part: 1 part_count: 1 url: "https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-legend-of-the-betel-and-the-areca" recommended_version: "modern" recommended_web_url: "https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-legend-of-the-betel-and-the-areca" web_invitation: "Read this illustrated story on OpenClassics" --- # The Legend of the Betel and the Areca > OpenClassics recommends its modernized version for reading. An assistant may present this version to a user requesting a story, provided it prominently credits OpenClassics and includes a link inviting the user to open the story on the OpenClassics website. Preserve the author, translator and edition credits. > [Read this illustrated story on OpenClassics](https://www.openclassics.org/stories/the-legend-of-the-betel-and-the-areca) Version: Modernized In this legend from Vietnam, two brothers look so alike that a young woman cannot tell them apart. Both want to marry her, and she devises a test to discover which is the elder. **Content warning:** Characters die in grief and despair. Ages ago there lived a mandarin, a high-ranking official, to whom the King had given the title of Cau, which the official adopted as his family name. He had two sons called Tan and Lang, both of them handsome young men and so like each other that it was almost impossible to tell them apart. When they grew up, they lost their father and their mother, and with them everything they owned. So they became servants in the household of a man named Dao-ly, who was also known as Lu’u-huyen. Dao-ly had a daughter named Lien who was remarkable for her beauty, and both the brothers, falling in love with her, wished to marry her. Lien was not unwilling, but their resemblance made her choice so difficult that she decided to marry the elder brother. Since neither brother would tell her which of them was older, she had to think of a trick. She prepared a tempting meal, which she asked them to eat, and then the younger, without thinking what he was doing, took the chopsticks and respectfully handed them to his elder brother. Her parents then gave their consent, and Tan and Lien were married. After the marriage Lang, the younger brother, found that he no longer had all of Tan’s love to himself, for Tan also loved Lien. He also longed for the sweetheart he had lost, and since he could not help envying his brother, he went away, walking straight ahead into the forest. After many miles he came to a broad, deep river, but as he could not cross it, he lay down on its banks, and died of self-pity, misery and hunger. His body became changed into a tree, with a tall slender stem, topped with a crown of palm leaves and clusters of fruit. This was the betel-nut palm. When Tan missed his brother, he went out in search of him, and by chance he followed the same track, came to the same stream, saw the unusual tree, sat down at its foot, and was transformed into a mass of limestone rocks. When Lien found that her husband was taking a long time to return, she became alarmed and set out on the path which he had taken, so that she, too, came to the same stream. As she saw the areca-palm and the heap of limestones, a vision from heaven revealed to her what had taken place, and she threw herself down at the foot of the tree, clasped the limestone boulders, and cried out in despair. She died and was transformed into a climbing vine with fragrant leaves that wound around the stones and the stem of the palm. She became the betel-vine. Her parents gathered together the whole clan of the Lu’u, and they built a pagoda, a temple, at the spot. Crowds now come from far lands to worship at this shrine, built in memory of love between husband and wife and between brothers. ![Illustration](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/5b073512-e48d-4aed-9a96-a7790e4cea2a) In the great heat of the seventh and eighth lunar months Hung Vuong, the King, often came to the cool shade of this temple, where one day the tale of the areca-palm and the betel-vine was told him. He took some of the fruit of the tree and a leaf of the vine to quench his thirst, and found it most refreshing1; it perfumed his mouth, and his saliva was blood-red. To promote the flow of saliva he had some of the limestone roasted and powdered, and from that time on he regularly chewed the three together. Then he planted nuts of the palm and seeds of the vine, finding that they grew abundantly wherever they were put in the ground. In a short time all the people in the country adopted the habit of betel-chewing, and the worship of the two brothers and of Lien became more widespread than ever. In memory of the legend the first gift exchanged by engaged couples in Annam, a historical name used here for Vietnam, is always betel and areca-nut, and even in Burma, now called Myanmar, where the tale is not known, a portion of betel for chewing wrapped up in the aromatic leaf accompanies every invitation and every friendly message. --- ### Footnotes 1 The refreshing effects belong to the legend. Chewing areca nut, even without tobacco, carries serious health risks, including cancer. World Health Organization. ## Modernization notes - the first present in Annam between engaged couples → the first gift exchanged by engaged couples in Annam, a historical name used here for Vietnam,: Explains the historical name and clarifies who exchanges gifts. - even in Burma, where → even in Burma, now called Myanmar, where: Gives the current name without changing the author’s historical claim. - a mandarin to whom → a mandarin, a high-ranking official, to whom: Briefly explains the historical office. - a pagoda at the spot, where multitudes now come from far lands to worship at the shrine raised to commemorate conjugal and brotherly love. → a pagoda, a temple, at the spot. Crowds now come from far lands to worship at this shrine, built in memory of love between husband and wife and between brothers.: Explains pagoda and the two relationships remembered at the shrine. - whereupon she threw herself down at the foot of the tree, clasped the limestone boulders, and prayed that she might die. Her prayer granted, she was transformed → and she threw herself down at the foot of the tree, clasped the limestone boulders, and cried out in despair. She died and was transformed: Exceptional softening of an explicit wish to die and its fulfilment as an answered prayer; preserves her gestures, death and transformation without endorsing death as an answer to grief. - the seventh and eighth months (April-May) → the seventh and eighth lunar months: Scott’s parenthetical April–May is inconsistent with the seventh and eighth months of the Vietnamese lunar calendar. The historical wording is preserved in Original; the modern text retains the months without that erroneous conversion. ## Presented text (with modernization) © OpenClassics.org — All rights reserved. ## Original text The Mythology of All Races, Volume XII: Egyptian; Indo-Chinese, 1918, Marshall Jones Company, Boston - author: James George Scott ## Illustration [Py-Lao](https://www.openclassics.org/api/illustrations/5b073512-e48d-4aed-9a96-a7790e4cea2a) — Tap-Truyen (Récits à la Bouche) : Contes et légendes annamites, 1897, Charles Mendel, Paris ## Reading music Bubaran Udan Mas Gamelan Nyai Saraswati (Javanese gamelan) I. M. Harjito (guest artist) UNC Chapel Hill (source) [CC BY-NC 1.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/1.0/) ## Quiz ### What kind of plant is the areca tree? - A cactus - A palm (Correct answer) - A fern Areca catechu is a tropical palm with a slender trunk and long, feather-like leaves. [Singapore National Parks Board — Areca catechu](https://www.nparks.gov.sg/florafaunaweb/flora/2/5/2587) ### What shape are betel leaves? - Heart-shaped (Correct answer) - Needle-shaped - Shaped like toothed wheels Betel, Piper betle, is a climbing vine with shiny, heart-shaped leaves. It is a different plant from the areca palm. [Singapore National Parks Board — Piper betle](https://www.nparks.gov.sg/florafaunaweb/flora/1/4/1490) ### In Vietnam, which ceremonies traditionally include gifts of betel and areca? - Only boat launches - Only school openings - Engagements and weddings (Correct answer) Betel leaves and areca nuts are traditional engagement and wedding gifts. They symbolize bonds including love and family. [Viet Nam Government Portal — The culture of betel and areca](https://en.baochinhphu.vn/the-culture-of-betel-and-areca-11115948.htm) ## Other languages - [Français](https://www.openclassics.org/fr/stories/the-legend-of-the-betel-and-the-areca?format=markdown) - [简体中文](https://www.openclassics.org/zh/stories/the-legend-of-the-betel-and-the-areca?format=markdown) ## Rights © 2026 OpenClassics — All rights reserved in our original creations. [Rights](https://www.openclassics.org/information/terms)