Deepavali has come and gone. This morning my students helped to remove the Rangoli that we had made for the celebrations in our library. As we used different types of grains, the students had to slowly pick out each different grain and put them into containers. We plan to put all of the grains in a glass container with one coloured grain for every layer.
When the boys and girls were separating all the items, the story of Musang Berjanggut or the Bearded Fox came to mind. For those who are unfamiliar with movie by the late P. Ramlee, The Tale of the Bearded Fox is a Malay folktale featuring supernatural elements with an underlying moral value.
In a nutshell the story is about a handsome prince who is reluctant to marry a lady from his kingdom because he felt that they were not 'true' females. On hearing this, the king orders him to go and find such a woman. So our hero goes on his quest and at the same time vowing to not shave his facial hair until he finds such a woman.
He sets up a test to find such a woman. The prince puts a mixture of rice, salt, chilli, garlic and spices into a bag and seeks to find a woman who can sort out the ingredients and cook a meal from them.
He goes on his quest and meets quite a number of young ladies. However, none of them were able to pass his test until he meets the beautiful Puspawangi. She being of high intellect managed to separate the items by sifting them in a tray and then cooking a meal for the prince and her family. Tada the prince has found his princess. He shaves his beard and then takes her back to his kingdom.
There's a bit more to the tale and if you want to know more, please visit:
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