Long long ago, during the Hung King dynasty, Vietnam was a very small kingdom which didn’t have many types of fruit. A young boy from the faraway south coast was sold into slavery by some sailors, and ended up being bought by Hung King. The King named the boy Mai An Tiêm and the kid grew to be an intelligent, talented and skillful young man. The King loved him as his own son, so he decided that his daughter would marry An Tiêm. They were given a house and many servants as a present, and they also received a lot of delicacies from the King. An Tiêm and his wife lived happily in wealth and gave birth to three children.

Since An Tiêm received great favors from the King, some of the King’s courtiers started getting jealous. During a banquet at his house, An Tiêm unintentionally said all of the good luck and the possessions he got, he acquired on his own, since according to his homeland’s religion, all of the blessings that people receive in this life are given to them as a reward for any good things they did in the previous one. The jealous courtiers told the King what An Tiem said showed his immodesty, ungratefulness and disrespect for him. Believing the gossip, the King got terribly angry and thought An Tiêm’s family wanted to betray him. He banished them to a desolate island to prove that without his favors, An Tiêm could not live as comfortable a life as he had been living up until then.

With only one blunt knife for a tool, An Tiêm and his family had to resort to living in a cave, drinking stream water and gathering wild fruits to survive. When the dry season came, the isolated island, covered with sand, started getting battered with unbreathable hot and dry wind. Trees and grass withered under the scorching sun and fresh water evaporated. Their lives were in danger, as food was extremely hard to find.

One day, while walking along the beach, An Tiêm saw a strange yellow sea bird on top of the shore cliff. He came to have a closer look and saw that the bird was pecking at some juicy fruit which was as red as blood, and some of its seeds had been dropped into the sand. He thought that if the bird could eat the fruit, it must be also good for humans. Then he ploughed a small piece of land and planted those seeds.

Even though the island was full of sand, which means hardly anything could grow, An Tiem and his wife never felt hopeless. They worked hard everyday together to take care of the plants. They quickly saw tender shoots sprouting from the earth and green vines sprawling on the sand. To their amazement, the melons, covered by smooth dark green skin, grew bigger and bigger until they were as large as a head. When An Tiem sliced a fruit half open, he saw the bright red pulp with a delightful fragrance. He tried a small bite and was overjoyed that the taste was cool, fresh and sweet. His wife and his children also came to relieve their hunger and quench their thirst with the marvelous melons. An Tiem named the fruit “Tây qua” (coming from the West) because it was brought by the bird from the West Coast; later the Vietnamese people called it “dưa hâu” (watermelon). And from that time, they would never grow hungry again.