Episode Details

Two more tales from the Gatiloke, told in a fresh English rendering from the Khmer. First, the rascal Sok returns — falsely accused, condemned by a search of his own house, and carried before the mandarin's court chastened and wiser for it. Then a slave, held in bondage all his life, is given three sums by a wealthy benefactor and buys his freedom with his own hands — the decision is his, the money earned, the chains struck off: the day he learns to stand free. Between them, the Gatiloke's quiet argument: that a man is measured not by the station he is born to but by what he does with the freedom he is given. Told by Achar Ind (Suttantaprija Ind, 1859–1924), the great Khmer poet and collector of tales, who heard these stories from the tellers of Cambodia and set them down for all who would come after. This part tells items 2.2 and 2.3 of the collection. The collection's excluded items stand disclosed in the registers of Parts 1 and 4; no completeness is claimed beyond the tales here told.

From the Gatiloke (Katilok) of Suttantaprija Ind, serialized in Kambuja Surya 1914–1921; English rendering made in-house from the Khmer text.

Chapters: 00:05 The Rascal, Sok, and the Crofter's Son 12:44 The Slave

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