Episode Details

The Gatiloke turns to wisdom answering power. A sampoch bird brings a hen a royal proclamation — all enemies are reconciled now — and invites her down to embrace; the hen, who knows a lie the instant she hears one, sends it fleeing from a dog that never comes. Isvara's eagle, which eats whatever creature it dreams of, dreams of the king of the white elephants — and a little tituy bird rides to Mount Kailasa and sets dream against dream before the god himself. An orphan dish-washer tells the king exactly how much he has. A lost king is guided home by a buffalo-herd boy, who leaves him a riddle of kingship to think on. And a kanlong bird and a kingkok frog boast each other down.

Chapters:

00:04 — The Sampoch Bird and the Hen

03:06 — Isvara's Eagle That Wanted to Eat the King of Elephants

11:17 — The Orphan Boy and the King

13:59 — The King and the Buffalo-Herd Boy

21:35 — The Kanlong Bird and the Kingkok

From the Gatiloke by Suttantaprija Ind (1859–1924), Cambodia's treasury of Khmer folk tales, first published in parts in Phnom Penh in 1914–1921 — public domain, and told here in a fresh in-house English rendering made from the Khmer text, in the book's own order. One question-chapter near the collection's opening is held back under house rule — its matter is murder itself, and such a tale is not read until it is ruled on; it stands recorded in the collection's written register, in its place. One further tale of the book's second part — the tale of Bhikkhu Sok, the Pnong teacher — is likewise held back under house rule: its matter is a whole lineage put to death, and such a tale is not read until it is ruled on; it stands recorded in the register, in its place.

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