The M'nong people say that: Day and night, the Forest God always goes to look after the forest land under his jurisdiction. One day on the way, the Forest God met a goat and asked:
- Why are the eyebrows sunken, the toenails curled, the eyes bulging, the bearded and horned chin twisted as if someone were turning it?
The goat replied:
- Dear Forest God! When the animals fought with Bong Brang Ya, they competed to buy weapons to fight, but I had no iron to forge weapons, so I went to the blacksmith's forge to ask for a bellows for the blacksmith, hoping that the blacksmith would help me make some kind of weapon. I diligently pulled the bellows all day long to serve the blacksmith. The animals took turns bringing iron to be forged and then left. I thought that he would eventually help me make a weapon with the blacksmith, so I felt secure pulling the bellows. Unexpectedly, he finally finished and left, leaving the blacksmith and me alone with no one to pull the bellows for help. I was so disappointed because I didn't have any weapons. So I thought of a way to use the forge's clamps to stick on my head to make horns. That's why my horns are ugly like they are now. God, think about it, because I had to pull the bellows for people all day long, my thighs became atrophied, my toenails were pinched, and because I was so tired, a lot of sweat ran down and gathered under my chin, it smelled very bad and I didn't have time to wipe it clean, so there was a beard growing there that looked ugly like it is now.
I worked for a blacksmith who had to stare at the forgings so intently that my eyes bulged. I suffered so much but no one cared about me, or forged me a weapon. I don't know if they were mean or in a hurry to fight, so no one paid any attention to help me.
Hearing that, the Forest God said:
- How terrible! The animals have all forgotten the goat's kindness. Alright! Now I will grant you the right to live until old age without dying of disease and without being eaten by any wild beasts, but you must listen to my advice: you must eat one hundred kinds of leaves every day, and you must not eat the leaves and fruits of the eggplant. If you accidentally eat this kind of tree, you and your whole herd will be eaten. You must remember my advice and pass it on to your children and grandchildren.
Since then, goats have eaten all kinds of leaves, including the bitter ones used as medicine. They only dare not touch the eggplant. If a goat accidentally eats an eggplant leaf, it will be attacked by a tiger, and the herd will be attacked by tigers one after another until the entire herd is gone. But the goats obeyed the Forest God's words, so they were never eaten by wild animals. That's why the M'nong people in the past did not like to eat goat meat. They raised goats only to take their blood to worship the Rice God or to worship evil gods so that they would not harm the villagers.
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