Melanau Tale
On the Oya river, a few bends above Tamin and just below Skuau, there once lived two brothers whose Chieftain father had died. Both were still young, kind to everyone in the village and good at every undertaking. The elder of the two was elected to succeed his father and was acclaimed by every visitor. Seven small villages came under his control.
Young men wanted to be in their presence and, each evening, when they came to bathe, they enjoyed a wonderful sport. A diving board had been set up where they could jump into the Oya. Jumping from the board was a great sport and no young man would miss the pleasures of diving into the cool Oya waters.
The elder brother’s administration of the villages increased his popularity so that the people flocked to him for all sorts of advice. However, his Uncle, who thought he should be the leader following the death of his brother, grew very jealous. He planned to dispose of the brothers. He contrived a trap. Sharp pointed bamboos were planted in the water under the jumping board and, in addition, two sets of su’ah, a Dyak pig sticking trap, were also placed underwater.
Next day, a crowd of the usual youths appeared and playfully argued who should jump first. The younger son said the elder should jump first while the elder said the younger should leap into the water. The younger son dove off the board. When he failed to come up, the party slowly moved into the water and found the young man impaled on the bamboo sticks. The body was carefully brought up to the surface.
The elder brother was very upset and did not want to see the corpse. He covered his head and wrapped his body in a bamboo mat. He refused eat and spent several days in mourning. Death from starvation was very near when he dreamed of an old man with a flowing beard, kind eyes and a soft voice.
“Son make seven pieces of papit (rice cooked in leaves) and travel to a certain place for seven days and seven nights. Only halt when you are really exhausted and begin again when you are fresh. You must travel in the direction of the sunrise and take one papit for food. If you come to a tree and notice a skeleton resting on a branch at the height of your waist, do not tap that tree for poison but move on until you find a yellow tree, with a skeleton which reaches to the end of your spear as you stand and hold the spear end upwards. Go to it and lean against it. You must remember that a black tree facing in the direction of the sunset is poisonous. Clean out a coconut shell, tap the bark of the yellow tree with sap and rub your it all over your body. This will prevent any poisonous effects when you tap the black tree.”
When awoke, he called out but was so weak nobody heard him. Finally, he rolled to the other room where his friends were staying. They gladly unrolled and unwrapped him. His eyes could not stand the light and he had to shield them with both hands. After some time, he became semi- normal but was still weak and fatigued. Slowly and bit by bit he began to eat more. During the recuperation period, the elder brother said little.
The time had now arrived when the elder brother became his old self again. His friends joined him but no mention was made of the jumping board. Once more, the seven village chieftains came and paid homage to him and everyone said that he should seek revenge on the persons who set the trap.
Elder brother, alone, spent days in making a bongkut (basket)and the belt to hold it. He set out with seven papit, walking towards the sunset stopping only when darkness came. In the evening of the third day, he saw a skeleton in the U shaped branch of a tree and remembered not to touch it. On the fourth day, he saw a jaw bone about the height of his shoulders. On the fifth day, he spotted thigh bones as high as his head. On the sixth, he saw two arm bones about 3/4 meters higher than his head. On the seventh, his spear touched the skull as he stood on tiptoes.
He was facing the yellow tree and turned towards the sunset. He found the black tree. He tapped the yellow tree and covered himself with its sap before he tapped the black tree. He must return but he had no food for the journey. He fell asleep and when he woke up he found mouse deer eating young shoots. This gave him the idea that he must feed on young shoots and jungle fruits.
In the early morning of the eighth day, he began the journey to his village. A journey of seven days and seven nights had suddenly turned into one day. When he arrived at the village, Elder brother never mentioned what he had obtained to anyone, not even to the household that prepared the papit .
At night, before the fire, a crowd assembled to hear the news if his hunt was successful. He said nothing. That night in his sleep, the old man came to him in his dreams and enquired about the poison. On being told the elder brother had it, the old man asked him to construct seven akit, (rafts) and on each raft heaps of firewood would be placed. On each akit a half a coconut shell would be placed. They were to be released upriver seven stretches from the last village.
So one day, the elder brother accompanied by his relatives moved upriver to prepare the rafts. The Uncle thought he was opening a new village and made no attempt to stop him. With Elder brother gone, leadership would pass to the Uncle.
One by one the rafts were ready and stocked with firewood. When the land breeze was blowing hard, a launching was performed, every raft was lighted and he made sure the poison was aboard.
The scene was soon a fiery and furious river procession downstream killing every creature and human that inhaled the smoke. All the animals and whole population of the seven villages were wiped out; but the longhouses remained, unaffected by the smoke. The burning rafts stopped at Telok Malai, three or four stretches before Medong was reached, because of a change in direction of the wind. Rain then came and put out the fires. The elder brother started a new village and became the leader.
From: A Melanau Population destroyed by Poisonous Smoke told by
George Jamuh in the Sarawak Museum Journal December 1965
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