The Pagans of North Borneo — Part 1: Dusun and Murut Legends of Brunei Bay, with Four Fables from the Baram Country
Disclosure: this performance is narrated by AI-generated voices.
Folk Tales of Brunei and North Borneo — Season 90, Episode 1. Every story in this episode is told in our own fresh translation, made for KacheliTV from Ivor H. N. Evans's English versions (1922–23).
From I. H. N. Evans, Studies in Religion, Folk-lore, & Custom in British North Borneo and the Malay Peninsula (Cambridge University Press, 1923), we hear the Dusun and Murut legendry of Brunei Bay — how the world and its peoples were made, and why things are as they are:
0:00 Opening theme
0:25 I. How the Dusun Got Their Rice — Kinorohingan creates men and rice, and Bisikan breaks the pot
3:07 II. How the Dusun Obtain Salt — Bisikan climbs to seek salt, and his companion is turned to a turtle
4:57 III. Notes on Dusun Religious Beliefs — gods, spirits, food avoidances, and the priestesses
8:58 IV. The First Road to the Nabalu — Kinorohingan and his black dog Bunsadam walk the mountain road
11:02 V. The Creator of the World and His Wife — Kinorohingan and Umunsumundup, and the misused gift of water-of-life
12:03 VI. The Story of Dayang Moginum — the baby's grave-double and the child who would not speak
13:48 VII. Tales of the Flood — the deluge story told at Kibabaig and at Babagon
14:57 VIII. The Origin of Ants — the Piambau woman and the war the birds declared on her tongue
16:23 IX. Notes on Dusun Beliefs with Regard to Various Animals — swallows, rats, tigers, and the snakes that warn of travel
18:04 X. A Dusun Fable — the mouse-deer finds the conspiracy of fishes and cleverly condemns it
19:34 XI. Note on Dusun Graves — rice, tobacco, and crocodile effigies for the dead
And from "Some Baram Folktales" by I. H. N. Evans (Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society No. 86, 1922), told by Malay-speaking river peoples of the Baram country:
21:00 XII. The Goose and the Mousedeer — the goose walks his garden and the mousedeer plays inspector
23:28 XIII. The Mousedeer and the Tiger — the mousedeer talks his way out of the tiger's shadow
25:06 XIV. The Mousedeer and the Monkey — the mousedeer outwits the monkey
26:04 XV. The Mousedeer, the Mouse, the Lizard and the Pipit — the mousedeer hears the case and plants a tree
Music: opening and closing theme from our instrumental library. Narration: Benedetto.
