Part Two of the Folk Tales of Indonesia shelf returns to Borneo — this time to The Pagan Tribes of Borneo (London, 1912) by Charles Hose and William McDougall, and to its chapter "Myths, Legends, and Stories," gathered at first hand among the peoples of the Baram district in Sarawak. Part One of this shelf was drawn from Furness's Folk-lore in Borneo (1899). The billing is by peoples, collectors and books, as throughout this shelf — not a survey of all the peoples of Indonesia, and no completeness is claimed. The chapter's condensed Kayan creation myth, and its tale of the giant Usai, are set aside under this channel's standing rule and are named, with their reasons, in the shelf register.
Disclosure: this performance is narrated by AI-generated voices.
In this episode: Lafaang, a Long Kiput youth, marries the daughter of Palai, the constellation Pegasus, and cannot learn the customs of the sky — eating with a needle, felling trees by laying the axe at their foot — until a falling tree takes his left arm, as Orion's arm is wanting still; he comes down to earth with sugar-cane and bananas, gifts previously unknown to men. Simpang Impang, the Iban half-man born of the flood's one surviving woman, quarrels with the rat over padi grain and goes to settle accounts with Selulat Antu Ribut, the wind-spirit, passing the requests of a tree, a lake, and the branchless banana on the way — and comes home a whole man. The Kenyah fable of Plandok the mouse-deer and Kelap the water-tortoise, who talked his way out of the fire and the sugar-cane press and into his own river. The Kenyah story of the belira fish, and why it has so many bones. The Klemantan story of Saleh, the stupid boy, who cooked the rice with the pot upside down and marked the river with a notch in his boat. And a Barawan story with a moral: Kra the monkey and Raong the toad, who to this day are going to make their bark coat tomorrow.
Chapters:
00:00 Opening theme
00:36 Introduction
01:52 The Story of Lafaang
05:51 The Iban Story of Simpang Impang
12:02 Kenyah Fable of the Mouse-Deer and the Tortoise
15:21 The Kenyah Story of the Belira Fish
16:31 The Story of the Stupid Boy
19:13 A Story with a Moral
20:40 Closing Words
Source: Charles Hose and William McDougall, The Pagan Tribes of Borneo (London: Macmillan and Co., 1912), Volume II, Chapter XVII, "Myths, Legends, and Stories." Hose (1863–1929) served twenty-four years in Sarawak, most of them in the Baram district; McDougall (1871–1938) was his collaborator. Public domain. The readings follow the book's own English text, complete and unabridged; the authors' commentary and footnotes are not narrated.
Narration: Lulu.
Music: "The Cello's Unfinished Promise" — opening and closing theme, and as the separator between stories.
KacheliTV — World Classics: the folk tales and classics of every culture, read aloud.
