Princess Bungsu and Maniki
Once upon a time there was a king in Berau Kingdom. The king was wise. He had seven beautiful daughters and he did not have a son yet. Among the seven daughters, the most beautiful daughter was the youngest one. Her name was Princess Bungsu. She was a kind girl. She was not spoiled and liked to do the household chores and cooking. She had a special knife to cut the vegetables or meat.
One day the princess’ knife was broken. She was very sad. She did not want to cook anymore. The king loved his daughters very much. He did not want to see his youngest daughter sad.
Therefore the king had a competition. He asked the people to make a new knife for his daughter. The king would give great rewards for the winner.
Soon, everybody was busy making a knife. After they were finished, they brought the knives to the palace. One by one, the villagers showed their knives to
Princess Bungsu. Sadly, the Princess was not interested.
She thought that all the knives were not as beautiful as her knife.
On the following day, a young man came to the palace. His name was Maniki. He was handsome and very helpful to others and also skillful. He could make anything.
Maniki also wanted to join the competition. He brought his knife and showed it to Princess Bungsu. The knife was very beautiful. Princess Bungsu liked it instantly. She immediately brought the knife to the kitchen and began to cook.
Princess Bungsu really loved the knife.
She always kept the knife carefully. She even brought the knife to her bed room and put it on the pillow.
In one morning, Princess Bungsu did not feel very well. The king then asked the palace healer to cure the illness.
After a while, the palace healer was surprised. He found out that Princess
Bungsu was pregnant! He immediately reported to the king.
The king was really angry. He asked the princess who the father of the baby was. The princess was confused. She always stayed in the palace and never had any contacts with any men.
Nine months later, the princess had a baby son.
The palace healer knew how to find out the father of the baby. He invited all men in the kingdom. Then he gave each of them a banana.
If the baby crawled to the man holding the banana, then he was the father.
After all men came to the palace, they all sat down in a big circle. The baby was in the middle.
Amazingly the baby started to crawl. He came to a young man. It was Maniki!
Maniki was confused.
He said that he was innocent. But the king ignored him. Later the king sent Maniki, Princess Bungsu and the baby to the jungle as a punishment.
Days passed by and the baby turned to a boy. Maniki and Princess Bungsu were also rich. They worked hard and always saved their money. One day they heard that the king was terribly ill. They decided to go to the palace to visit the king.
It was true. The king was dying. He was terribly ill because he felt guilty by sending her daughter to the jungle.
When he met Maniki and Princess Bungsu, the king apologized to them and asked them to stay in the palace.***
Queen Aji Bidara Putih
ONCE upon a time in
The kingdom was led by Queen Aji Bidara Putih. She was a very beautiful queen. She was also wise, kind, and loving to her people.
The queen was single. Many kings and princes from other kingdoms have tried to propose her. However, she was still not interested in getting married.
She only wanted to take care of her people.Though the queen has rejected proposal from many rich men, the proposals kept on coming to her. Many kings and princes did not give up. One of them was a prince from
The Chinese prince came with a big ship.
He brought his soldiers and also a lot of jewelleries. The prince wanted to give the jewelleries as wedding proposals.When the ship arrived at Muara Kaman, the Chinese prince asked a messenger to meet the queen. The messenger then told the queen about the wedding proposal.Before I accept the proposal, please tell me about your prince, asked the queen.
He is a very rich man and also very handsome, Your Majesty.
Alright then, tell your prince I need time to think, said the queen.The queen thought it was time for her to get married. She felt she was old enough. That was why she did not reject the proposal immediately. However, she did not want to choose the wrong husband. She asked one soldier to secretly go to the ship. The queen asked the soldier to describe her how the Chinese prince looked like.The soldier was finally able to enter the ship. He was peeping from a hole.
He saw the prince was eating. The soldier could not see the prince clearly. The hole was too small. But he could hear how the prince ate.The prince was eating using chopsticks.
He made strange sounds when he was eating. The soldier was so scared. He never heard that sound before. He thought the prince was not a real human. He thought the soldier was a ghost!When he arrived back at the palace, the soldier immediately reported to the queen. He told the queen about the strange sound.Maybe he is not a human, Your Majesty.
Maybe he is a ghost! said the soldier.
At first, the queen did not believe him.
But the soldier was very sure with what he heard. The queen then decided to refuse the wedding proposal. And that made theChinese prince got very angry. He asked his soldiers to attack Muara Kaman kingdom.The Chinese soldiers were able to beat the Muara Kaman s soldiers.Queen Aji Bidara Putih was cornered in the palace. She then prayed to God.
Suddenly, she heard a voice. The voice asked her to chew betel then threw the betel to the Chinese soldiers.
Amazingly, the betel changed into giant centipedes and attacked them.
The Chinese soldiers died and from the ground appeared a lake. People of Muara Kaman then named it as Danau Lipan or
The Legend of Pesut Mahakam
The village was near the Mahakam River. The villagers always worked hard. Although they were poor, they were very happy. They also helped each other.
In the village, there was a rich family. The head of the family was Pak Pesut. Everybody knew Pak Pesut. He was known not because of his wealth, but because his stinginess. He did not like to help others. His family always ignored people. That’s why Pak Pesut’s family always lived alone and never mingled with others.
It was a very long dry season. All the rice fields could not get water properly. The villagers could not harvest the rice.
Therefore, all villagers were planning to leave their village and find other place to stay. Then they sent some young men to look for a place that had enough water for their rice fields.
After several weeks looked for a new place, finally those young men arrived.
They brought good news. There was a waterfall and it was enough to water their rice fields. Later, all the villagers rushed to the new place. Some villagers went to Pak Pesut’s house to inform about the waterfall. Although Pak Pesut was stingy, the villagers did not hate him.
“I’m not going with you! I will stay here. I have enough rice for my family.
We will survive!” said Pak Pesut arrogantly.
The villagers knew it was useless to ask Pak Pesut to join them. So, they all
left him and his family alone in the village. When they arrived at the new place, they all were very happy. They had enough water from the waterfall.
In the mean time, Pak Pesut and his family were beginning to worry. Their rice slowly was gone. Soon they would not have enough rice to eat.
It was in the morning when Pak Pesut’s wife was cooking their last portion of rice. Suddenly, someone knocked the door. A beggar came to his house.
“Go out! I don’t have enough rice,” said Pak Pesut. He was lying.
“Please mercy me. I’m so hungry.
Give me a little rice please,” asked the beggar.
Pak Pesut immediately asked his family to eat the rice. He was worried the beggar would enter his house and stole the rice.
“But the rice is still in the cooking pot. Mother is still cooking it. If we eat the rice, it will be very hot,” said his son.
“I don’t care! If you all don’t eat now, you will never eat again,” said Pak Pesut.
Later, Pak Pesut and his family ate the rice. It was very hot. They needed water to drink. They rushed to Mahakam River. It was so hot that they finally jumped to the river.
The beggar saw the incident. He then prayed to God. Amazingly, Pak Pesut family slowly changed into fish. The fish looked like dolphin. Since then, everybody named the fish as Pesut fish. ***
