English version

Here is a story from our country, handed down from the old days.

Back then, our villages’ inhabitants used to get together to decide on major issues. That is the way they organized their daily activities, the men in one group, the women in another.

One day, when the women had just had such a meeting, they said to the men: “Here is what we will do today {in preparation for the big collective bake}. You men, you will go cut banana leaves and prune the large philodendrons; as for us, we will go collect burao leaves [Hibiscus tiliaceus].” The men agreed to the plan.

So they separated into two groups: the men going off to cut banana and philodendron leaves, the women going off in their own direction.

When leaving, they made an agreement: “The best place to find burao leaves is way over there”, they said, pointing towards the east, quite far from their village.

So the women started off. The men went off in one direction, the women in another.

*

Each woman made sure she had her little woven basket: when they were sure that no one had forgotten hers, they left.

They walked and walked and walked, much farther than usual from their village.

At one point, as they were entering the forest, one of them cried: “There's a whole grove of buraos! Let us sit here and gather our bundles of leaves.” So they set to work, each gathering the amount of leaves she needed.

And when they had gathered enough leaves, they each {sat on the grass, and} began to sew them together.

After having worked thus for several hours, they said “So, good, that should be enough.” As they had begun after midday, the sun was then about to set.

However, one of the women got up and said to her friends: “Wait for me a few minutes! I want to go see a little higher in the forest to find other burao leaves.”

– “Come on, let's go”, her friends replied, ”it's time to go home, it's already dark!”

– “No, no”, she insisted, “it will only take a minute!” So off she went, while her friends stayed and waited.

But after a few steps in the forest, suddenly she raised her eyes and saw a wild apple tree [Malay apple, Syzygium malaccense].

The tree was covered with abundant fruit, each apple riper than the next. She thought “What a magnificient apple tree! I think I’ll pick some apples for my little boy!” Without a moment's loss, she picked four.

But when she came back down the path to join her friends, it was already dusk ~ all devils' hour.

When she returned to her friends they said: “What on earth took you so long?” – “Well, when I went up inland, I found an apple tree covered with ripe apples, so I picked four for my son.” – “Why didn’t you call us?”, they asked. “We too would have liked to pick apples for our children.” – “No, forget it”, she answered, “it’s already dark.” At last they could head back to the village.

They lifted camp and started off home. They walked and walked, but the sky kept getting darker and darker.

*

From all around, the children came running for protection, each to their own mother. Amongst them was a little boy, a bit like the one sitting behind you.

As he was hugging his mother, she said, “Patience, patience. Follow me back to the house, and there I will give you some apples, I picked four.” The boy couldn’t wait to eat the apples his mother had picked for him.

When at last they reached the village, they came to deposit the bundles of burao leaves they had gathered.

As for her, she searched around in the bottom of her woven basket, and finally found the four ripe apples she had picked. Without waiting, the little boy grabbed them out of her hands! He took them out of her hands and started devouring them, in the darkness of the night.

He then asked his mother, “Tell me mother, where did you find those apples?” – “Oh dear”, she said, “I found them near where we stopped to gather burao leaves, but a little farther on. But there's no way you can go there, it is much too dark.”

But he insisted: “Come, tell me where! I have to go, I want to go there right now! The apples I just ate were so~ delicious!” – “No way!”, his mother repeated, “it’s night already.” – “Mother, I want you to tell me where that apple tree is!” – “I said no, it’s night time.”

But the boy insisted, insisted, without stopping, to make his mother tell him where to find the apple tree. The mother finally gave in, and told him how to get there: “I told you a hundred times not to go there, but you decided to disobey me: so fine, go. Go back along the path to the east; once you come to the place where we stopped to gather leaves, now go up inland: there you will find the apple tree.”

The little boy set off immediately.

*

So the boy left his mother and set off on his way. After walking for a long, long time, he found the place: “Aha, here is where our mothers bundled leaves together today.”

“Let’s see”, he thought, “Mother said I should go this way...” So he followed the path inland, and suddenly happened upon the fabulous apple tree.

Without waiting, he began to climb it. He climbed it, and without even taking the time to settle himself, he picked an apple and bit into it.

Suddenly, he heard {a deep rumbling} in the distance, as if someone had blown into a conch shell.

“What is that?”, he wondered, stopping for a moment, then understanding, “Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear! It's the devils, they'll find me for sure!”

The deep rumbling got louder and louder…

So the boy got ready to jump out of the tree and flee — but was caught by Romanmangan, who suddenly appeared out of thin air. Thus discovered, the little one burst into tears.

As she saw him cry, Romanmangan told him, “Don’t cry. You will soon see my companions coming; there are ten of us in all. You will see, there will be nine of them. Come, stop crying, and be still; pick some apples to keep with you; then quickly hide yourself inside the apple tree.” Indeed, the apple tree was hollow, it had a hole inside.

*

He hurried to pick some apples, and when he had finished she said: “Good, come down quickly and hide yourself in the hollow of this tree, down there!” The boy grabbed his fruit and leapt to hide himself, just as Romanmangan’s companions appeared, one after the other, out of thin air.

The first one flew across the sky, and landed on the apple tree. “Mmmm!”, he exclaimed, “I smell fresh meat!”

But Romanmangan stopped him right away: “Yes, I arrived a little before you, and just as I landed on this apple tree, I saw his back, running away, just this minute! I jumped to catch him, but he ran off!”

But already a second devil had arrived, flapping its wings. Coming through the air, he in turn landed on the apple tree and cried “Mmm! I smell fresh meat!” The two others stopped him right off: “Sorry, he just escaped!”

And so on and so forth with the other seven who, one after the other, came to land on the apple tree: each time they were given the same answer.

All of a sudden, the devils started climbing all over the branches: all going to pick apples which they devoured immediately. But whereas they were busy feasting on the fruit, Romanmangan stayed put in front of the apple tree’s opening, without moving.

So they asked her: “Hey, why is it that while we are scrambling all over picking apples, you just stand there without moving? Why don’t you do what we’re doing? Why are you just standing there?” – “Don’t worry about me”, she replied, “I’ve already picked dozens, I’m staying here to eat them.”

But they wouldn’t leave it at that: “What are you talking about? Here we are, scampering all over the tree, and you just stand there without moving? Come on, get moving, come pick some apples!” – “No, no, I’m staying here!”, she insisted, “I have plenty of apples as it is. Carry on scampering around if you want to, I’m not budging.”

So they continued their feast, until they looked to the east and saw the sky tinged with pinkish-orange. The meaning of this was that day was about to break!

So the chief began to speak, the captain of the devils, the one who had the most power amongst them: “Hey guys, take a look east, see how orange the sky is! Cripes, day’s about to break!” And the chief suddenly begun flapping his wings, flew off and disappeared into thin air.

Right behind him, a second devil flapped off into the sky.

And after him a third, then a fourth, then a fifth, a sixth, a seventh! After a while, there were only three left on the apple tree.

Romanmangan then told the two others: “Since you are the last two, I’m going to tell you a secret. Actually, if I stayed here without moving, it was to protect a little boy, who is hidden there, inside the tree.” – “What are you talking about?!”, they answered, stunned. “I swear, there is a little boy in there!” – “Show us”, they answered, “let’s call him out of there!”

So Romanmangan moved away from the entrance to the tree, climbed up to join them, then all three started to call: “Little one, come out and climb up to us!” So the boy came out of the apple tree and climbed up to join them.

But the closer he got, the more terrified he became. “Don’t worry”, they said, “we’re not going to eat you. My companion and I are going to leave, and as for Romanmangan, since she’s the one who found you first, you can take her for your wife. Then you can both go and live in your country.”

The two devils flew off into the sky; and the boy took Romanmangan by the hand and brought her with him.

“Come”, he said, “I’m taking you home”. And Romanmangan followed him.

* *

So they both set off, and walked and walked and walked, for a very long time.

As for his parents, they had ended up thinking that their boy must have perished in the night, that he had been devoured by the demons, and that he was probably dead. So imagine their surprise when, early the next morning, as they were sitting {on their mat in front of their house} they suddenly glimpsed the new couple approaching.

“Hey!”, said his parents when they saw them ~ and the father cried: “Look over there! It’s our boy coming back! And my goodness! he’s brought us a wife!”

The new friends approached, arrived at the house: “Mother!” said the boy; “What?” said the mother; “This is my wife. I met her this very night, on the wild apple tree! I brought her here to make her my wife.” – “Are you insane?”, his mother answered, “You probably brought us someone else's wife!”

– “No, no, she’s my own wife! I met her last night, on the other side of the island, and we spent the night back there. Then I thought I would bring her here to you and papa, so that you get to know her.” The two parents finally agreed: “Okay, fine, settle down here.”

So they both settled there, starting a new life, as a couple.

* *

They lived that way for a long time, a very, very long time.

One day, Romanmangan became pregnant. Several months later, she gave birth to a little boy.

For years they brought up the little boy, who grew and grew, until he was as old as Henry here, who’s sitting just behind you.

One day, they heard some news: the following week, the boy’s father – Romanmangan’s husband – had to go to another island {to work as a farmer}.

After a few days, they said: “Tomorrow is the day of departure.” So the husband addressed Romanmangan in these terms: “The three of us are going to go out, I am going to take you to our garden: I want to show you our food supplies, because until now you have never seen them. I will show you where to find food; so that when I leave here, you will be able to go to the garden, pick bananas, taro… You will know everything necessary for your subsistence.”

The husband took them to their garden, to show them their supplies and their farm; then they went back down to the village.

“When I leave”, he added, “all this food will be for you. Every day, help yourselves without counting. Don’t worry about me: I’m just going to work in another district. — Okay”, they answered.

The next morning, the three of them ate together. Then it was time for the father to get his things and to start off, while Romanmangan and her baby stayed home.

* *

So they lived, just the two of them.

Each day they took one of the yams leaning up against the bamboo wall, and cooked it. And so they ate, without really worrying about the yams lined up against the wall.

But actually, what was happening was that each time they ate a yam, it reappeared against the wall, in the same place!

Because Romanmangan was a fairy, with magical powers.

They also went to the garden, picked bananas and harvested taro, bringing back all sorts of food. And that is how they lived, how they subsisted, until the father came back home.

When they heard that he was to come back, they prepared a meal, saying “Papa is coming back today!” That same morning, they went to the farm and dug up yams, harvested taro, in short, brought back all the necessary food from their farm.

“We are going to cook while waiting for your father”, she said to her little boy, “because he will arrive before this evening.” When they had both come back down to the house, the mother lit a fire and started to grate the yams.

After having grated all the yams, she cracked the almonds, dozens of almonds. She said to her son: “Go and kill us a chicken.” The little boy went out, ran after a chicken, caught it and wrung its neck: their big dish of vegetables would be accompanied by chicken.

Just when they were getting up to leave the meal to cook, they said to each other that the father should be there by now. Without waiting, the little boy ran off towards the beach, saying to himself: “Papa must be landing now!”

The child played for quite a while on the beach, until he finally saw his father land and come up to him: “Come papa!” he said, “let’s go home! Mother has already done the cooking: we prepared an enormous dish for you, because we had heard you were coming back today.” – “Perfect!” said the father.

He took the little boy’s hand, and they both walked up to the village. By the time they got there, Romanmangan had finished cleaning the whole house, sweeping the floor, and tidying along the bamboo walls…

Right beside their house was a huge banyan tree, just above their home. As she was sweeping up the dead leaves in front of the house, she heard her little boy calling her: “Mother, mother! Come look, papa’s back! Papa’s arrived!” She dropped her broom and went inside: “Perfect”, she thought, “the meal is done”.

She busied herself around the stone oven, took out the pudding, and said “Just a moment! I shall serve the dish, and we'll eat together, the three of us.”

Romanmangan cut up the food and served it into three plates, one for each of them. Then the three of them sat down on their mats to eat.

*

But all through dinner, Romanmangan’s husband kept glancing, out of the corner of his eye, towards the bamboo wall.

He was asking himself thousands of questions: “My word, during the whole time I was away, I'm convinced those two never touched the food I showed them!” In effect, since his departure, the yams hadn’t budged, the taro hadn’t budged, all the food had stayed as it was, at the house.

At the end of dinner, he couldn’t help asking Romanmangan: “Romanmangan!” She turned around: “Yes?” He asked his question: “Tell me, when I was away, did the two of you really had your meals here?” – “Of course”, Romanmangan answered, “As you were away, we ate exactly the food you had showed yourself before leaving.”

– “Really?” he said, “But all the food is in exactly the same place, as if you hadn’t touched it! I demand that we go check our garden immediately.”

Romanmangan took her son by the hand, and they started off. When they arrived up there, the father checked the garden: truly, even if they had eaten during his absence, it all looked as though they hadn’t even touched their garden.

(The truth is, Romanmangan was a fairy with magical powers.)

Then he turned to her: “But just look! When I left, I was careful to show you all our supplies so that you would have enough to eat, and yet you never touched any of it! And it’s the same down at home, nothing of what I showed you has been touched!”

So he got angry. “So where did you get your food every day, since you never even touched the food I left you? Could it be by any chance that another man came every day to feed you?!”

In his fury, he started hitting Romanmangan violently. He beat her, beat her on and on, and then he ran away.

Romanmangan was left there, with her son, crying all the tears in their bodies.

She cried and cried and cried, and while crying said to her son “Don’t cry, my little one, you and I will go home and finish our meal.”

They both went home, and together ate their meal… Suddenly Romanmangan had an idea.

She turned to her son and said, “Go and get me some fire.” The little boy answered: “What? But mother, what do you want fire for? Our meal is already cooked!” But she insisted: “Go and get me some! I want you to go and get me some fire.” The child finally obeyed, set a leaf torch on fire, and brought it to his mother.

She continued: “I want you to go sweep up the dead leaves under the banyan, over there; sweep them up into one big pile.” The boy took his little broom and began his task.

He swept and swept, all over, and when he had swept all over and had gathered the banyan leaves into one big pile, he heard his mother Romanmangan tell him: “I am going to make you very sad, my little one. Because, you see, your father beat me just now. You and I, he caused us great harm; and so I have decided to leave this world, this very day.”

When he heard these words, the little boy couldn’t help bursting into tears. “Don’t cry”, she told him ~ but even as she was trying to console him, she said, “Give me the fire now.”

Her son got up, and brought her the torch; she set fire to the dead leaves and as soon as thick smoke started rising from the leaves, Romanmangan, in one jump, leaped into the heart of the flames.

In an instant, the smoke carried her way up, all the way up.

The boy burst into tears again: “Mother! Moooother!” But to no avail. He grabbed a stick and quickly scrounged around in the dead leaves, but to no avail again.

Even though he beat the flames with his stick, to try to find some trace of his mother, it was in vain: his mother had already gone up into the sky.

* *

The little boy cried and cried and cried without stopping… until he saw an old woman coming along.

The old woman had noticed him, and came to ask him: “Why are you crying, little one?”

He answered: “I’m crying because of my mother. She set fire to this pile of dead leaves, and then she jumped into it, she jumped into the flames! I tried searching in the ashes, but I didn’t find anything.”

– “Really? But where’s your father?” she asked. “I don’t know where my father is...”

She scanned the horizon and said: “Ah, he’s over there, your father, having a glass of kava in the men’s hall!”

Someone was sent to alert the father: “Come quick! Your son is here, crying his heart out! His mother jumped in the fire and disappeared into the other world!” The father ran to his son, and cried along with him.

Suddenly the old woman asked them: “Would you like to see her again? Would you like to see your mother, just like that, right away?” – “But of course!” said the father “we so long to see her again, and as quickly as possible!”

– “No problem”, replied the old woman.

The old woman sat on the ground, and gave her instructions: “First of all, I want you to go cut coconut leaves, so that I can weave a basket; then you will go to the beach to cut pandanus vines, which you will bring back to me; then you will go up into the brush to get burao. You can just shave the bark off of all the buraos there, there are plenty of them.”

The father listened carefully to the old woman, and started to carry out her instructions. When they had gathered everything she had asked for, the old woman began braiding the burao bark.

She carried on braiding, braiding, braiding, so that in the end she had a very long rope, an immeasurably long rope! “Perfect!” she exclaimed, “Everything is ready.”

“Now, I am going to hold this rope by one end, whereas you, you will climb into this basket; that way, when you arrive up there, I will feel it right away. In the same way, when you’re ready to come back down, when you climb back in, I will know exactly when you are both there, followed by a third person, your mother.”

When she had finished giving them all the instructions, the father assented.

While still sitting, the old woman held on to one end of the rope and told them: “Okay, it's time, get into the basket; as soon as I let you go, you will ascend directly into the sky.”

And indeed, as soon as they were seated in the basket, they began their ascension. They went up and up and up and up, indefinitely, until they had completely disappeared into the sky.

* *

At the end of their journey, they finally reached the other world.

The first thing they saw was an enormous circle of dancers, dancing in honor of Romanmangan. Yes, the devils were all there, engaged in a frenzied dance around her: after such a long time, they were overjoyed to have her with them again!

They danced around and around and around… Then, in the crowd, one of the devils called out Romanmangan’s name.

Then they started going around again, dancing on and on, until once again, one of the devils cried “Romanmangan!” They were so happy to see her again after such a long absence!

And so the game continued: here and there, someone would call out the name Romanmangan, and she would answer “Here I am!”, and the other would call back “Hurray!” And the circle would begin turning again, and they danced without stopping.

During this time, the father and the child were standing watching the scene. He said to his son: “Look here, you will try to approach the ring of dancers around your mother. And the next time someone calls ‘Romanmangan!’ you will stand up and call ‘Mother!’.”

The little boy ran to slip into the long line of dancing devils. They danced around and around, and as soon as someone cried out Romanmangan’s name, the little boy shouted “Mother!” ~ but she didn’t hear him.

A second try, then a third.

The dance continued to go around and around, without stopping, when, again, someone called out “Romanmangan!” The little boy added “Mother!”, and this time, the sound reached her ears: “Well I never!” she said to herself, “could that be my son calling me that way?” And the infernal circle started up again, for the fourth time.

In the middle of the dance, one of Romanmangan’s friends called her name again, “Romanmangan!”, after which her son added his “Mother!”; but Romanmangan answered over her shoulder “Sorry, but the only child I have is in the other world...”

The little boy addressed her yet again: “But mother, it’s me!” ~ no way, Romanmangan didn’t hear him. And once more, the dance began circling indefinitely, once again.

Someone called out “Romanmangan”, she answered to her name, and the child again took the opportunity to call out “Mother!”; Romanmangan’s only reply was “The only child I have is in the other world...”

The little boy insisted: “But mother, it’s me!” When she looked behind her once again, she was finally able to glimpse her son.

She ran to him, and hugged him tight in her arms, covering him with kisses, and asked “Well I never! But with whom did you come all the way here?”

“Lift your head and look to the side”, the child said, “that’s papa over there. We both came to bring you back home with us.”

They both ran in the direction of the father, and she said: “So you came all this way to bring me home? But look over there, the people from here are having a big dance party in my honour, because after so many years away, I’ve finally come back. They are so happy to see that I am finally dead!”

“Alright”, they answered, “but we came all the way here to bring you home, so that the three of us could return to the other world!” Romanmangan finally gave in: “Okay, fine, fine.”

But as they were discussing, and were about to go down again at last, she said to her husband: “You, wait for us here a moment; I am going to take our son over there to introduce him to my mother!”

So Romanmangan took her child by the hand and brought him to her own mother’s hut.

There she made the introductions: “Look whom I’ve brought you, mother: you see this child? Well he and his father, they came all the way here from the other world! They came to fetch me.” – “That’s good”, said the grandmother.

She hugged her grandson and covered him with kisses, before finally letting them leave: “Right, you can go now.” But just as they were about to step across the threshold, the grandmother called to Romanmangan: “Wait a second, you two!” — “What is it, mother?”

– “Go look in the corner there”, she said, “you’ll find a big basket of almonds. They’re for you, take them. That way, you can eat as many as you like during your trip.” Romanmangan groped around in the corner, found the basket full of almonds, and grasped it.

Then the two of them went on their way. They left the grandmother, and went to join the father.

Finally, they found the opening through which the father and son had arrived. “Perfect”, they exclaimed, “now it’s time to go back down.”

*

The father was the first to get into the basket. Just after him, the child seated himself.

Now, the old woman had been clear: “When I feel a third weight, I will know it’s your mother.”

And indeed, once the father and the son had both gotten into the basket, the only one left was Romanmangan. However, she didn’t get in straight away: first she wanted to put in the big basket of almonds.

But at the other end of the rope, the old woman was already saying to herself: “Perfect, that makes three, they’re all there.” She immediately started pulling the rope in short jerks to make it come down.

So only the father and the son were able to come back down, Romanmangan was stuck in the other world. She wasn’t with them on the return journey!

Suddenly the old woman heard cries and sobs: “But I did tell them” she mused, “that as soon as I felt a third weight in the basket, I would know it was their mother. So why are those sobs coming down to me? There must be three of them, I don’t understand the reason for this crying!” She waited, without really understanding.

After some time, the sound of sobbing came closer: it was the two men who were coming to the end of their descent from the other world. As soon as they arrived, the old woman asked them: “So?”

– “Oh oh oh” went the father, “what misery! The third weight you felt was nothing but… a big basket of almonds: look!”

– “Oh!” she replied, “my poor friends, I am so sorry! Now it’s too late, never again will you be able to see her. Never again! This is the end!”

It was the end.

* * *

And that’s the end of the story from the old days.