The Indians of the Enchanted Valley

One autumn, in the valley, a great fire broke out and raged so violently that the Indians of the tribe could not extinguish it. In desperation, they sent a request for help to Man of Ice, a great man of magic who lived in the north. Man of Ice did not answer with a prayer. Instead, he simply removed his crown of feathers from his head, undid his long braids and shook his thick hair. The amazed messengers noticed an unexpected breeze blow across his face. He shook his hair again and it began to rain: the; the rain changed to hailstones and then to snow.

The messengers returned to their valley where the fire was still burning. The Indians stared helplessly at the fearful sight from the surrounding hills. They knew what the messengers had seen but were afraid that their request had been made in vain.

A few days later, a strong wind blew up, but it served only to fan the flames still further. The rain which followed only caused damp clouds of vapour to form: but then the hail, which drove the Indians to find shelter far off put out the flames and, finally, snow fell and covered even the ashes. Slowly the snow melted and when, at the start of spring, the Indians returned to their home, they discovered a beautiful lake where the fire had raged.

The pirates of Rhio

The Rhio Islands are a group of small islands thirty miles south of Singapore. Over a hundred years ago, a gang of pi­rates from Borneo decided to hide there. Their chief was called Kerbau Hitain, or Black Buffalo. He had a very dark skin and was very big.

"It's not easy to land," Kerbau Hitam said to his men. "The Raja of Rhio is very strict and he has a lot of men to help him. Let's disguise ourselves as traders from Johore."

"Excellent! Excellent!" said his assistants.

The next morning, the pirate ship approached the shore. The Raja was waiting for them. "Where do you come from?" he called out.

"We are traders from Johore," Kerbau Hitam replied. "We have some batek cloth and lace we'd like to sell."

The Raja had a pretty daughter called Normah, who was looking for some cloth to make a wedding dress. She was going to get married next month.

"All right," said the Raja. "You can land."

Tlie pirates landed with their weapons hidden under their shirts. Ina flash, they seized the Raja and held a dagger at his throat.

Kerbau Hitam called out to the villagers who were watch­ing, "if any of you try to move we'll kill the Raja."

He ordered all of them to be locked tip in a store near the Raja's house. The Raja was bound and gagged and taken back to his house. His daughter Normah tried to run away from the back of the house but she was easily caught by Kerbau Hitam's men. Kerbau Hitam grabbed her by the throat. "I'm looking for a wife," he said. "Would you like to marry me?" She screamed so loudly that Kerbau Hitam ordered her to be gagged. "Shut her up with her father„' he ordered, "She'll soon change her mind after she's had nothing but rice and water for a few days."

But the pirates did not know that Rahim, Normah's husband-to-be, had been mending some fishing nets near the harbour when they had landed. He had seen everything that had happened.

Without waiting a minute longer, he jumped into his boat and sailed for Singapore. He decided that he could do nothing himself and that it would be best to go to Singapore for help. Fortunately, the pirates were so busy that they did not see him.

Rahim landed at Tanjong Rhu. Soon he was surrounded by a group of fishermen. "You'd better come with us straight away to see the Temenggong, who is the chief of the island," they said.

When the Temenggong heard his report, he said, "It's ter­rible. The pirates must be stopped. I think I shall ask one of our Chinese friends to help us." He sent for the Chinese head­man, and discussed a plan with him.

Before dawn the next morning, a Chinese junk left Singapore for Rhio. The Temenggong and Rahim were on board dressed as Chinese, together with the Chinese headman and about twenty other Chinese.

Soon they arrived at Rhio. The Chinese headman shouted out to the pirates who were guarding the beach, "Can I speak to the Raja?"

Kerbau Hitam came forward. "I am the Raja," he said. "What do you want?"

"We're on our way to Singapore. One of my officers died at sea. He begged us riot to bury him at sea as he wanted to be buried near a famous Chinese temple on this island. Don't worry about money. We have plenty of gold on board. If you can allow us to land, I shall give you a big reward. "

Kerbau Hitam answered, "Oh, all right. But you must come ashore with all your sailors. My men will guard your ship and the gold."

The Chinese headman rowed ashore ⁱⁿ a boat with the Temenggong, Rahim, ten of his men, and a coffin. When they reached the shore, they carried the coffin on their shoulders an(] walked towards the Chinese temple.

"Stop!" shouted Kerbau Hitam. "Are you carrying any arms?"

"We are merchants," said the Chinese headman. But Kerbau Hitam ordered them to be searched. Not a weapon was found.

Kerbau Hitam and a large band of pirates jumped into a boat and rowed out to the Chinese junk. They did not know that the rest of the Chinese were still hiding on the junk wait­ing for them to come. Before Kerbau Hitam and his men knew what had happened, they were seized by the Chinese and shut up in the hold of the junk.

By this time, the funeral procession had reached the Chi­nese temple. The coffin was put on the ground. "Now!" shouted the Temenggong. The Chinese opened the coffin and armed themselves with the guns, swords and knives which they had hidden inside.

They ran to the Raja's house, led by the Temenggong and Rahim, where the remaining pirates were easily captured after a short fight.

"Praise be to God that you came in time," said the Raja. "They were just going to kill me and my daughter."

Rahim rescued Normah. He then set free the villagers who had been locked up^, in the store at the back of the Raja's house. Rahim and Normah decided to get married immediately. The Raja thanked the Temenggong and the Chinese for saving his life. He invited them all to a big feast.

The next morning, the Temenggong and the Chinese sailed back to Singapore with the pirates. Later, Kerbau Hitam and his gang of pirates were tried and hanged

The magician of Sarawak

In Sarawak, long, long ago, there were two Dayaks called Simpurai and Laja. One day, they were bathing in a stream. They left their clothes on the bank. They did not know that an­other man, Apai Aloi, was watching them from behind a tree. When they were not looking, he ran out and stole their clothes. He hid them under some bushes.

When Simpurai and Laja had finished their bath, they were surprised to find that their clothes were missing.

"Who could have taken them?" Simpurai asked. "Listen! Who's that coming?"

It was Apai Aloi. He stopped when he saw them. "Well, well, what's the trouble?"

The two young men told him that they had lost their clothes.

"Leave it to me," Apai Aloi said' "I can find them for you. Didn't you know that I am a magician? If I think about it to­night before I sleep, I'm sure I shall be able to see _in a dream where your clothes are."

They all went home to Apai Aloi's house where they stayed the night. Next morning, Apai Aloi told Simpurai and Laja to follow him. He pointed to the bushes behind which he had hidden their clothes. 'That's where your clothes are," he said. "I saw them there in my dream last night."

Simpurai and Laja were very impressed. "You're really a re­markable magician," they said. "You must let us give you some­thing in return."

Apai Aloi shrugged. "I'm not very interested in money," he said.

"Then let's give you ajar"' the young man said. "It's a very valuable old Chinese jar." (To this day, old jars of this kind are very valuable in Sarawak.) They gave him a jar worth nearly two hundred dollars.

Apai Aloi danced all the way home with it. He showed it proudly to his wife and family. Soon all his neighbours beard about it and he became famous as a magician.

Before long, a man of another village lost his diamond ring. Apai Aloi was called in to find it for him. When he arrived at the village, some men asked to speak to him privately.

“We know that you're a clever man so before you find out for yourself we'd like to tell you that we found the ring on the road where it had been dropped. What shall we do?"

"You'd better hand it over to me."

Apai Aloi then hid the ring in a well opposite the house of the man who had lost it.

That night, the man gave him a big dinner which all the vil­lagers attended. The celebrations went on until late at night.

When Apai Aloi got up the next morning, he cried out. "I know where the ring is! It's in the well in front of your house. I saw it in a dream last night."

Then the owner of the ring ran to the well and looked down inside it. He could see his diamond ring twinkling like a star in the water. He dived into the water and brought it out.

"You're really the best magician in Sarawak," he said. "Please let me know what your fee is."

"My usual fee is a jar," replied Apai Aloi.

And then a very old man came up to him. The old man looked at him for a long time. He then said, slowly and clearly, "If you tell lies, God will punish you."

"I don't know what you mean," Apai Aloi answered. He hur­ried home but the old man shouted after him, "You'd better run. Your enemies are following you." Apai Aloi ran as hard as he could but lie tripped over a root. The jar was broken.

When he reached his house, he covered his head with a blanket. His wife asked him what was the matter.

"I was given a very large jar but an old man told me that my enemies were chasing me. So I ran and fell over and broke the jar. I'm going to sue the old man in front of the king tomorrow. "

When the king heard the case the next day, Apai Aloi said, "Your Majesty, I am a professional magician. I was asked to at­tend an important case. My fee was a jar. As I was going home afterwards, the old man told me that my enemies were chasing me. I believed biro, so I ran as fast as I could. Then I fell down and broke the jar. When I turned round, there was no one fol­lowing me."

The king asked the old man what he wanted to say.

"Yes, Your Majesty, what Apai Aloi says is true. I admit that I deceived him. But I wanted to teach him a good lesson and do to him what he did to others. He is not a magician. I saw him hide the diamond ring in the well. And the men who handed over the ring to him saw him do so too."

The king asked the men who had given the ring to Apai Aloi. They agreed that what the old man had said was correct.

The king stood up. "I dismiss the case," he said to Apai Aloi. "If you tell lies and deceive people, you must be ready to face the consequences."