The woman in the moon

There was once a farmer called Gatan. He owned more than ten buffaloes and several large rice fields.

One day, he went to plant rice. He was surprised to find that the rice field had changed into a pond. The water was a beautiful golden colour.

Some people said it was very lucky, but others said that some trouble would come to Gatan.

The next morning, when Gatan went to visit the pond, he heard some girls singing. As there were no girls living near his farm, he hid behind some bushes-, to watch. Soon he saw several lovely girls approaching the pond. They were wearing long red dresses with wings fixed to the back. They took off their dresses and jumped into the water. He watched them laughing, singing and playing with each other for some time.

Suddenly, he stood up. "Hey! Who are you?" he shouted. "What are you doing here?"

The girls hurriedly jumped out of the water and put on their clothes. They looked like large butterflies. They all flew away except one. She was unable to fly because one of her wings had become caught in some long grass.

Gatan ran towards her. "I should cut off your head!" he said. "You have turned my rice field into a pond."

"Let me go!" said the girl. "Don't you know who I am? I am the daughter of King Kabigat, who lives in the clouds."

Gatan had heard of King Kabigat. He was the King of the Fairies.

Gatan took her home with him. She looked after his house, cooked his food and helped him with his work.

When later he asked her to become his wife, she said, "One day, I shall have to return to my father. He's not happy that I am living on earth. However, you are a good man and if you would like me to marry you, I shall do so."

They lived happily together for many years, and they had a lovely daughter whom they called Bugan. Gatan loved his daughter very much. He always played with her and taught her to read and write. Whenever he went out to work in his rice fields, she went with him.

One day, they did not have enough vegetables in the house for dinner, so her mother sent her to fetch some from the store-room.

There she found her mother's old dress with the wings still fixed to it. She put it on and ran back to see her mother, flap­ping the wings like a butterfly.

As soon as her mother saw her, she put her hands to her mouth. "Oh! Where did you find that?" she asked. "It's the dress I wore when I first met your father. You'd better not tell your father. He doesn't know that I've kept it all these years."

When Gatan returned home that evening, his wife was crying.

"What's the matter?" he asked.

"Dear husband," she said, "I've just heard from my father that my mother is very ill. He wants me to go back to see her."

"How can you?" her husband said. "We've been so happy together. If you have to go, let's all go together."

"But my wings are not strong enough to carry all three of us," his wife replied.

"Where are your wings?" Gatan asked. "I thought you had thrown away your dress with the wings a long time ago."

"Please don't be angry," his wife said, "but I have kept the dress all this time in the store-room. Anyway, I told you before we married that I would have to return one day to my father's home."

Gatan ran to the store-room. He looked everywhere but he could not find his wife's dress.

"Your dress is not here," he said. But just as he was speaking, he saw his wife flying out of the window. She was wearing her dress with the wings, and carrying their daughter in her arms.

"Come back!" he cried.

"I'm sorry, dear husband, I can't. It's time for me to return to my parents. My mother is old and sick."

Soon his wife and daughter were only tiny dots in the sky.

That evening, when Gatan looked up at the sky, he saw the moon. There was something new in it. There was a woman holding a child. The woman was crying.

Gatan knew that the woman in the moon was his wife. $he had returned to her parents' house. But she was crying be­cause she was sad at leaving her husband behind.

How the Cockerels lost his horn

Englishstory12 - Long, long ago, cockerels had horns and could fly long dis­tances. They were very fierce and would fly to fight any man or animal anywhere in Borneo.

Because the cockerels usually won their fights, they be­came very proud. They were proud of their fighting, and they were proud of their fine horns. They thought they were the strongest and most handsome creatures in the world.

The cockerels were too proud to speak to the other ani­mals, and soon the other animals became angry. The animals went to see Singalong Burong, the Dayak god of war. They told him how the cockerels fought all the time. They told him that the cockerels thought they were better than anyone else.

The god of war listened to these complaints. Then he asked the cockerels to visit him..

The cockerels cleaned their feathers and polished their horns. They looked very handsome when they went to call on Singalong Burong.

“You fight all the time,” said the god of war. “You fight strong animals, and you fight the Dayaks.”

“We are brave fighters, sir,” said the cockerels.

“You also fight small, weak animals. You fight when no one has hurt you. Is that very brave? Is that the way brave warriors should behave

“We are the bravest warriors in the world,” said the cockerels. The duty of warriors is to fight, and we win every fight. How we win is our own business.”

Having said this, the cockerels flew away. Singalon Burong was very angry. He went to see his friend, the king of the dragons, who lived high on a mountain.

The king of the dragons was happy to see Singalong Burong. He gave the god of war food and drink and listened pa­tiently to the story of the cockerels. Singalong Burong told his friend everything.

The king of the dragons agreed that the cockerels were rude. He agreed that they would kill most of the other animals if they were not stopped. When the god of war finished talking, the king of the dragons said, “Good friend, I shall send my own young warriors to teach the cockerels a lesson.”

A day for the battle was set. It was to take place on a wide field near the Rajang River. The cockerels laughed when they saw the dragon warriors. The dragons couldn’t be very strong, thought the cockerels, because they had no horns and only very short wings. Although the dragons breathed smoke and flames, the cockerels were not at all afraid.

The battle went on all day. Many of the dragons were hurt by the cockerels” horns, but they burned the cockerels with their fiery breath, and in the end the dragons won the fight.

As a prize, the god of war gave the dragons the cockerels” horns, and took away the gift of long flight from the cockerels. And that is why dragons now have horns and cockerels can only fly short distances.

But the cockerels are still proud and they still walk grandly around the barnyard crying “cock-a-doodle-doo!”

Khatijah and the giant

Once upon a time, there was an old farmer in Malaysia. He had three daughters. One was beautiful but the other two were ugly. Many rich men wanted to marry the beautiful one. Her name was Khatijah. Her two ugly sisters were jealous of her. They thought of a plan to get rid of her.

They asked her to go with them to collect fruit in the forest near where they lived. They knew that a fierce giant lived there. They led her to his garden where he grew bananas, mangoes, and rambutans.

"Collect as many as you like," they said. "They don't belong to anyone. We'll move on to another garden about a mile away. We'll see you later."

But the giant saw the girl picking his fruit and he ran out of his hut and caught her.

"What a lovely girl you are," he said. "I'll fatten you up and make you my wife." But he was really going to fatten her up for his dinner.

At last the day came when he was going to eat her. The giant's cat, who liked Khatijah because she always gave her milk to drink, came up to her and said:

"Be careful! The giant isn't going to marry you. He's going to eat you. Give me some milk and I'll tell you how you can escape."

After the cat had finished licking up the milk, she spoke to Khatijah. "Now please listen carefully. There's no time left. You must run into the jungle straight away. Take with you some hairpins, a bucket of water, some string and a stone." The cat quickly told Khatijah how to use them.

When the giant found that Khatijah had run away, he went into the jungle to look for her. When she saw him coming she threw the bucket of water at him. At once the water became a huge lake. The giant did not know what to do. However, in a short time he had swallowed tip all the water.

"I've got you now, Khatijah," he roared.

Khatijah threw down the string. It changed into hundreds of poisonous snakes. The giant drew his knife and soon cut them to pieces. After that, he ran so fast that he almost caught Khatijah.

"You can't escape this time," he shouted.

Khatijah quickly threw down the hairpins. They changed into a great forest of sharp bamboos. The giant chopped them down with his axe. It seemed as if nothing could stop him.

Finally, Khatijah dropped the stone she was carrying. It be­came a tall mountain. The giant started to cut steps up the mountain. He got half way up when his axe became so blunt that it would cut no more.

"Help me, Khatijah!" he cried. "I'm not going to hurt you. I only want to marry you."

"All right," Khatijah replied. "But you must leave your knife on the ground with the sharp edge pointing upwards. "

The giant went down the mountain and did as Khatijah told him.

Then Khatijah let down a rope and the giant climbed up al­most to the top of the mountain. He reached out to get hold of her. She let go of the rope. The giant fell down to the ground far below. He landed right on top of his knife and that was the end of him.

Khatijah was able to climb down the mountain without any horrible. When she returned home, she told her parents what had happened. They drove her two wicked sisters out of the House.