The Legend of Surabaya

(Indonesian Folk Tales – 6)

A long time ago in East Java there lived two strong animals, Sura and Baya. Sura was a
shark and Baya was a crocodile. They were friends and lived in the sea. But when they were
quite greedy when it came to food and would not share their meal with the other. Rather,
they would fight until one of them gave up and went away.

One hot day, Sura and Baya were looking for some food. Suddenly, Baya saw a goat.

“Wow, this will be my lunch,” said Baya.

“Not a chance! That is my lunch. I haven’t eaten for two days because you kept snatching
my food!” said Sura.
Sura and Baya started fighting. After several hours of fight, both became very tired. Sura, by
now, wanted to put an end to their meal fights.

“I’m tired of fighting, Baya,” said Sura.

“Me too. I don’t want to fight anymore? What do you think we should do?” asked Baya.
“Let’s look for food in our own territory. I live in the water, so I will look for food only in the
sea. And since you live on the land, you can look for the food mostly on the land and in the
rivers. So we will never have a chance to fight again. What do you say?” asked Sura.

Baya agreed. Sura and Baya started living in their own territories. May days passed. One
day however, Sura could not find any food in the sea and entered a river looking for food.
Baya saw him and became quite angry. He started chasing Sura away. Sura fought back
saying that he was still looking for food in water, sea or not.

Sura and Baya started fighting and soon started hitting each other. Sura bit Baya’s tail while
Baya tried to bite Sura’s fin. Eventually, Baya was able to drive Sura back into the Sea. Baya
won back his territory and Sura never entered the river again.

In course of time, a city rose in the place where Sura and Baya fought. The city was named
“Surabaya” in memory of the fight between it’s very first inhabitants.
Legends from Minangkabau: Goa Si Bincik

Once upon a time in the land of Minangkabau, lived a rascal, which feared by the people. He
was call as Bincik, since he was dwarf.

Bincik means small or little. Among the gangsters, Bincik is well known as a good gambler.
He often won the gambling. Whenever there was a crowd, Bincik was there, gambled with
other players.

Bincik had used to bring a little amount of money, but when he bet and put his money at the
stakes. Bincik always won much money. Then his money became greater. He used it again to
set another chance. He only stopped to play when the operator of the gambling asked him
to stop playing.

When he lost in the gambling, Bincik robbed people and stole money from others. If the
people seized him, many beat him, but it seemed that he was invulnerable. That was why
then among the bandit's lie he pointed to be the leader.

Bincik got more followers from the gangster friends over the village. It made the other
villages around them, experienced more robbing. People suspected Bincik and his friends
who had to blame in doing such criminal deeds.

The villages around, hate Bincik's village. When the others faced many robbing, Bincik's
village was the only safe, peaceful community. Thus, the nearby people did not want to
make any contact. They refused to the deal with the people from Bincik village.

It was, of course, not a good thing for the people in Bincik village. Then the people went to
meet Bincik. They asked him to stop robbing, or another village would burn their village.

Although Bincik is a bandit, he still had a healthy mind. He gathered his friends and asked
them to quit from robbing people.

"My friends, I want you to stop robbing people, and front now on steal no more!" Bincik
spoke before the bandits.

His friends stared each other. They could not believe what they had just heard and then
laughed together.
"Is that you who've just spoken, Bincik?"

"Ha...ha...you must be kidding, don't you?" one of the robbers questioning Bincik's words.

"I say to you once more; do not rob the people again. Just stop it right now, ok? We may put
our village into bigger trouble if we don't stop it." told Bincik emphatically.

All the bandits were silent. Nobody has dared to say anything. Suddenly, there was a big,
solid guy rose up Bincik. Without any word he lifted Bincik up and threw him to the valley.

He was Koduk, the strongest robber that did not agree with Bincik decision.

Bincik fainted for a moment, and when he woke up, it was already dark. He did not know
where exactly he was. Bincik tried to shout for help, but there was nobody down there. 

Finally, he heard a voice, whispered to his ears, "I will help you, young man, if you want to
do me a favour."

"Who are you? I can't see you at all?" Bincik tried to look around.

"You don't need to see me, just find my daughter. My daughter has buried under the ruins
beneath the place you are standing now. If you find my little girl alive, take her as your wife,
but if she has dead, you will be the next to die."

"What if I refuse your demand?"

"You will die by the wolves attack in this valley," the voice explained.

After took a little time to think about this challenge, Bincik went down to find the girl under
the ruins. He dug in and found her alive. In fact, she was an extraordinarily beautiful woman.

Bincik married her. They lived together in the cave that formed by the ruins that Bincik dug
in.

One day, Bincik wanted to see his parents and planned to go home to his neighbourhood.
But as he arrived at the village, he found nobody in the village. The village was so quiet.
Then Bincik went to the people in the next village.

He asked the next village what had happened to the Bincik village.

"Your village has left, nobody dwells in since it was attacked and robbed by Koduk, your
former man. And Koduk is the leader now. He is the king of the bandits." An old man gave
Bincik explanation.

After that, Bincik tried to find his parents. But he discovered that they were already dead,
murdered by Koduk and his gangster. Bincik made up a promise to take revenge and to kill
Koduk someday.

The bad thing happened to Bincik when he went home to his cave. He shocked to see Koduk
had been there and captured his wife.

A battle fight began between Bincik and Koduk. At the end of the fight, Bincik killed Koduk.
The other bandits gave up to Bincik. They promised not to rob and steal again.

A few years later, there was Paden War or Padri War (Perang Padri). The people of
Minangkabau fought against the Dutch, who came as the coloniser.

The Dutch used the bandits to bring up chaos and triggered terrors to the people. Bincik
that heard all the things, then he came forward with his friends and the people of
Minangkabau. They altogether defend their country from the Dutch.

At that time, Bincik became a dangerous enemy for the Dutch.

One day, the Dutch besieged the cave where Bincik life. After a long searching, they failed to
find Bincik. He disappeared. Even until the war had finished, nobody knew whether he had
killed or still alive.

However, the people of Payakumbuh know that the cave was the place where Bincik lived
with his wife. The people of Payakumbuh called that place as Ngalau Si Bincik or Goa Si
Bincik (Cave of Bincik).

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si.html
The Legend of Lake Toba Indonesia

A long time ago, there was a wanderer, named

Sibuatan was pleased staying in this new place. This

One afternoon, when Sibuatan went fishing, he caught a big fish with golden scales.

"Hurray! I got a giant fish. I will have a big dinner tonight!" said Sibuatan happily.

Sibuatan walked home quickly to cook the fish. When he arrived at his house, he put the fish
on the table in the kitchen. Then he went down to get some firewood underneath the
house.

However, when he came back from collecting woods, Sibuatan was so surprised. He finds a
beautiful woman in his room instead of the fish.

Sibuatan’s heartbeat gets fast. He knew he fell in love with this cute girl. He soon learned
this woman was a transformation of the big fish he had caught that day.

Without a second thought, Sibuatan proposed her to marry him. The woman agreed to
marry him with one condition. Sibuatan would not ever mention her origin (she was a fish)
to anyone. Sibuatan agreed about it. He was too happy to have such a beautiful wife.

A year past and they had already a son named Sam. Since he was a little, her mother spoiled
him. So, when he was big enough, his behavior was bad.

Sam was a lazy boy. He just played around the river and never helped and respected to his
parents. This boy was good at swimming and diving. He did it every day. Then Sibuatan
asked Sam to help him in the field.

One-day Sam's mother told him to deliver his father's lunch. Unfortunately, Sam ate his
father's lunch little by little while he walked. When he arrived at the field, the rest of the
food was leftover.
Sibuatan got angry finding this fact. Every day Sam's is only playing, playing, and playing
around.  When Sam got his first-time task, he failed. Sam asked to deliver his father's lunch.

Sam did not only arrive late but also had eaten the meal. Sibuatan could not control his
anger anymore. He smacked and cursed his son.

"You are the son of a fish! You cannot teach well. All you want to do is playing in the river
like fish. Get out of my sight!" he was furious.

The boy ran home and cried. Then Sam told his mother that his father cursed him as a son of
a fish. His mother was sad to know that his husband had broken his oath.

Sibuatan told about her origin to their son. The woman then told Sam to climb the hill
behind their house as high as he could. Without asking anymore, Sam went away.

When Sam's mother saw his son had climbed high the hill, she walked to the bank of the
river. Then, thunder is strike one after the other. The woman jumped into the river. She
transformed back into a big fish.

The rain came down hard with thunder rumbled. The river overflowed so fast and kept
overflowed. The water fills the big valley circled the hill. Sam climbed this hill and covered
by water.

Sam cried when he watched from the top of the hill, what had happened. The overflow from
the river became a big lake with an island in the center.

That lake is known as Lake Toba, meanwhile, the hill named as Samosir Island. The name
came from the words "the son (Sam) that chased move away (diusir)".

(Source : https://indonesiantale.blogspot.co.id/2013/06/the-legend-of-lake-toba-indonesia.html)