THE LEGEND OF THE MAHAKAM PORPOISE

Once upon a time in a village around the Mahakam River, East Kalimantan,
there lived a husband and wife who loved each other very much. Both of them were
blessed with a son and a daughter. The husband's name is Mr. Pung. He lived and
earn a living by farming and fishing. They live happily and in harmony. However, one
day Mr. Pung's wife got sick. Even though they tried to cope as best as possible, Mr.
Pung’s wife condition did not improve until finally she die. After Mother died, Father
spent a lot of time crying and daydreaming. Mr. Pung remained with his two children.
His job became increasingly difficult, because besides working in the fields and
fishing, he also has to take care of his two children. Mr. Pung feels more and more
burdened every day.
Until one day, a harvest party was held in the village. All the people rejoiced
in the bountiful harvest, Mr. Pung’s friends tried to cheer him up and took him to an
arts performance where he saw a dancer who caught his eye. Her beautiful
appearance and the beauty of her dancing made Mr. Pung keep coming back to
watch the Dancer's performance every night. To attract the dancer's attention, Mr.
Pung tried to look more dashing, wore his best clothes, and tidied himself up.
There was a feeling of liking and falling in love with the girl in his heart. Finally
on the seventh day, Mr. Pung had the courage to invite the Dancer to chat. Their
relationship continued because it turned out that the dancer was also interested in
him. Mr. Pung fell in love with the Dancer without caring about his unknown
background. Mr. Pung then asked the girl to get married. And apparently, his
proposal was accepted. The girl is willing to be Mr. Pung's wife.
After getting married, Mr. Pung’s life is no longer lonely and he seemed to find
a new passion. He felt that his family was complete again and became diligent in
working so he could please his new wife. They live in harmony and happily as a
family together with Mr. Pung's two children.
But the happiness did not last long. Day by day, the wife's bad habits are
more visible. Especially to their children, the wife always behaved rudely. Every time
Mr. Pung goes to the forest or fields, the wife gives the children heavy housework. At
first it was just washing dishes or sweeping the floor, but over time the children had
to do all the housework. But when Mr. Pung comes home, stepmother will say that
the children were just lazing around all day and didn't want to help him. Because he
really loved his new wife, Mr. Pung completely trusted his stepmother and
reprimanded the children. In fact, Mr. Pung agreed when the stepmother wanted to
punish the children by giving them leftover food so they could appreciate it more.
She also often punished the children and did not feed them.
As time went on, the tasks given by the stepmother became increasingly
unreasonable. The two children were also told to look for firewood in the forest, a
hard job usually only done by adult men. They were asked to leave without eating
first, and were not allowed to go home until they had received a full basket of wood.
Even though they succeeded in carrying out this task, when they got home the
children were still only given leftover food.
The next day, the stepmother again asked the children to look for firewood.
This time it should be twice as many! Again, they were not allowed to eat first, nor
were they allowed to go home if they had not managed to collect firewood. If there is
less firewood, they have to spend the night in the forest until there is enough
firewood.
One day the two children did not get firewood. As a result, they already knew
that they had to spend the night in the forest. That night they starved in the forest.
But suddenly, they met an old grandfather. The grandfather took that siblings to go to
north. There was a tree full of fruits. Children are allowed to take as much fruit as
possible, but only once. If you have taken the fruit then you can no longer come
back. Unfortunately, the two children forgot themselves and went back to take the
fruit.
The next day, the two went home. But unexpectedly, when they arrived in the
village, they were surprised to see the house empty. Not only their parents
disappeared, but also almost everything inside them. It turned out that while looking
for wood, their father and stepmother moved from the house. Panicking and not
knowing what to do, the children could only cry. After calming down, the children
decided to sell all the remaining firewood to neighbors so they could get supplies to
find their parents.After asking the neighbors, it turned out that both parents had
moved out. Neighbors told them where their parents had moved. The two siblings
quickly set out to find Mr. Pung's new address.
After two days of travel, the children arrived at the banks of the Mahakam
River. They found a cottage in the middle of the field. That is Mr. Pung's new home.
There you can see a small house with a clothesline in front of it. That shirt looks like
Dad's! They immediately ran into the house, but it was empty. Because of hunger,
the siblings immediately entered the house to find food. Luckily, they found glutinous
rice on a hot pot. The two also ate the glutinous rice until they were full. After being
satisfied and full, they also felt hot and hot. The two also went out of the house to get
some fresh air. Because they were still hot, they decided to take off their clothes and
plunge into the river.
When Mr. Pung and his wife returned home, they were surprised to see that
the glutinous rice that had been made had run out. They became curious, who was
the one who finished the food. They also traced the traces of food that fell on the
ground. Until finally they came to the edge of the river. From the river, Mr. Pung and
his wife saw two fish sinking. The two fish swam while spitting water from their noses
and mouths. Seeing the fish, Mr. Pung suddenly realized that the two porpoises were
none other than their children. Both of them became very sad to find that their
children had turned into a porpoise. Especially his wife, she finally regretted all her
actions to her two stepchildren. That is the story of the origin of the Mahakam
porpoise. A legendary East Kalimantan folklore.
Moral of the story : don't trust people easily beyond your own family and greed can
destroy everything, especially yourself and even other people.

Name: Geby Maria Siahaan