PERPUSTAKAAN NEGARA MALAYSIAmyrepositori.pnm.gov.my/bitstream/123456789/3465/1/000730_How_They... · HOW BAU AND KUCHING GOT THEIR NAMES IN THIS island of Borneo, near the banks of

PERPUSTAKAAN NEGARA MALAYSIA

HOW THEY WERE NAMED

Illu strated hy

lI USAI 0:1 SULAIMA :-\

BOR :-\EO LITERA T UR E BUR EA U


© BORNEO LI T ERAT URE BUREA U, 1967

Borneo L iteratu re Bur eau have been unable to trace the copyrightowners of the f ollowing stories, and would scelcome any informationtohiclt would enable them to do so: S antubong, How Saratoak GotIt s Name, Rock R oad, Batu S usu, Borneo.

Printed by

CASLON PR INTERS, LTD .

HON G K01\G


CO:\T ENT S

Kuwi's Pool

:\ Ioham me d Yak Abdul Gapo r . .

How Bau and Kuching Got T heir :\ames

Liew Jan Ne e ..

i\ l ukah

A. K. Sharn suddi n

i\ lount KinabaluYon g Yapp

How Kampon g Serasot G ot It s NameJohia an ak Gi ap

San t ubong

L' sun Apau Plateau

Joseph Anyic Laing

How Saruwa k Got It s :\arn e

Rock Road

Bat u Su su

Borneo

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2,


KUWI'S POOL

A VERY long time ago a man and his wife lived by theRejang River. The man's name was Tamang jalak andhis wife was called Kuwi. They had two daughtersand one son.

One day Tamang Jalak went out to hunt. He heardthe noise of an animal on top of a hill. He slowlyclimbed up the hill holding his parang and his blowpipe.When he got to the top of the hill the noise stopped.He walked slowly through the trees on the hill-top,looking all round.

Soon Tamang Jalak found two big eggs. He tookthe eggs and put them in his basket. Then he wenthome. When he got to his house he asked his wife,Kuwi, to cook t he eggs. But while he was bathinghis wife ate them both! They tasted very good. Tamang] alak came back from his bath.

"Where are the eggs?" he asked his wife."I am very sorry. I was so hungry that I am afraid

I have eaten them," she answered.An hour later Kuwi's body became very hot. She

went to bathe in the river to get cool again. But shewas still hot. She bathed many times each day and atnight, too. But still she was hot.

Then one day she looked at herself. Her skin washard and shiny. She had no arms, but she had fourlegs! Her face was ugly. Tears fell from her eyes.Her children cried too. Kuwi was not a woman anymore. She had turned into a dragon.

Kuwi asked her husband to make a big flat boat.


1I0 \\' T ilEY \\'EHE :" .n I EIl

Wh en it was ready she climbed a ll it and sailed awaydown th e river. Her husband and children followedher in th eir boat. Suddenly Kuwi went clown underth e water. No body saw her again.

You can still see where she went clown : it is a deeppool all th e Rejang River between Kapit and Song. Itis called Kuwi's Pool. M any people say that she isst ill th ere , a long way down at th e bottom of th e river,hut rio-on e ever sees her.


HOW BAU AND KUCHI NG GOT THEIR NAMES

IN THIS island of Borneo, near th e banks of a river ,there was once a village called Kampong Sarawak. Itwas a pretty little village, and a nice cool place to live in.

The men who lived th ere used often to go out hunting.On e day, when th ey had nearly caught a big pig , a verystrange thing happened. A great 'cat' jumped out infront of them, and caught the pig. It took it back intothe jungle, carrying it as easily as a longhouse cat wouldhave carried a rat!

The hunters were so frightened when they saw thi s,that th ey all ran back hom e as fast as the y could. Theyhad never seen an animal like it before. They did notknow that it was a tiger. They did not know what itwas.

" Oh ! they said . "What a dreadful animal. vVe havenever seen anything like it , and we never want to again.We ar e not going back into the jungle to hunt untilsomebody has killed it. If it can carry off a pig likethat, it could easily kill us , too.

"It was like a great cat, " said another man. "Akuching jahat." (This, as you know, is the Malay foran evil or a wicked cat.)

The penghulu called all the best hunters to his house." Somebody will have to go and kill this animal," hesaid. "Which of you will do it ?"

In Kampong Sarawak there was a boy called Ali.He was seven teen years old , and he was good hunter.He had no fath er or mother , and he had to work veryhard. When he heard what th e penghulu said, he stood

3


IIOW Til EY WEnE ~:\l\IEll

up and said , " I will kill th e kuching jahat for you . Letme try."

The othe r men laughed at him . "Sit clown," th eysa id, "you are only a boy. , r ou can' t kill an animallike th at. It would kill you! This is men's work ; itis not work for boys." Ali sat down. He did not sayanything more.

But th at night , when everybody was asleep, he lefthis bed and went quiet ly away int o th e forest. Overhis shoulder he carried a dead dog and in his hand hecarried his blowpipe. Wh en he got to th e place whereth e hunters had seen th e tiger, he put down the dog andhe climbed up a tr ee.

The smell of th e dog was very st rong. Quite soon

4


1l0W BAU AND KUC Il I"C; GOT T HEIH ;-';A;\IES

th e tiger came creeping out of the bushes. It stoppeda yard or so from the dog, and looked round.

This was th e moment that Ali had been waitingfor . ... down came a poisoned dart from his blowpipe.

The tiger soon lay dead. Ali came down from histree and looked at it. There they were togeth er , th eyoung man and the great tiger. The boy of seventeenhad done what the older hunters feared to do.

Ali ran back to the village, and told everybody whathad happened. At first peopl e would not believe him,but wh en th ey had returned with him and had seen th etiger dead upon th e ground, th en th ey knew that it wastrue.

Nex t cam e th e job of gett ing rid of th e tiger. Somepeople wanted to bury it but most peopl e thought itwould be bett er to carry the beast away as far as theycould . So th at is what th ey did. Ali led the part y.

They climbed over mountains , and th ey crossedrivers , until th ey were far from home. At last th ey sawa lake and threw the tiger into it . Then th ey went backto th eir kampong again.

The bod y of th e tiger began to go bad. It made aterrible smel l. The sm ell was so bad that one poorfarmer fell to th e ground in a faint! Other peoplesme lt it too and th ey all said, "Ugh ! Ball ," which meant,"Ugh ! Bad smell !"

That was how Bau got its name and th e lake intowhich th e tiger was thrown was called Bau lake, whichmeant, smelly lake!

In Kampong Sarawak everybody was talking aboutth e tiger. Everybody was talking about the great

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HOW TilEY WEHE N AMED

Kuching and th e brave boy who killed it. In tim e peoplecalled th e village, Kampong Kuching, instead ofKamp ong Sarawak, and it is still called Kuching today.

T hat is how Ku ching and Bau got th eir names. Asfor tigers, th ere are non e to be seen now. I wonderhow that one tiger came to be in Sarawak, so long ago?There are tigers in Malaya, and in India. But th ereare none, so all the books tell us, in Borneo. What avery strange thing it was !

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M UKAH

lVIANY Y EARS ago a ship cam e sailing along, close tothe land. The men in it were looking for a place whereth ey cou ld get food and wate r, and sell some of th e thingsthat th ey had brought with th em.

It was a lovely night ; th e full moon was shiningdown , and it was cool aft er th e hot day.

Sudde nly one of th e men called out , " Look . . .. lookat that! "

The others turned to see and th en th ey too cried outIn surpnse.

They cou ld all see the face of a beautiful woman In

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7


I IO \\' T HEY W EHE NAi\I ED

th e arr above them. As they watched she seem ed togrow more and more lovely.

The men quickly jumped into a little boat and rowedtowards her. They went vcry fast but they could notcatch her. At last they were near enough to th e landto jump into th e sea, and run up the sand to try to getnearer to her.

As th ey ran the face moved away from th em . Atlast they could see it no more. It had gone.

Sadly th e men went back to their boat.They never saw th e face again and neither did anybod y

else. But from that time onwards peopl e cal1ed theplace Muka. Muka means face in Malay. Over theyears th e spel1 ing has changed to Mukah. It is stil1 abeautiful place but not quite as beautiful as th e facewhi ch th e men saw th ere , so long ago.


MOU NT KI NABALU

LONG, LONG ago this island of Borneo was just thickjungle. Only a few peopl e lived here and very fewstrangers ever visit ed it .

But one day a big boat came to the north part of th eisland. It was a sailing boat from China. It sailedqui etly in on th e blue water. The men on the boat hadbrought beautiful things with th em to sell. Peopl ecame from far away to see th e boat and to buy th e lovelythings. One very pretty girl came t oo. Her face waslike a flower and her hair shone in the sunshine. Shehad a sweet smile and a lovely voice.

A man from the boat saw this pretty girl. . 'Whenhis boat sailed away to China h e did not go with it. He,'stayed behind and .he asked her to be his wife. They 'were soon married and th ey lived together very happily. '

One day anothe r boat came from China. When he :saw it , the man decided to go back to hi s homeland. ,He wanted to see his fath er and mother again. He saidgoodbye to his wife and went away. " I will come backsoon," he said, before he left. His wife climbed to th etop of a high mountain. She saw th e boat go away acrossth e sea. She was very sad. " I shall not be happy untilhe comes back," she said .

Every day she went up th e mountain. She lookedacross th e sea. But th e boat did not come . Day afte rday, week afte r week, year after year she waited. Butsti ll it did not come. Every morning she climbed th emount ain to look out across th e sea. Every eveni ng shewent sadly dow n th e mountain again. She did not eat.She became verv th in and weak.

()


II OW TH EY WEH E NAME D

Then one day, as she sat at the top of the mountain,she saw a sail. A boat was coming. It got nearer andnearer and she thought her hu sband was returning toher. She stood up. He was coming at last.

But when th e boat cam e nearer she saw it was onlya fishing boat. He was not there. She was so sad thatshe could not go down the mountain that evening, andwhen her friends came to find her, the next morning,th ey could do nothing to help her. Sh e lay dead.

The mountain was called Chinabalu which helps usto remember the beautiful girl, who died of sadnesswhen her husband left her. In Malay China meansChinese, and Baht means widow. But later on, th epeopl e changed the spelling to Kinabalu.

10


HOW KA MPONG SERASOT GOT ITS NAME

ONCE UPON a tim e there was a man called Kopiel, wholived at Biratek. One hot sunny day in 1819 he wenthunting with two of his friends. At that tim e he wasonly nineteen , but he was a very bra ve hunter. Heneeded to be brave because in thos e days hunters couldbe killed not only by angry pythons, crocodiles or bears ,but by head-hunters too.

Kopiel and his friends had bad luck with th eir hunting,and so did not manage to get any fresh meat at all. Theydid not catch a deer , or a pig, or anything which th eycould smoke and take back to th eir longhouse. Theyspent nin e clays on Tibawang Laya (which is now called

11


HOW T ilEY WERE NAMED

Jagoi Gunong) , before th ey gave up, and started on th elong journey home again.

One da y, when th ey were not so very far away fromit , th ey sat down for a rest under a big tree by th e river.You can guess how tired and hungry th ey were! Theyhad been away for a long time and had walked for daysand days, and th ey had had nothing to eat but a fewferns and leaves for almost a week.

As th ey sat th ere Kopiel looked up into th e tr ee abovehim. H e saw a squirrel eating fruit th ere. With ahappy cry he jumped up, and climbed th e tree. Soonhis mouth was full of the lovely fruit too , and he wasdropping more down to his friends below.

After this they all felt much better, and with th eirstomachs full, and th eir baskets heav y with th e lovelyfruit th ey made their way home.

In 1841 Kopiel went back again to Tibawang, andthis tim e he stayed th ere for two years. This wasbecause he married a lovely girl who lived in one of th ehouses th ere. At the end of th e two years th ey movedaway to fresh land to start th eir own farm.

They went down towards the old hom e of Kopiel,and th ey stopped by th e side of th e river . It was quitenear to th e fruit tr ee which Kopiel had climbed so longago. "We will stay here," said Kopiel. " It is a luckyplace, and we shall be happy if we make our home here.We will call it Serasot ." (R asot is a Land Dayak wordmeaning fruit tr ee.)

Serasot really was a lucky place for Kopiel and hiswife. Soon other people came to join th em th ere, andnow Kampong Serasot has one hundred and ten door s,

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HOW KAI\IP ONG SERASOT GOT ITS NA:\IE

a shop and a school. It is about nin e miles from Bau ,and it is st ill a nice to place to live in , as you will see ifyou are ever fortunate enough to go there . But I amafraid th at th e fruit tree has gone. After all, it was anold tr ee when Kopiel first saw it, nearly one hundredand fifty years ago.

13


SANTUBONG

LONG AGO th ere used to be a big white pig which livedon th e side of Santubong mountain. He was so oldthat his two big teeth had grown and grown and grown.

People said that these teeth were magic teeth, andthat the pig could never be killed. They said that itwas king of all th e pigs.

There was a Chinese farm er living there who had avery nice garde n ; but every night the pig came and ateas mu ch as he could from that poor man's garden.

At last he said to himself, " He may be king of thepigs and he may have magic teeth, but I am going tokill him. Every night he eats my tapioca, my beansand my cucumbers. It has got to stop."

He took up his spear, and he waited beside th e pathwhich the pig used every night. At last he heard itcommg.

As th e great animal passed him, he tri ed to stick hisspear deeply into it. But it would not go in at all.Again and again he tri ed , but each time the spear slippedaway. The pig was not hurt a bit.

Then th e great animal turned round. It put itshead down ; it opened its terrible mouth; it ran at thatpoor Chinese farm er!

Dropping his spear th e man did the only thi ng hecould. He jumped up , caught th e branch above himand pulled himself onto th e tr ee. H e was safe.

But th e pig stood below, making a terrible noise andwaiting for him to com e down again.

Then th e man said to himself, "If this branch should

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SANTLJIlO:-JG

break, I should fall down and the pig would kill me. Imust get my friend s to come and help me. San tubong, " he called. "San tu bong . . . . San tu bong . .. .San tu bong ... . San tu bong. "

In Hakka Chinese thi s means " Wild King Pig," andwhen his friend s heard thi s, th ey knew what had happenedand th ey knew what th ey mu st do.

Everybody came running to help him. They beatgongs, th ey lit fires and th ey frightened th e king pigaway. T hen th e man came down from the tr ee, andsaid that he never would t ry to kill th e pig again.

After th at th e village at th e foot of th e mountain wasalways called Sant ubong. It st ill is, but th e pig withthe magic teeth went away many years ago.

15


USUN APAU PLATEAU

LONG, LONG ago there was a man called j elivan, Hewas so good and clever that people called him JelivanHingan or Jelivan the Great.

When he was a boy Jeli van Hingan was ver y happy.Every day he went out hunting with his father. Helearnt all about the forest and the birds and animals thatlived there .

When he got old er and was tall and strong, there wasno better hunter anywh ere than Jelivan Hingan.

In the for est near his house th ere was a big dark holein the rocks. Peopl e were afraid to go there. Hunterswho did so were nev er seen again. jelivan was notafraid. He was not afraid of anything in the forest." I will go and find out what is inside that hol e," he said ." I will stop it from killing our people!"

He went near the big dark hole. As he stood ther elooking at it, he suddenly heard a loud nois e, and theground shook. A cloud of smoke came out of the hole.Through the smo ke j elivan Hingan saw a very big dragoncoming towards him.

Jelivan knew he must kill this dangerous animal,or it would kill him. H e got his long sp ear read y andwent nearer and nearer to th e grea t beast.

The dragon saw him! It turned its head this wayand that way and it roared with anger. At last Jeli vanjumped forward and pushed his spear right int o itsmouth.

But th e dragon just ate th e spear!Jelivan had only his parang left. He threw it at th e

! ()


U SUi'< A PA U PI.ATEAU

dragon, as hard as he could .But that went down inside the dragon's mouth tOO!Then th e dragon opened its great mouth even wider,

and swallow ed Jelivan Hingan. H e went head first downinto th e great hole of its mouth.

Inside the dr agon it was very dark , but there wasroom for j elivan to stand up. He could even walkround ! That was how he got back his spear and parang.They were lying th ere in th e dragon's stomac h, and hefound th em . On ce he had th em in his hands he feltbetter , for he kn ew th at with th eir help he could escape .

It was th en that he heard the drumming of th e greatbeas t's heart . It was th at whi ch help ed him to kill it.

H e mad e his way to where th e noise was loud est , and

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1I0W Til EY W EHE N AME D

th en he pushed his parang through its stomach, anddeep into its heart.

For a few seconds nothing happened. Then th eanimal slowly fell over, onto its side. It lay dead .

Jelivan climbed out of its mouth and stood onc eagain in th e sunshine , br eathing th e sweet clean air.Then he ran back to his house as fast as he could.

As he came close he called out, "Its over , th ere is nomore need to worry. No more of our hunters will belost. I have killed th e beast which lives in th e greatdark hole."

Everybody went to see th e dragon's bod y. It wastoo big to take away, so th ey left it. The dragon's bod ylay th ere for years and years. Earth came on top of it;th en small trees grew on it and it got bigger and bigger.At last it turned into a mountain. Today people call itUs un Apau-Dragon's Plateau in memory of th e dragonthat Jclivan killed there long ago.

1 ~


HO\V SA RA\VAK GOT ITS NAME

IVI AN Y, MAN Y years ago, before you, or your fath er ,or your grandfather, or your great-grandfather had beenborn , Sarawak had no proper nam e. People would callit , The Land of the Big Rivers , or, The Land of th eTrees. They had no special nam e for it .

At that tim e there were not very many people livingin the country, but all of them had very hoarse voices.People from oth er plac es laugh ed about th em, and aftera time they called them, The Serak People. (In Mal ayserak means hoarse voice !)

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1I0W TH EY W ERE NAMED

The word serak very slowly changed Sarawak. Aftera time instead of calling it, The Land of the BigRivers, people called it, The Land of Sarawak. Thatis how the country got its name. But I do not thinkthat the people of Sarawak have hoarse voices, now, doyou ?

20


RO CK ROAD

THESE DAYS Rock Road in Kuching is a very bus yroad . Cars, bu ses, lorries, bicycles, motorcycles andpeople, rush up and down it from morning until night.Eve n at night it is never really qui et.

It was made a long time ago. It was made duringth e time of the Second Rajah of Sarawak. It took along time to make because in those days, th ere were nobig lorri es to carry th e stones or machines to dig androll and pull and push. Everyt hing had to be don e bymen .

\Vhen th e workmen hacl macle about two miles ofthe road , th ey came to a big rock.

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110 \\' T il EY W ERE NAME D

" T hat's good," th ey said. "We can break this bigrock up , and then we shall have good stones for the road.We shall not have to carry them from a long way away.It will be much easier for us," and they got ready tobreak up th e rock.

But as soon as they started, they had to stop, for theyall became very ill. They could not work any more.

"This is a sign that the rock is angry with us fortrying to break it up ," they said. "We will not touchit any more. We will get stones from another place."

When people heard what had happened they all cameto see the rock. They built a little house on top of it ,and they put flowers and food there. People belie vedthat if the rock could take care of itself so well, it couldtake care of them, too.

After this everybody called th e new road, RockRoad, and many peopl e still believe that th e rock is amagic one and can help them..

There is still a littl e house on top of it, and peoplestill put flowers th ere.

22


BATU SUSU

LONG AGO th ere lived a Land Dayak called Susu.He was a very clever hunter and killed many animals.One day his wife said to him , "Susu, I am tired of eat ingwild pig. Every day you go hunting in th e forest andyou always bring back wild pig. Why don't you go intothe forest and kill a new kind of an imal?"

Susu was a very good hunter. He wanted to pleasehis wife. He went off int o th e forest to look for a newkind of animal to kill . Afte r walking for an hour he sawa monkey sitt ing up in a tree. " T hat is a new animal,"he thought . " I' ll kill it and take it back to my wife."

Susu killed th e monkey and took it home. His wifeand son were vcry pleased. This was a new kind of meatto eat . T hey made a big fire and put th e dead monkeyon it to cook.

Susu's son was looking at th e fire. Suddenly hecalled out, " Look moth er! look Father ! The animal inthe fire is holding a piece of wood in its hand! " and helaughed .

" How can a dead animal hold a piece of wood ?" saidSusu . He ran to th e fire to look. His son was right.The dead monkey did have a piece of wood in its hand.Then Susu and his wife laughed too.

But as th ey laughed at th e animal, th e sky got blackerand blacker. Soon it was quite dark. Susu and hiswife and son were very frightened. They wanted tohid e until the danger was over. They tri ed to run away,but th ey could not move!

Then , when th e clouds had hidden th e sun and the

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1I0 W TilEY W ERE NAMED

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da y had turned to night, Susu and his wife and son,turned into stone.

The next day a friend came to see Susu. All hecould see was a big stone in th e river. The stone wasin three parts. Wh en he saw this he knew what hadhappened.

Batu Susu means Susu's stone. You can still seeit in th e river near T ebakang. It is a big stone and th ethree parts are called th e fath er , th e mother and th e son.

It is not nice to be a stone in the river , for ever, andever and ever, but th at is what might happen to peopl ewho laugh at animals.


BORNEO

L ONG AGO this island of Borneo had no name. Peopl esaid , " T hat place over th ere," and pointed , when theyspoke about it . They did not call it anything, becausethey did not know anything about it. You have toknow something about a place to be able to give it aname.

One day, some men th ought th at th ey would go andsee what th ey could find on th e island th ey knew solittl e about .

They went in a boat, and th ey were a littl e frightened;but as th ey got near , th e island looked so pretty th at th eyforgot to be frightened any more. When th ey saw aman on th e sand, th ey left th eir boat and went up to

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25


IlOW TilEY W ERE NAl\ IED

him . They asked him th e nam e of th e fruit he waseating.

" What is it called ?" th ey asked. " We have no fruitlike th at in our country."

"We call it Buah Ny iur," answe red th e man . (BuahNyiur is th e Malay name for coconut.)

The st rangers tri ed to say thi s word but th ey couldnot get it quite right. T hey kept saying, " Bar Neo !"But th ey did like th e fru it. " I wish that we had somelike thi s at home." th ey said . "We like Bar Neo fruit ;it tast es lovely."

They took some of th e fruit away with th em in th eirboat. When they got home again, they gave it to th eirfriends to eat. Wh en th eir friends tast ed th e fruit , th eyall liked it very much and th ey said , " What is th e nameof thi s fruit and where did it com e from ?"

" It is Bar Neo fruit," said th e men who had found it." Well, go back to Bar Neo and get some more,"

came th e reply. " We will try to grow it in ou r country,too. Perhaps it will grow here as well as it does inBar Neo ."

That is how Borneo got its name. Certainly thereare a lot of cocon uts growing here. it is a good name forth is beautiful island.



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PERPUSTAKAAN NEGARA MALAYSIAmyrepositori.pnm.gov.my/bitstream/123456789/3465/1/000730_How_They... · HOW BAU AND KUCHING GOT THEIR NAMES IN THIS island of Borneo, near the banks of