EF #16 Tales from My Childhood, Si Leungli

This week challenge from Blog English Club is about Indonesian tales and their values in life.

Before, I have made a post in Indonesian about a tale from the eastern part of this country, Maluku. It was about Batu Badaong. I knew the story from a friend of the family, Tante Zeth, whose origin was from the island of Ambon. She was a good story teller. It was that good that we all cried after she ended her story about a disappointed mother who ran over to the sea and ate by a big seaplant, Batu Badaong. You can read the story further on Wikipedia. My youngest sister was so afraid of the story that she did not want to hear it anymore. So better pick a story suitable for children.

Besides Tante Zeth, off course we heard stories from our mother, she told the story of A Swan Princess, and Si Kancil. I also loved to read Indonesian folklore books borrowed from the libraries. I remembered in the libraries there were a lot of books about Sundanese tales, such as Si Leungli, Lutung Kasarung, Sangkuriang and Mundinglaya Di Kusumah. Most of them wrote by Ajip Rosidi, a famous Sundanese writer.

I just want to tell the story of Si Leungli, a magical golden fish, a talking fish. Si Leungli was a friend to a girl who was always bullied by her stepsisters. I could not remember the girl’s name, so just named her Bungsu. One day Bungsu cried by the river because she could not find a floated cloth. Si Leungli appeared and helped her and they became friends afterward. Having a friend, Bungsu became a happier person that made her stepsisters anxious to know why. They finally found out about Leungli and made a trick to catch the golden fish and ate it.

Bungsu was very sad, she buried the remnants of Leungli. A few days later from the burial site grew a golden tree with diamond fruits. Nobody could pick them except Bungsu. The news of the magical tree heard by the prince. He came and fell in love with her because of her sincerity and kind hearted.

The moral of the story was always be a good person to all, to your family and surroundings include to animals.

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