The Legend of Pesut Mahakam

A long time ago, there was a village in East Kalimantan. The village was near the Mahakam
River. The villagers always worked hard. Although they were poor, they were very happy. They
also helped each other.
In the village, there was a rich family. The head of the family was Pak Pesut. Everybody knew
Pak Pesut. He was known not because of his wealth, but because his stinginess. He did not like to
help others. His family always ignored people. That’s why Pak Pesut’s family always lived alone
and never mingled with others.
It was a very long dry season. All the rice fields could not get water properly. The villagers
could not harvest the rice.
Therefore, all villagers were planning to leave their village and find other place to stay. Then
they sent some young men to look for a place that had enough water for their rice fields.
After several weeks looked for a new place, finally those young men arrived. They brought
good news. There was a waterfall and it was enough to water their rice fields. Later, all the villagers
rushed to the new place. Some villagers went to Pak Pesut’s house to inform about the waterfall.
Although Pak Pesut was stingy, the villagers did not hate him.
“I’m not going with you! I will stay here. I have enough rice for my family.
We will survive!” said Pak Pesut arrogantly.
The villagers knew it was useless to ask Pak Pesut to join them. So, they all left him and his
family alone in the village. When they arrived at the new place, they all were very happy. They had
enough water from the waterfall.
In the mean time, Pak Pesut and his family were beginning to worry. Their rice slowly was
gone. Soon they would not have enough rice to eat.
It was in the morning when Pak Pesut’s wife was cooking their last portion of rice. Suddenly,
someone knocked the door. A beggar came to his house.
“Go out! I don’t have enough rice,” said Pak Pesut. He was lying.
“Please mercy me. I’m so hungry. Give me a little rice please,” asked the beggar.
Pak Pesut immediately asked his family to eat the rice. He was worried the beggar would enter
his house and stole the rice.
“But the rice is still in the cooking pot. Mother is still cooking it. If we eat the rice, it will be
very hot,” said his son.
“I don’t care! If you all don’t eat now, you will never eat again,” said Pak Pesut.
Later, Pak Pesut and his family ate the rice. It was very hot. They needed water to drink. They
rushed to Mahakam River. It was so hot that they finally jumped to the river.
The beggar saw the incident. He then prayed to God. Amazingly, Pak Pesut family slowly
changed into fish. The fish looked like dolphin. Since then, everybody named the fish as Pesut fish
 A Little Finger

A long time ago there lived a husband and a wife. They were poor and they did not have any
children yet. Days and nights they prayed to God. They really wanted to have a child.
“God, please give us a child, even though he is only as big as a little finger,” prayed the husband.

Their dream came true! The wife was pregnant. However they were surprised when they saw the
baby. He was so small. He was as big as a little finger. “You prayed to God to give us a child,
although he is as big as a little finger right? Be thankful to God. Let’s love him. How will you name
him then?” asked the wife. “You are right. We have to be grateful. Well, I will name him Little
Finger.

Time passed by and Little Finger did not grow much. His body was still physically small compared
to other kids. Though he was so small, Little Finger ate like adults. He ate much food. And that
made his parents really worried. They were poor and sometimes they could not eat because they
had to give their food to Little Finger. “I cannot hold it anymore. I want to put Little Finger in the
jungle. Let him live there. I think he can survive,” said the father.

In the morning, Little Finger and his father went to the jungle. When they arrived, the father asked
Little Finger to cut down a very big tree. When Little Finger was busy cutting down the tree, his
father silently went home. The father thought that Little Finger could not cut down the big tree. The
father was sure that Little Finger would be lost in the jungle. But he was wrong! In the morning
Little Finger suddenly showed up in front of the house. And he brought the big tree also!

“Father, where do you want me to put this big tree?” asked Little Finger.
The father was surprised. He asked Little Finger to put the tree in the backyard.
Little Finger then went inside the house. As always he ate all the food and that made his father got
angry. He then had another idea. “Little Finger, let’s go to the mountain. I need a big stone from
there.” Little Finger was an obedient kid. He followed his father to go to the mountain. When they
arrived, his father pointed a big stone. The stone was as big as their house! “I want you to bring that
big stone to our house,” asked the father. When Little Finger was trying to bring the stone, the
father immediately ran home.

At night, when the father was sleeping, suddenly he heard Little Finger’s voice. “Father, I’m home.
Where do you want me to put this big stone?” This time Little Finger’s father realized his mistake.
It was true that Little Finger’s body was small and he ate much food. But he was a nice kid and he
had great power. With that power, they could get a job and had a lot of money. The father then
apologized to Little Finger. Since then they always worked together.

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 The Reign of the Legendary Dragon
Village, England

One dark thunderous night the wind was howling like a wolf, and was dashing through the night
sky. In a dark cave, high in the mountains was a beast that was furious with anger, growling really
loud, like a thunder storm roaring, and was a fear to everyone.

He was black as the night sky. He had four tails with spiked balls on the end of his tails, two heads
with a technique of fire and ice. One head breathed fire and the other breathed ice, fairy, silky
wings that created hurricanes. Sharp, long, blades on each leg and a circular hole under his paws
which drained energy from anyone the same with his magical horn.

That night the beast, that was known as Dark Shadow, went out to get raw flesh, animals, fruit and
berries so he can move quicker. Then he found a village so he dived down, like a meteor falling to
earth, and snuck behind a house and wrapped 7 villagers in his tail then flew back to his cave.

After, the clouds started to gather up and started to snow but Dark Shadow used his fire to melt the
snow and used his wings to create a whirlwind to blow the clouds away the sun came bursting
through the clouds.

Out of the distance came a bright figure and Dark Shadow recognized that shape and it was his
mortal enemy Light Shiner! Light shiner came back to defeat his evil enemy and began to say “
hello again Dark Shadow I have come back to defeat you for what you have done to man kind you
foul beast so get ready cause we’re going to fight”
“Bring it on you good for nothing light bulb” smirked Dark Shadow.

Quickly, Dark Shadow gave a massive blast of fire and Light Shiner threw a blast of magic and
they both dodged the moves then quickly Dark Shadow swung his spiked balls and Light Shiner
took a lot of damage.

Then Light Shiner threw out a blast of water then Dark Shadow blurted out ice to freeze Light
Shiner legs then the water froze and trapped his legs and zapped Light Shiner with magic.

As soon as Dark Shadow was about to slice Light Shiner he suddenly shouted “Wait! Why can’t we
be friends we have to stop fighting!”
“ Fine, but only cause you want to” replied Dark Shadow and so they became good friends.

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 #045 Belog's Story

One day Belog’s mother accidentally dropped her last box of matches into a puddle of water. The
matches got wet and would not light. She needed immediately matches to light her stove, so she
called out to her son and said. “Belog, please go to the shop and buy some matches. The matches
that I have are wet, and I cannot light the fire to cook our meal.”

She gave Belog some money and then added, “Do make sure that the matches you buy are dry and
can light easily!”

So Belog took the coins for the matches from his mother, and happily walked to the village shop.
He walked inside and asked the owner for a box of matches. Then Belog carefully counted his coins
and paid for the box and began to walk home.

No sooner was he outside the shop, then a thought struck Belog. He opened the box and looked
inside.

“They look like good matches to me.” he thought. “But how can I be certain? I’d better try one.”

Belog took out one of the matches and lighted it. It caught fire easily.

“Ah, that match is all right,” he said. “But how about the others?” so Belog took out all the matches
one by one and lighted them to see that they were good.

“This is a good box of matches. “Belog said to himself. Then he returned home.

“Here mother,” said Belog with an honest and foolish smile on his face. “I bought a good box of
matches. They all work. I tested all of them!” then Belog handed his mother the box of used, burnt
matches.

His poor mother, what could she say? After all, Belog was her only child, and she loved him dearly.

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 #048 The Legend Of Shuteye Island

Once upon a time, an old blind man lived on Pulau Timbun Mata (Shut-Eye Island). He often sat in
the sun outside his house looking after paddy which his son had placed there to dry.
Whenever chickens came to eat the paddy, he used a long stick to bang the ground to chase them
away.

One day, his grandson played a trick on him. He caught a couple of crabs on the beach and placed
them on the paddy. They made a noise just like chickens eating the paddy.

“What’s that?” asked the old man.

“Don’t you know?” his grandson replied. “Some chickens are eating the paddy.”

The old man banged on the ground with his stick. But the crabs were not frightened. They
continued to eat the paddy.

“Ha, ha, Ha!” laughed the boy.

Suddenly, there was a terrible roar like the firing of cannon. An old man with a long white beard
appeared in a cloud of smoke.

He pointed his wand at the boy. “You should never laugh at your grandfather,” he said, “especially
as he is blind.”

Before the boy could answer, a strong wind started to blow and the sky became black. A cloud of
red smoke shot out of the top of a hill in the centre of the island. Tons of rock and boiling mud were
thrown high into the air. All the houses on the island were destroyed and everyone living on the
island was turned into stone.

Even today, if you visit the island, all you can see are some strange-looking rocks which resemble
people.