Tong Tana December 1999 - Bruno Manser Fonds
Tong Tana December 1999 - Bruno Manser Fonds
Tong Tana December 1999 - Bruno Manser Fonds
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Penan folk-tale<br />
The wish to fly<br />
told by Along Segá, Ba Adang<br />
Jengeto spoke to his wife, “Look at me, I am fast. There is only one<br />
thing I have not yet tried out – flying.”<br />
“Oh, if you did not grow wings from birth you will fall to your death!”<br />
“Oh no, I am really fast! How many people have already lost against me –<br />
I am unbeatable!”<br />
Jengeto possessed the leopard tail amulet and could jump from tree trunk<br />
to tree trunk up in the heights. As the two reached a field of ferns Jengeto<br />
began to climb upwards onto a slanting trunk.<br />
“I will fly from up there!”<br />
“If you jump you will die!”<br />
warned his wife.<br />
“Oh no!”<br />
he called to his dearest as he<br />
reached the top,<br />
“Look, great lady,<br />
here I will fly for the first time!”,<br />
spread his arms and jumped into the air.<br />
“Weppp!” it sounded as he fell into the fern field<br />
and “ooohhhh – ooohhhh” he moaned.<br />
“This is the voice of the one who is dying and wanted to fly!”,<br />
his wife fanned air in his face until he came back to life.<br />
“Well, you wanted to fly – where are your wings now, my friend”<br />
she mocked.<br />
“Oh, I really thought I could fly because I was so fast.”<br />
“Jengeto – Peloho – Petem O-o”,<br />
rhymes the humorous<br />
storyteller ad lib,<br />
“Jengeto has fallen<br />
down together with<br />
the termite nest<br />
which he wanted<br />
to hold onto.”<br />
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