Narrative Text ( Indonesia Legend ) ( The Legend Of Moon And Sago In Ibuanari )

The Legend Of Moon And Sago In Ibuanari

When you fly from Manokwari to the Sub District of Kobar you will have a bird's eye view of a small village named Kebar where sago trees grow abundantly.Sago is the staple food of the Papuans. But it is said that in the ancient time the people of Ibuanari in the east of Sub District Kobar did not grow sago. They often killed and robbed sago and other valuable goods from the strangers who passed by the region. One night, when full moon was rising on the horizon, a lot of people came out to admire the beauty of the celestial body. They also wandered whether they could catch and serve it with sago for dinner.

Boriel Ariks, the chief of the tribe, then sought a way how to catch the appetizing yellow thing which looked easily reachable. After a long deliberation with his people, Boriel Arks decided to build a tall tower in order that they could reach the moon. First, they had to clear the vast land of the trees, which were used as the material to build a tower in the middle of a vast plain resembling a desert with almost no tree growing on it.
One fine evening, when the moon looked very clear in the sky, Boriel Ariks accompanied by some brave and strong men he had selected carefully, began to climb the tower. Each was supplied with a long pole and piece of bamboo tube to store some sago. How good it would be to eat some sago and a little bit of the moon., they thought! In the meanwhile the women and the children were waiting around the tower. The men rushed wildly to climb the tower. But the tower was not strong enough to bear the weight of so many people. It declined and collapsed helplessly. Many people died including Boriel Arks. The bamboo tubes containing sago were broken and scattered their content on the ground.
Present people of Ibuanari believe that a consequence of the incident it is impossible for them to outnumber the people of Jandura who live in the neighborhood. They also believe that the sago flour scattering on the ground later on grew into sago trees which are found today in the ground covering tens of hectares in Ibuanari. Customorily people of Ibuanari will leave their fields after enjoying their crop and move to some other forest to start a new field. Thus it is expected that the abandoned field will soon be reforested. Cutting trees aimlessly is a strict taboo among people of Ibuanari.