Narrative Text ( Indonesia Legend ) ( Putri Tangguk )

Putri Tangguk

Folklore from Jambi

THERE was a village in Jambi. The people were farmers. One of them was Putri Tangguk. She lived with her husband and her children.

Putri Tangguk and her husband had a very small rice field. Amazingly, the rice field was able to harvest a lot of rice. Their harvest was always abundant. They put their harvest in their big barn. They were very happy with their life.

Putri Tangguk always helped her husband in the rice field. One day, she said that she wanted to quit helping her husband. She wanted to take care of the children and mingle with the neighbours.

In the morning, Putri Tangguk wanted to cook some rice. However she could not find any rice in the kitchen. She was surprised and she felt that she just took some rice from the barn and put it in the kitchen. Then, she went to the barn. Surprisingly, there was no rice in the barn. She immediately told her husband about the missing rice.

"Look! The rice is gone. Our rice is stolen!" said Putri Tangguk.

Putri Tangguk and her husband immediately went to the rice field. And after they finished, they brought the rice. On the way home, rain fell down heavily. The rain made the road slippery. Putri Tangguk fell down several times.

She was really upset. Later, she asked her husband to put the rice on the road.

"What for?" asked the husband.

"The road is slippery. If we throw the rice on the field, we can step on it. Therefore the road is not going to be slippery. Don't worry, we have an amazing rice field right?" asked Putri Tangguk.

Although he did not completely agree with her idea, the husband still threw the rice in front of them. The idea worked. Every time they stepped on the rice, they did not fall down.

When they arrived home, their rice was only left a little. It was only enough for their dinner. However they were not worried. Tomorrow morning, they planned to go to their rice field and took a lot of rice. They planned to fill their barn.

Surprisingly when they arrived, their rice field was full of grass. There was no rice at all. They were really confused.

At night Putri Tangguk had a dream. An old man came to her and said, "You were really ungrateful. You treated us badly."

"I am one of the rice you threw away on the road. You stepped on us! The god of the rice was really angry. He decided not to give you a lot of rice anymore. You can only get a little rice," said the old man.

Putri Tangguk then woke up. She really regretted what she did. She knew it was wrong to throw away the rice but it was too late. She could only feel sorry.***