Narrative Text ( Indonesia Legend ) ( Napombalu )

Napombalu

Folklore from North Sulawesi

ONCE upon a time there were a handsome hunter, his name was Lawongo. In the jungle he only hunted wild hogs. The animals often always destroyed the villagers' fields. The villagers were very grateful. With Lawongo's help, their field were safe from the wild hogs.

Lawongo was also very great in playing a flute, it was so melodious. Everybody always enjoyed listening his playing the flute. One of the people was a beautiful girl. She always listened attentively. Lawongo knew there was a beautiful girl who always paid attention to him. Lawongo fell in love with her. The girl also loved him, later they got married.

They were very happy. They loved each other and promised to be always together. They would be together until they died.


In one night, Lawongo had a strange dream. In his dream he was hunting a very big wild hog. The hog attacked him. He did very hard to kill the hog. He used his knife to stab the hog and it finally died.

On the next morning, Lawongo went hunting. It was still early in the morning and he did not want to wake his wife up.

In the jungle ha did not see any animals. He could not find any wild hog either. He felt very strange. He walk and he felt very thirsty. He picked a coconut. And when he wanted to open it using his knife, he saw his knife was full of dried blood. He was confused. Suddenly he remembered his wife. Somehow he had a bad feeling about his wife. He immediately went home.
When he arrived home, many people were in front of his house. One of the people said,"We're sorry for your wife, Lawongo. Please accept our condolences."

"What happened?" asked him. He rushed into his house. He saw his wife was dead. Her body was full of blood. Lawongo was very sad. He felt very guilty. He knew last night he stabbed hi wife. He then told the villagers to do something.

"I cannot live without my wife. Please prepare two coffins, one for me and the other one is for my wife."

"No, please don't do it. You are still young and we still need you here. Besides that we still want to hear you play the flute." said one of the villagers.

"Don't worry, I still play the flute for you. Male a hole on the coffin's cover. If you cannot longer hear my playing, it means I'm dead. You go to the beach. A strange thing will appear from the sea. Do not point at that thing and do not say anything. It is my reincarnation." said Lawongo.

Later, the villagers buried the two coffins. At the first night, they could still hear his playing. However the sound was getting weaker and weaker. And finally the villagers did not hear anything.

They did Lawongo's request. They went to the beach. They all set down on the beach. Suddenly, a strange thing appeared from the sea. It was very big. They all were surprised. However they did not say anything. The thing finally stooped growing.

The villagers used their sampan and came to the thing. It was a coral island. They named the island as Napombalu, which is from the words Napo and Nawalu. Napo means a coral island and Nawalu means a strange thing which turn into an island. ***