Patricia Hului

If you are not familiar with the legend of a swan maiden, it is a mythical creature who shape-shifts from human to swan form.

The basic story line of this legend is that the male character spies on the maiden while bathing (which is considered sexual harassment by today’s standards). Then the man snatches away the feather garment or some other article of clothing, thus preventing her from fleeing, (which is another criminal act of theft) and finally the man forces her to become his wife (which is actually a case of kidnapping).

Putting aside the multiple criminal offences in this folktale, similar legends are found across the world.

The Ranee of Sarawak Margaret Brooke recorded several interesting legends in her book My Life in Sarawak(1849) and one of them is almost similar to the swan legend. Only, this folktale starts with the safflower plant and has a tragic ending.

The story of Safflower and a man named Laja

Margaret relates how rich the Batang Lupar district is in legends, and tells a story told to her by a fortman’s wife in Simanggang.

“Every one living in Simanggang knows the great mass of sandstone and forest, called Lingga mountain, and all those who have travelled at all (so said the fortman’s wife) have seen this Lingga mountain and know how high and difficult it is to climb, and how a great stretch of country can be seen from its flat and narrow top with the wide expanse of sea stretching from the shores of the Batang Lupar across the great bay of Sarawak to the mountains beyond the town of Kuching,” Margaret wrote.

According to the legend, there was a young Iban man named Laja who lived in the village at the foot of Lingga Mountain. One night, a beautiful lady appeared to Laja in a dream.

She told Laja to “rise early the next morning, before the trees on the banks of the river had emerged from the mist of night, and climb Lingga Mountain, where he would find the safflower at the top.”

The spirit went on to explain that this plant would cure most illnesses, especially sprains and internal inflammation.

Laja and his journey to Mount Lingga

The next morning, Laja woke up and followed everything the lady told him to (because when a mysterious figure in your dream tells you to do it, you should do it).

Halfway up the mountain, Laja saw a rainbow just above the fog. Looking at the bright rainbow, he knew that the spirit of the mountain – a celestial princess – was about to descend by way of the rainbow to bathe in the mountain stream.

Instead of waiting and wondering how she looked like, Laja went on his way to the top of the mountain.

After spending some time looking, he found the safflower plant and brought it home to his village.

Laja pounded the plant and gave it to his people who were sick, but the plant was unreliable.

While some were cured, others did not benefit from it and died from their sickness.

Simpurei and the celestial princess of Lingga mountain

Despite the unpredictability of the safflower plant, its benefits still outnumbered its failures. Eventually, they ran out of the safflower to cure the sick.

One day, a man named Simpurei decided to look for the safflower without telling anyone of his intentions.

Halfway up the mountain, Simpurei saw a rainbow with both ends resting on the sides of the hill opposite the mountain just like Laja did.

He then heard the sound of water and rustling close by. Simpurei peered through the greenery and that was when he saw the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. She was a celestial princess, who was also the spirit of the mountain.

The woman was naked with hair falling down to her feet. She used a bucket of gold to pour water over her head.

Just like the swan maiden legend, Simpurei stood in awe of the woman’s beauty. Suddenly, he accidentally broke a twig that he was holding.

Surprised at the sound, the woman looked up and saw Simpurei. She fled to a bed of safflowers near where her clothes were lying.

As the woman ran away, a strand of her hair was caught in the bushes.

Instead of a feather garment, Simpurei decided to take the hair as it shone and glistened in the sun.

He took off immediately, feeling happy that he had a strand of a celestial maiden’s hair for his keeping. The man even forgot what he came to the mountain for; which was the safflower.

Simpurei’s tragic end

Unfortunately for Simpurei, he barely reached his home when he was caught with a sudden sickness.

Upon hearing about his illness, his villagers slowly crowded his home to visit Simpurei.

Many tried to help cure him, summoning all the shamans and medicine men that they knew, but none of them could heal Simpurei from his mysterious illness.

In his sickness, Simpurei managed to tell the people of his adventure up in the mountains. From how he watched the celestial princess taking a bath in the mountain stream, to keeping a strand of her hair.

Eventually, he passed away due to his sickness. The elders of the village believed that Simpurei was punished for staring at the celestial princess bathing naked at the mountain stream.

The Selako people are an indigenous group found mostly in West Kalimantan, Indonesia and the western part of Sarawak, Malaysia.

Although they are grouped under Bidayuh by the Malaysian government, they have their own unique culture and language which bear little resemblance to other Bidayuh groups.

Here is a Selako legend about a golden monkey that the current generation might not have heard of:

Sarawak museum curator Tom Harrisson recorded the story from a Selako man named Pengarah Otoh from Biawak in December 1948.

Long time ago, there was a Selako husband and wife clearing a part of the jungle for their rice paddy.

At that time, the area was ruled by the Sultan of Sambas.

One day while doing their work in the clearing, a monkey came and ruined the couple’s paddy which they had planted previously.

The husband then told his wife to follow the monkey. Carrying a piece of wood from the fire, the wife started to follow the monkey.

The moment she got up close to the monkey, the wife hit it with the wood, killing the monkey almost immediately.

The Golden Monkey

When she saw that the monkey had died, she returned to the hut and told her husband to fetch the dead monkey.

Thus, the husband went out to where the wife had killed the animal. But to his surprise, he was unable to lift the monkey. That was when the man found out that the dead monkey was made of gold.

He went home and told his wife about the golden monkey. Night soon came and the couple went to sleep.

That night, the man had a dream. A ghost appeared to him, telling him, “If you want to fetch that monkey, you must prepare it by wrapping it in yellow cloth, and then you will be able to carry the monkey back.”

The man woke up the next morning pondering about the dream. As much as he wanted to follow the dream, this was the day when common people like him only had bark cloth to wear.

There were Malays who had fabrics, but they did not have any yellow cloth. Only Malay Sultans were permitted to wear yellow cloth back then.

Meeting with Sultan of Sambas

Having thought about it over and over again, the man decided to see the Sultan of Sambas.

After travelling for three days, he arrived at the Sultan’s palace. There, he was granted an audience with him.

When the Sultan found out that he was asking for yellow cloth, the king was angry, as commoners were not allowed to wear yellow clothing.

But the man explained himself; of how his wife killed the animal and how it turned out to be a golden monkey.

On hearing the story from the man, the sultan proposed an arrangement. He could not give the man a yellow cloth but he would go to fetch the monkey with the man.

The man agreed and they both went to take the body of the golden monkey.

When they arrived there, the golden monkey was still where the wife had killed it. Using the yellow cloth that the sultan brought, they both were able to carry the monkey to the man’s home.

Then the Sultan said to the man, “The right ear from this golden monkey I am leaving with you but the rest I must have for myself.”

What was more, the Sultan promised the Selako man, “From this day forward I will not take any tax from you, on to your children and grandchildren, and on to all those descended from you.”

Being a loyal subject to the sultan, the man agreed with the arrangement. He gave the golden monkey to the Sultan of Sambas with only the right ear left for himself.