Previous - Next

'Shall I ask the Man here to cut you with kris? Shall I send for
Raja Moyang Kaban, the King of the Elephants, to pierce you with
his tusks, or shall I call Raja Abdullah, the King of the Crocodiles,
to bite you?'

And Pau Amma said, 'I am ashamed! Give me back my hard shell and
let me go back to Pusat Tasek, and I will only stir out once a
day and once a night to get my food.'

And the Eldest Magician said, 'No, Pau Amma, I will not give you
back your shell, for you will grow bigger and prouder and
stronger, and perhaps you will forget your promise, and
you will play with the Sea once more.

Then Pau Amma said, 'What shall I do? I am so big that I can only
hide in Pusat Tasek, and if I go anywhere else, all soft as I am
now, the sharks and the dogfish will eat me. And if I go to Pusat
Tasek, all soft as I am now, though I may be safe, I can never
stir out to get my food, and so I shall die.' Then he waved his
legs and lamented.

'Listen, Pau Amma,' said the Eldest Magician. 'I cannot make you
play the play you were meant to play, because you escaped me at
the Very Beginning; but if you choose, I can make every stone and
every hole and every bunch of weed in all the seas a safe Pusat
Tasek for you and your children for always.'

Then Pau Amma said, 'That is good, but I do not choose yet. Look!
there is that Man who talked to you at the Very Beginning. If he
had not taken up your attention I should not have grown tired of
waiting and run away, and all this would never have happened.
What will he do for me?'

And the Man said, 'If you choose, I will make a Magic, so that
both the deep water and the dry ground will be a home for you and
your children--so that you shall be able to hide both on the land
and in the sea.'

And Pau Amma said, 'I do not choose yet. Look! there is that girl
who saw me running away at the Very Beginning. If she had spoken
then, the Eldest Magician would have called me back, and all this
would never have happened. What will she do for me?'

And the little girl-daughter said, 'This is a good nut that I am
eating. If you choose, I will make a Magic and I will give you
this pair of scissors, very sharp and strong, so that you and
your children can eat cocoa-nuts like this all day long when you
come up from the Sea to the land; or you can dig a Pusat Tasek
for yourself with the scissors that belong to you when there is
no stone or hole near by; and when the earth is too hard, by the
help of these same scissors you can run up a tree.'

And Pau Amma said, 'I do not choose yet, for, all soft as I am,
these gifts would not help me. Give me back my shell, O Eldest
Magician, and then I will play your play.'

And the Eldest Magician said, 'I will give it back, Pau Amma, for
eleven months of the year; but on the twelfth month of every year
it shall grow soft again, to remind you and all your children

Previous - Next