FLOKLORE OF WEST JAVA

GOLDEN ISLAND
Folklore From West Java

ONCE upon a time there was a prince. His name was Prince Wiralodra. He was a strong and powerful prince. It was because he had great skills in martial arts. Besides, he also had supernatural skills. The kingdom was safe from bad people. No criminals dared to do bad things. They all were afraid of Prince Wiralodra.

The numbers of people in the kingdom were continuously growing. The prince thought that the kingdom could not occupy the people anymore. He planned to open a jungle. He wanted to cut the trees and made the jungle as a new village. The prince held a meeting with his soldiers.

"l want you to be ready. Tomorrow morning we will go to the jungle near this kingdom." All of his soldiers were silent. They were speechless.

"Why were you so quiet?" asked the prince. "Come on, say something!"

The soldiers were only looking at one another. It seemed that they were hoping someone would tell the prince about the jungle. Finally one of the soldiers opened his mouth and talked.

"Sir, we heard that the jungle is haunted. A genie lives there." said the soldier.

"What?! A genie?!" asked the prince.

"Yes, Sir. We heard that the genie always hurts people who come to the jungle. He does not like his jungle to be disturbed," explained the soldier.

"Listen to me," said the prince. "We need the jungle for our people. We have to provide new land for them. The jungle doesn't belong to the genie. It belongs to us. If he doesn't like that, he must go and leave the jungle."

"But Sir, how can we ask the genie to leave the jungle?"

"Don't worry, that is my business. I will take care of the genie by myself. Now, I want all of you to be ready. We will go to the jungle early in the morning. And once again, don't be afraid of the genie," said the prince.
On the following morning, Prince Wiralodra and his soldiers went to the jungle. And when they arrived, they set the tents for their base camp. Later they started to cut the trees.

While they were busy cutting the trees, they heard strange sound. They knew it was the sound of the angry genie. The genie was angry and he started to hurt the soldiers. The soldiers were doing their best to fight the genie. But the genie was too strong. The soldiers reported to the prince.
Prince Wiralodra immediately came to the genie.

"Who are you?" asked the genie.

"I am Prince Wiralodra. I am here to open the jungle for our people."

"You can't do that, it's my home."

"But we also need the jungle, you can live in another place," said the prince.

The argument was leading to a fight. The prince had a great supernatural power. He used the power to fight. The genie did not know that the prince was very powerful. In just a minute, the genie lost the fight.

"I don t know where to live," said the genie.

"Don't worry, you can live in that island over there. No one lives in that island."

Later the genie lived in the island. People often saw golden light from the island. Since then people named the island as Pulau Mas, which means Golden Island.