FOLKLORE OF MALUKU

TANJUNG MENANGIS
Folklore from Maluku

THERE was a great kingdom in Halmahera. The people were sad. The king just died. He was a great king. He was kind and very wise. The people loved him very much.

The king had three children, two sons and one daughter. The son were Baginda Arif and Baginda Binaut, while the daughter was Putri baginda Nuri.

The queen talked to commander of the soldiers. They were discussing about the next king. According to the rule, the first child would be the next king. Therefore, they were preparing a ceremony to inaugurateBaginda Arif to be the new king.

Baginda Binaut heard they conversation. Actually, he had an ambition. he also wanted to be the king. He had a plan. Secretly, he talked to the commander and consequently the commander had to send the queen, Baginda Arif and Baginda Nuri to jail.

The commander agreed. He send them to the jail. The queen, the prince and the princess were very sad.Baginda Binaut told the people that his mother, his brother and his sister were drowned in the sea.

"Binaut is really ungrateful. He is really a bad person," said Baginda Arif.

"Be patient, my child. God will help us," said the queen.

Then Baginda Binaut became the new king. Unlike his father, he was very cruel. He asked his people to pay high taxes. The people suffered. They complained but they could not do anything. The soldiers would hurt them.

However, not all the soldiers wanted to follow Baginda Binaut. One of the soldier decided to leave the palace. His name was Bijak. He made his own troops. He knew the queen, the prince and the princess were in jail. He wanted to set them free.

On one night, Bijak and his troops attacked the jail. He wanted to set them free.

On one night, Bijak and his troops attacked the jail. They succeeded! Then he planed to attacked the palace. But the queen did not agree. She did not want to see her own people fighting. The queen then prayed to god.

Not long after that, the mountain erupted. The lava was flowing. It flowed to the palace. The people were running to save their life. Baginda Binaut was also running. Amazingly, wherever he was running, the lava always followed him.

Baginda Binaut was really scared. While he was running, he was thinking of his mother, brother and his sister. He screamed for help.

"Mother, please help me!" He went to the jail but they were not there. He was really panicked because the lava was getting closer to him.

"Help! Help!" screamed Baginda Bimaut but not one helped him.

Finally, Baginda Binaut could not run anymore. He was exhausted and he arrived at the sea. He could not go back to the land because it was full of lava. Then he swam to the sea.

Because he was very tired, he could not swim. He was drowned. Slowly, his body turned into a cave. The people often heard someone crying from the cave, therefore they named it the crying cave or TanjungMenangis.