It is said that in ancient times in the area of Sambas Regency (West Kalimantan), precisely in the interior of the Bantahan continent east of Sekura City, the capital of Teluk Keramat District, inhabited by the Dayak Tribe, there has been an event that is very amazing to know and interesting to study, so that the event was raised to the surface.
According to people's information, there was a small kingdom in the area, located not far from Mount Bawang, which is adjacent to Mount Ruai. Not far from the two mountains is a cave called "Batu Cave", in which there are many small streams in which there are many fish and the cave is inhabited by an old grandfather who can be said to be magic.
The story begins with a king who rules in the kingdom above and has seven daughters, the king has no wife since the death of the empress or mother of his seven daughters. Among the seven daughters there was one daughter of the king who was the youngest or Si Bungsu.
The youngest has a good character, is diligent, helpful and obedient to parents, therefore it is no wonder his father loves him very much. In contrast to his six older siblings, his behavior is very different from the Youngest, his six older siblings have evil hearts, are jealous, spiteful, like to argue with their parents, and are lazy to work. Every day all he did was play around.
With these two backgrounds, the father (king) became favoritistic towards his daughters. Almost every day Si Bungsu's six older siblings were scolded by her father, while Si Bungsu was very pampered. Seeing this treatment, the six older siblings of the youngest became resentful, even hating their own younger siblings, so when the father was not there, the target of the older siblings was to vent their revenge on the youngest by beating her severely without any pity so that the body of the youngest became bluish and for fear of being beaten again, the youngest became afraid of her brother.
For this reason, Si Bungsu had to obey everything ordered by her brother, such as: washing her brother's clothes, cleaning the house and yard, cooking, washing dishes, and even the most terrible thing, Si Bungsu was usually told to bring some young cadets to accompany her six brothers. All the work was done by Si Bungsu alone while her six older siblings just joked around.
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| Borneo's Ruai Bird |
Once upon a time, the king (father) noticed that Si Bungsu's body was blue from being beaten but was afraid to tell his father the truth, and when his father asked his six brothers about the incident that happened to Si Bungsu, the six brothers made excuses that made his father believe one hundred percent that nothing had happened. One of the excuses made by the older siblings was that the reason why Si Bungsu's body was blue was because Si Bungsu stole a neighbor's papaya, then was caught and beaten by the neighbor. Because the father was too trusting of the story from the older brother, the father did not prolong the matter.
That was the life of the youngest experienced with her six siblings, even so the youngest still did not face the treatment of her six siblings, sometimes the youngest cried bitterly regretting herself why her mother left her so quickly so that she could not get protection. For protection from the father, it can be said that it is still very lacking. His father was busy with royal and government affairs.
After experiencing days full of misery, then one day all the residents of the palace gathered to hear the news that the king would leave for another kingdom to further strengthen the kinship between them for one month. The seven children (daughters) were not left behind to hear the news of their father's departure. At that meeting, it was also announced that the king's power for one month was delegated to the youngest, which is important if the king is not there, then matters related to the kingdom (government) must first ask for guidance from the youngest. Hearing the news, his six older siblings were shocked and each of them had the intention to vent their resentment when their father left. They also wondered why their father's trust was bestowed on Si Bungsu instead of them.
The soldiers accompanying the king's departure were very busy preparing everything. So on the next day, the king's army departed with flags and horses witnessed by all the people of the kingdom and released by his seven daughters.
The father's departure had lasted one week. Then came the moment that the six sisters of Si Bungsu were waiting for to vent their evil lust, which was to destroy Si Bungsu so that they would not live together anymore and if necessary Si Bungsu should be killed. These signs were known by Si Bungsu through her dream that she wanted to be killed by her siblings while sleeping at night.
After holding negotiations among his six older siblings and the plan was ripe, then one afternoon the six older siblings in the youngest called Si Bungsu, what was he doing? It turned out that the six older siblings invited Si Bungsu to go fishing (menangguk), which in Sambas Malay language is looking for fish with a tool called a mortise made from rattan and shaped like an oval. Overjoyed that his brother wanted to be friends with him again, Si Bungsu accepted the invitation. Even though the invitation was tucked into his brother's revenge against Si Bungsu, Si Bungsu did not expect it at all.
Without thinking anymore, the seven daughters of the king departed that afternoon, each carrying a ladder and when the seven of them arrived at the place they were going to (the location of the ladder), namely the rock cave, the youngest was told to enter the cave first, followed by her six siblings. After they entered, the youngest was told to separate in catching fish in order to get more and he did not know that he was far behind his brothers.
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| Ruai bird feathers for traditional Dayak hat accessories |
The youngest was already further into the cave, while his six older siblings were still at the front of the cave and praying that the youngest would not be able to find a trail back home. The six older siblings burst out laughing because Si Bungsu had disappeared from sight. The pitch-black atmosphere of the cave made Si Bungsu completely out of ideas to find a way out of the cave. It wasn't long before his six siblings returned from the rock cave to their home without bringing Si Bungsu and in the end Si Bungsu was lost.
Feeling that Si Bungsu had been played by her brother earlier, then she lived alone in the stone cave and sat on a rock on the river flow in the cave to lament her fate that had been tricked by her six brothers, Si Bungsu could only cry day and night because there was not a single creature that could help in the cave except for the pitch black situation and the fish that swam here and there.
The youngest could still speak like a human at that time, then the grandfather said again, "My grandson I will help you from the misery that befalls your life but in a way you have changed your form into a bird and I will name you Burung Ruai, when I have disappeared from your sight then scoop the eggs so that they become birds as your friends!".
Then spontaneously the youngest had turned into a bird by answering the talk of the magic grandfather with the answer kwek ... kwek ... kwek ... kwek .... kwek, At the same time the magic grandfather disappeared with smoke and a very large number of ruai birds and at that time the birds also left the cave and lived in the tree in front of where Si Bungsu used to live, with the sound of kwek ... kwek .... kwek ... kwek .... kwek, They witnessed Si Bungsu's older brothers who were punished by their father for killing Si Bungsu..
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