A Legend from Tambunan

Author: Moses Iking

The Hunter's Journey

Many years ago, something sad happened to a couple living in the far away hills of Tambunan. One evening, as it was getting dark, a man set out to put hunting traps in the forest. He promised his wife he would come home when the moon rose.

A few hundred yards from his house, he crossed a wide, fast river with rocky stones. Almost at once, the evening turned completely dark. The gentle breeze became like a typhoon with strong wind. Even though everything changed so suddenly, he kept going. Hour after hour passed, but the moon did not appear. As he got near the place where he wanted to set his traps, the storm became a little less strong. But then it started to rain very hard with lightning and loud thunder.

"This river will flood soon," he thought. Sadly, he put away his traps and turned back. But he was too late. The river was already flooding badly. With nowhere to hide, he had to take shelter in a small cave that was said to be haunted by a ghost. The cave was about twenty yards from the bank. He still had his spear and dagger with him. His wet clothes made him shiver from the cold. He wished the rain would stop, but it kept pouring down harder and harder. He could hear rocks tumbling and big logs hitting the banks as they floated downstream.

Shelter in the Haunted Cave

Crossing the river now would be too dangerous, so the cave seemed like a safe place. The thunderstorm finally stopped and the moon shone dimly, but the river was still too wild to cross.

A shadowy figure came toward him out of the darkness. From its shape, he could tell it was a terrible creature. He grabbed his weapons to get ready. A long-haired, hunched monster roared when it reached the cave: "You brought no meat when you came into my home. You will be punished!" Then, as if by magic, the cave entrance became so narrow that he was trapped inside. The ghost left, laughing loudly.

The Daily Visits

The next morning, his wife became worried and went to look for him. The man poked his head through the narrow cave opening and saw his wife walking past. He called out to her. When she heard his voice, she almost went crazy thinking it was the ghost. But then she recognized her husband's voice and came to him. He told her how he had been trapped by the evil spirit.

Three times every day, his wife brought him food and water in a homemade bamboo tray called a raya. As the days went by, the cave opening got smaller and smaller. One day, he told his wife: "Please go home and do not come back. There is no point bringing me food because I am going to die." She put the tray on a stone and sat facing her husband. He stretched out his hand, and she held it one last time. She cried very hard and then went away. The cave entrance closed up completely, and he died inside.

The Lasting Mark

If anyone finds the place where this stone is, they can still see the mark of the tray on the stone.

This narrative is part of Sabah Stories, a collection of traditional tales and indigenous folklore originally gathered and rendered into English by scholars attending Saint Francis Xavier High School in Keningau, Sabah, North Borneo, throughout 1968–1973. The text presented here has been entirely rewritten using contemporary language and phrasing whilst preserving all factual content, cultural terminology, place names, character designations, and the substantive narrative elements of the original source. This is not a reproduction of the original material.