In ancient times, there lived a peasant. He had a wife and two children, his daughter was called I Sayang Mulli, and his son was called I Lailara, he was still small. One day their father went to the market and bought a fresh shellfish. He brought it home, gave it to his wife and ordered it to be fried, while he went to the river to get water. When he returned, the food was already ready, and his wife immediately served him the roast. The peasant sees that the mollusk has become much smaller than before, and asks his wife:
-Where is the rest of the meat?
The wife answers:
“All there is is in the frying pan, there’s nothing else left.”
The peasant didn’t believe it: he didn’t know that the shellfish were fried too much. He got angry and began to scold his wife:
“You are a greedy and glutton, and you secretly hid a bigger piece for yourself from me!”
The wife has a clear conscience, and she tells her husband that she is not guilty. And his eyes darkened with anger, he grabbed a loom stand and hit his wife so hard that she broke her head. The woman is both hurt and offended. She ran to the river to wash the wound and entered the water. When the pain subsided, she climbed ashore and wanted to go home. But as she remembered her husband’s words and his beatings, she decided to stay in the river until her husband himself asked her to return home.
The children are crying, calling for their mother - it’s time to feed the baby - but she’s still not there. The husband saw that the children were crying and shouted so that the river could hear:
- Let him sit in the water, there are plenty of fish there!
The wife heard these words, became upset and even more upset, and Yi Sayang Mulli put her brother behind her and went to look for her mother. The woman went ashore and gave her son her breast. The children began to persuade her to return home, but she did not agree. They left, the mother dived into the water and hid in the roots of a nipa - a swamp palm tree.
Day has turned into night, but the peasant has little grief, he does not even think about looking for a wife.
She firmly decided: “I will stay in the river forever!” Every day children come to her, she talks to them, gives advice, feeds her son and sends him home. Once she tells them:
“If I leave here, daughter, don’t worry, but go home and take care of your brother so that he doesn’t know grief.”
She had lived in the river for a long time, and her skin began to grow overgrown with fish scales. Further - more, she could no longer feed her son: her breasts were also covered with scales.
One day the children came to the river, but their mother was not there... All they saw was a big fish scurrying around the shore, then diving, then peeking out of the water again. They waited for a long time, the mother never showed up. The brother and sister cried and went home.
A peasant once came to visit a neighbor. The owner was just frying a shellfish, and the guest sat and watched him cook. He sees that the clam is so fried in a frying pan that you don’t even recognize it! He immediately didn’t want to eat, he left his neighbor without even saying a word.
At home he sees: the children are crying again, their mother is calling. He felt sorry for the children, he began to reproach himself. In short, he decided to find his wife, ask for forgiveness, and call her home. He tucked the dagger into his belt, went to the river, and jumped into the pool. I swam there and swam and never found my wife. He stayed in the water for a long time, and his appearance changed: he turned into a dolphin. The dolphin is still running back and forth, looking for his wife everywhere.
And the children were left without a father and without a mother. The neighbors called them to their place, but Yi Sayang Mulli did not want to leave her home. This is their fate - to live alone! The sister loved her brother very much and took care of him. She knew a little about housekeeping, began to cook for two, and sent her brother in the morning and evening to get fuel: not far from the house on the river bank they were building a farmhouse, there were a lot of wood chips there.
Prau was made for a Javanese rajah. He had no children, although he had been married for a long time. The Raja fell in love with the boy and Lailara, did not stop him from collecting wood chips and twigs and always gave gifts.
So the sailors built the ship, launched it into the water and sailed to Java. And the boy began to play on the deck and did not notice how the lady set sail. They saw him only on the open sea. There was no way to take him back, and besides, everyone knew that he was an orphan. And the Raja had long wanted to take in raising the boy. He adopted Yi Lailara, brought him to Java and raised him as his own son - he thought to make him his heir.
And Sayang Mulli waited for her brother for a long time, and without waiting, she followed him to the river. He sees: there is neither brother nor lord there. Melancholy squeezed her heart, tears flowed from her eyes. Out of grief, she became like crazy: she walks from village to village, asking everyone if anyone has seen her brother. And if they don’t answer her, she asks her to sing a song to console her.
One day she met a buffalo and asked him to sing to her. The buffalo sang: “Nguaak.”
And Sayang Mulli went further and said:
– This is not the kind of song I want, grandfather!
Then I met a goat. She asked him to sing the song too. The goat began to sing: “Mbeeek!” “Such a dog won’t make it any more fun, grandpa!” – said Yi Sayang Mulli and set off again.
She walked for a long time, became exhausted and stopped at a spreading tree. She sat down in the shade, began to think about her bitter lot, and accidentally fell asleep.
Here I Sayang Mulli is sleeping, and a bird, Changeak, sits on a tree branch - reddish feathers, white neck. She sat down and sang sweetly. She finished one song or started another, her voice became louder and more pleasant, and the branch sank lower and lower. I Sayang Mulli woke up and listened. Her heart fluttered - the song spoke about her and her brother! He looks to see if there is a man hiding in the tree. And changeak sang and stopped. And Sayang Mulli asks her:
- Sing again, grandma, please my heart - melancholy has overcome me!
Changeak jumped and jumped from branch to branch, went down even lower and sang as before. Then she sat down right next to the girl’s head and asked:
- Why are you, granddaughter, grieving and crying?
And Sayang Mulli told her about everything and began to ask for the changeak bird:
- Help me, grandma, find my brother.
The bird turned into an old woman, gave her a red jacket and white slendang and said:
– If you put on this jacket, tie a slendang around your neck, you will become a changeak bird, fly wherever you want. If you throw them off, you will become human again. Look, take care of my gift!
- Now listen: your brother is now in Java and lives in the palace of the Rajah. If you want to see him, fly to Java. You will notice a tall tamarind tree, under it there is a large house, and in the house a boy is sitting reading books, this will be And Lailara. Then sit on a tree and sing what I sang.
With these words, the old woman disappeared, and Yi Sayang Mullya quickly put on her blouse, threw slendang around her neck and flew to Java. Soon she saw a tamarind tree, sat on it and began to sing.
And Lailara is sitting at her teaching, but she doesn’t hear her. When he finished reading, he sang changeak again. The boy heard that the song was being sung about him and his sister, remembered their orphan share and began to cry. The teacher saw this and asked:
– Why are you crying, And Aailara?
He didn't answer, he just cried harder. The rajah came with his wife, everyone vied with each other to console him. And the boy cries even more and doesn’t tell them anything. Then the maids came running: a changeak was sitting on a tamarind tree, she was remembering the name of the prince.
The Raja ordered to catch this bird. No matter how hard his people tried, nothing worked! As soon as a person climbs into a tree, the bird will jump to a higher branch. It looks completely tame, but it doesn’t fit into your hands. And the Raja insists:
- Catch the bird alive!
He liked her plumage and voice, and she could speak like a person. He promised the one who caught it new clothes and a wallet with money as a reward. There are even more hunters, but there is little use.
Then the Raja ordered that a ladder be placed against the tree so that I Aailara himself could climb it and try his luck: maybe the changeak would fall into his hands. They brought a ladder, put it against a tree, the servant supported the ladder, and Lailara climbed up it. The higher he rises, the lower the changeak descends. So the prince extended his hand to the bird, it jumped on his head, and they went down together. Lilara liked the bird, and apparently she liked him too: she just flies after him, and doesn’t want to be separated for a moment.
The Raja ordered the goldsmith to make a cage for her. They put the changeak bird in a golden cage and began to look after it as if it were an important person.
Yi Sayang Mulli lives in a golden cage. One night everyone in the palace fell asleep, and she took off her magic jacket and went to wash herself in the royal bath. The next morning the Raja came there, but there was no water in his bath. He began to scold his servants. They say:
– We have been applying water since the evening.
The Raja thought that they were lazy and now would not confess, and ordered them to be given sticks. Since then, every night I splashed in the royal bath. and the next morning the Raja was angry with his servants.
One night the Raja decided to see who was pouring out his water. He sees a beauty coming out of his bath. She approached the cage and disappeared, no one knows where. The Raja was surprised and remembered this.
The next night he began to monitor the cage. He looks: a bird jumped out of the cage, shed its feathers and turned into a girl, as beautiful as a king’s daughter. Raja almost lost his mind from surprise, he began to rub his eyes - was it soy? Then he realized what was going on, took the magic clothes, and instead put a beautiful jacket and sarong, like all people.
Yi Sayang Mulli came out of the bathhouse, saw that her magic dress had disappeared, and was frightened: it means that her secret was revealed! She timidly began to ask for her things back, but the Raja never returned them.
So everyone learned that I Sayang Mulli, the elder sister of I Lailara, was hiding in the guise of the chakgeak bird. How glad the boy was to meet his sister again!
The barren queen saw the beautiful Yi Sayang Mulli and advised the rajah to marry her. She did not believe that Yi Sayang Mulli was a simple girl, she thought that this goddess came down from heaven and took on human form.
So I Sayang Mulli became the wife of the rajah and began to live happily next to her beloved brother.
And their mother, a sea cow, sheds tears day and night in separation from her children. The dolphin tirelessly rushes into the sea, here and there, looking for his wife.
Anyone who has swam in the sea has probably seen that a dolphin is always swimming behind the boat on the right or left - either diving or jumping out of the water. It is he who looks to see if his children are sailing home from Java.
That's the whole story about where the sea cow and the dolphin came from.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru