orally and not documented, thus little is remembered (or spiced up). So don't be surprised if you heard different versions from different people.It is sad that there aren't much stories about Dusun Tatana in the world wide web too. I am quite determine to document as much as the elders can share
, do drop me a line if you have related stories too.I was told, there are two major ethnic groups in Kuala Penyu - the Dusun Tatana and the Bisaya. The Tatana means the people of the soil or in Malay known as orang tanah - the name derived after an incident where they were saved in a horrific battle. According to my dad; a very long time ago, both of these ethnic groups were known to have conflicts with each other. Those days, when a man fell ill, the villagers believed that he was possessed by evil spirits (hmm... even these present years, some people still do, huh?) . The Bobolian - a shaman / high priestess, or in Malay is known as a bomoh; would cure the person by performing ritual beliefs , accompanied by some musical instruments and chants. (One of the rituals according to my dad was known as Upacara Berasik. I googled and found "this"- similar ritual name but performed by Indonesians to communicate with the spirits. Not too sure if its the same).
One day, the Tatana tribe captured a large ''magical, talking'' snake. They killed it and used its skin
to make a drum. Terrible things started to happened after that. It was said that the spirit of the snake cursed a spell that whenever the drum was beaten (mainly for ritual purpose), everyone who heard the drumbeat would be on trance. They would run amok and kill anyone that came in their way. "Miamok, Miamok! Miamok, Miamok!" was the sound of the beating drum. The Bobolian advised the villagers to get rid of the drum, so they dumped the snake-skin drum into a nearby river. This particular river was connected to a neighbouring village of the Bisaya tribe. |
| [courtesy from google.com] |
It was said that the Bisaya found the snake-skin drum and delightedly brought it back to their village. History repeated as the Bisaya beat the drum - "Miamok! Miamok! Miamok!" it cursed the villagers to ran amok, many were killed. Infuriated by this incident especially when they found out that the drum was previously belonged to the Tatana, the Bisaya attacked the Tatana village and burnt everything down. Those who survived, some had ran away to different district, fearing for their life. Some stayed and dug a big underground tunnel and hid themselves in it from the Bisaya. The Tatana would only come out at night to look for food.
However, the tragic day came when the Bisaya finally found the Tatana's hideout. They shoved dried tree branches and leaves through the entrance hole of the hideout and lit fire. The ill-fated Tatana people were burnt to death or died due to suffocation. It was said that only 7 people miraculously survived the fire, included a woman.The feudal war did not end there. The Tatana lady who survived had a dream; the only way to stop the Bisaya from harassing them was to get Minyak Simai (some kind of a magical or probably poisonous potion) from a beruk or monkey (I am not too sure how they obtained this potion?) and to spread
it within the perimeter of the Tatana's land. If one had physically touched the potion, that person would suffer and die of poisoning. The Tatana people did as what the dream told them to. Scared of the unseen killer, the Bisaya people had stopped harassing the Tatana. The small Tatana community flourished and multiplied.They named their tribe as the Tatana - the people of the soil, to remember the feudal war, fire misadventure and thanked the Spirits of the Soil for saving their lives. So, that's what my dad told me. Do you have another version?
