WERE MAMAK AND
INAK Bongsu giants?
“No, they were like us,” Mak Minah
insisted. “But there was a race of ogres who suddenly appeared and caused a lot
of trouble.”
Who were these ogres? Mak Minah could only
say they came from “somewhere else, perhaps from across the ocean.”
Megasi
- that's what the Temuan call these ogres which appear in Malay folklore as Gergasi - man-eating giants who weren't
particularly intelligent. Rather like the Cyclops of Greek mythology who,
though feared and loathed, often bore the brunt of much bawdy humor. In
archeology, the gigantic stone walls of very ancient cities found in Mesopotamia,
Mycenaea, Peru, and Mesoamerica have been labelled “cyclopean.” And justifiably
so, for all the local folk legends testify that these incredible constructions
were indeed the work of a giant race.
Mak Minah tells an amusing story about Inak
Bongsu's abduction by a Megasi, and how Mamak Bongsu contrived to rescue her.
(This brings to mind the Hindu epic Ramayana,
which tells of Sita's abduction by Ravana, king of the Raksasas, and how Rama
secured her safe release with the help of the warrior-monkey Hanuman). A great
many details are missing from Mak Minah's account (she is more of a singer than
a storyteller) and the only bit she remembers with great relish is when Mamak
Bongsu transforms himself into a bamboo rat and hides amidst a grove of tender
young shoots - a favorite snack of the Megasi when humans are unavailable.
When Mamak Bongsu hears the female giant’s
heavy tread approaching, he attracts her attention by going
“Whooo-ooo-whooo-ooo” in a very musical voice. The ogress is intrigued by this
phenomenon: “How enchanting! The bamboo can sing!” she exclaims. Kneeling by
the bamboo clump with her rump in the air, she tries to locate the source of
the mysterious music. Whereupon Mamak Bongsu shapeshifts into a kumbang (carpenter bee) and buzzes
straight into her huge vulva. Once inside, Mamak Bongsu stings her and her
abdomen swells up.
Later her husband questions the ogress
about her huge belly, and she declares that she has been impregnated by an
enchanted clump of singing bamboo. (To this day, bamboo groves called buloh hibut or buloh perindu are known to sing enchantingly in the strong wind.)
Mamak Bongsu patiently waits till the Megasi’s husband has gone out hunting. Then he begins to slash at her stomach lining with his parang (it is unclear how he manages to smuggle a machete into her maw while disguised as a carpenter bee). Feeling sharp, stabbing pains in her belly, the ogress begins to roar,
“Arrrgh, stomach upset, must shit right away!” The ogress squats to relieve
herself and, in the process, Mamak Bongsu finds himself being forced out of her
gargantuan backside. Thinking fast, Mamak Bongsu removes his teeth and hair (no
problem for an experienced shapeshifter) so that the Megasi thinks she has just
given birth to a baby ogre.
“Hah! How lovely, my own little baby!” the ogress chuckles, and begins fussing over the “infant” Mamak Bongsu, cuddling the little tyke and tossing it in the air with whoops of delight. Then the Megasi notices that something is amiss and a deep frown furrows her enormous brow. At this point the ogress sings a crude little ditty which Mak Minah performs for me with risible glee:
Lambung tinggi-tinggi Toss (the baby) high
Sampai hatap-hatap; Right up to the roof;
Belum
temu gigi, No sign of any teeth yet
Berbulu lubang pantat!
But, oh, such hairy pubes!
Nevertheless, it's cheering to know that
the man-eating giants were eventually defeated and exiled far, far away,
“beyond the most distant seas.”
Interestingly, Hindu mythology also speaks
of terrible wars between the gods and the Asuras,
a demonic race of warlike giants from a different world - a scenario echoed in
the folk myths of many other cultures on the face of Tanah Tujuh.