Talles From Pulau Banyak
Hantu Laut (Sea Ghosts)
There are many sea ghost in Pulau Banyak and they get the blame for many bad things. There are both a female and a male sea ghost.
These ghosts are not human, but instead are some kind of fish ghosts. The female sea ghost is called "Bundung" .
Her evil specialty is to cclimb the masts of ships. Up in that position she is visible, but otherwise not. Up in the mast she an do two evil things.
One is to empty her bowels over the ship. The excrement looks like palm oil, and the end result of this is that the ship sinks. The other activity is to
cause lightning to hit the boat,causing the boat and crew to perish. The male sea ghost is called "Ka'aswin". He can be seen
at the start of storm. He has one eye, which appears as green light. If you come very close,it turns red instead. If it red you are on very dangerous
ground. Ka'aswin influences your brain and can cause boats to sail aground, or to give you fever. If a fisherman sees the eye he has says the name
" Ka'aswin " repeatedly .
Hantu Buaya (Crocodiles Ghost)
The crocodile ghosts can enter a crocodile and make it vicious. The last crocodile in Pulau Palambak Besar disappeared in the beginning of the 70'ties,
but according to some people there is one still left, living together with a crocodile ghost, somewhere behind Gary's Pondok near " The Point" in Palambak Besar.
The last time he was seen, was 1990, but his bad breath can sometimes be felt close to the beach. Unfortunately, for the crocodile, he cannot get out of the junggle
because too much vegetation has grown up, and his genitals get stuck in the branches! The last crocodile in Rangit Besar island was killed in seventies. It was caught
by Pak (Mr) Silong, a crocodile "pawang" from Padang. ( A "pawang" is a person who can ccommunicate with animals. ) He used a chicken as bait of a hook.
The rocodile was nine "hesta" long. (One "hesta" is the distance between a grown-up's elbow and fingertips, hand held flat out.) According to another version, this crocodile
was killed by an old woman with a piece of wood from magic tree. She just hit the crocodile in the head three times and it died. When a fisherman meets a crocodile at sea,
he says :" Jauh nenek, jauh, saya pergi cari makan " (Go away grandmother, go away, I am just looking for food. )
Devil and ghosts in Bangkaru
Up until 20 to 30 years ago people mainly from Haloban, used to arrive to Bangkaru by sailing boat. They landed just as in "modern" times at Pelanggaran Beach. There were
always three persons on board . One of them was a "dukun" (medicine man or magician man ). The dukun's role was to protect them from all the devils and ghosts that inhabited
Bangkaru and to make the waves become smaller to facilitate and easier landing. The devils used to call to the visitor with human voies. They called for help and tries to make the
visitor go after the sound. Obviously the dukuns did a good job, because no one can remember that anyone ever got lost. During all the years only one person ever drowned at
Pelanggaran.
The Pirates in Palambak Besar and Kecil
Many faraway island, not only Palambak Besar and Keil, were controlled by very primitive pirates. They were brutal and killed temporary visitors in order to steal their supplies.
Their ruler was the strongest person. In both Palambak Besar and Palambak Kecil, they collected the sculls of their victims in a well. In Palambak Besar no one remembers
where this well is, but in Palambak Kecil the well can be seen. This lawlessness continued until the 30'ies.
Hidden treasures
There are many hidden treasures in Pulau Banyak according to the locals. Some from the Dutch who hid them from Japanese and sometimes from Japanese who hid them when they left.
On Ujung Utara (Nothern Point) in Bangkaru Island, a Duchman once built a house and started coconut plantation. He entered the small river there and built his house at a shouting distance to
the east. Somewhere there, a metal box was found that was impossible to open. When people came back with better tools they could not to find it. In Telik Nibung there is a cave with a treasure in it.
It is however protected by magic powers and it is strongly recommended not to try to enter !.
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