Palug Rayeh & Palug I'it Go Hunting
Sineh Nu'uh Ulun tells the folk story of Palug Rayeh and Palug I'it in the Remudu dialect of Kelabit. In this story, the two brothers go out hunting with dogs. The younger brother, Palug I'it, is successful, but the older brother, Palug Rayeh, gets himself into difficulties as always. The recording was made in Bario on 11th February 2019 whilst Sineh Nu'uh Ulun demonstrated how to weave a mat.
I'm going to talk about...
now she wants to hear the story
about Palug I'it and Palug Rayeh
one day
the younger sibling wanted to invite his brother to go hunting with the dogs
"you go on your own", he said
"I'm not going"
so Palug I'it went out hunting with the dogs
there was a...
his dog started barking
"what is it?" he said
barking deer
"oh I don't want that one"
he went on
the dog started barking again
"what's that one?"
sambhur deer
"oooh, no"
"don't take the sumbhar deer"
after that, the dog barked again
"what's that?", he said
wild boar
"is it fat?" he said
"thin"
"ooh don't take the thin ones"
after that he went on again
the dog barked again
and he said
"what's that?" he said
wild boar
"is it fat?"
"three fingers fat"
"oooh, no!"
"get a fatter one"
off he went
the dog barked again
it was a wild boar
this wild boar was fat
as thick as the palm
"take that one"
"that one's nice and fat"
then he...
he caught the wild boar and went home
and went home
taking the wild boar with him
he went home
and then he butchered it
and boiled it
then he went to divide it up
to give it to his sibling
Palug Rayeh
"oooh, I don't want that!", he said
"I'll go myself and get meat like this", he said
"I'll go and get even more", he said
so he refused to take the meat from his younger brother
then
he went
is this big enough? [of the mat]
so he went
he didn't want the one that was given
so Palug Rayeh went himself
and went hunting with his dogs
and the dog barked
he caught a wild boar
really thin
that wild boar was extremely thin
so he came back home
and asked his wife to prepare the mat and the butcher's block
"spread out the mat", he said
so she spread out the mat
then she, they...
then they smoked it
smoked it over a fire
"why did you catch such a thin one?!"
his wife said to him
so they smoke the wild boar meat
afterwards they go and bathe
they had already left to go and bathe
the fire was still going underneath
this smoked wild boar
the shelf above the fireplace burnt
and their house burnt down
so that's how the story went
that's the story that they told back then
after that
they also went to poison fish
they went to poison fish
Palug Rayeh, that is
then he.... the fish died from the poison
then he...
he fetches a bamboo, Palug Rayeh
for him to put the fish in
the fish died from the poison
and then he went to collect them
collect the fish
and put them in the bamboo
he puts one in
and out it falls
he puts one in
and out it falls
maybe he thought the fallen fish were some other fish
but they were the fish he had just tried to pack away
falling back into the water again and again
he would pick it up
and put it in the bamboo
then he went and carried his bamboo back home
and then he asked his wife to prepare the mat
she rolled out the mat
then they took it out
he took the bamboo out of his basket
and then they looked
he tipped up the bamboo
but there weren't any fish
then he said,
"eh?"
"where are the fish?" they said
said his wife to him
"well I put them into the bamboo just now"
he said
they looked down
there was a hole in the bamboo
the bamboo had a hole it it
that's why the fish didn't stay inside the bamboo
"oooh, Palug Rayeh, why are you so stupid?"
"you're the one who didn't leave the nodes on the bamboo"
"of course they all fell out!"
"there's nothing here", they said to him
"I'll get you back one of these days!"
"how do you like that?"
so that's the story our elders used to tell