Level B1 Intermediate British English
The vain leopard | The buffalo princesses | The famous fool | The strongest man below the wind
Says the Teller of Tales: Once there lived a very vain leopard. He was very proud of his beauty. He called himself Bintang because, he said, his spots were as beautiful as the stars (bin tang) in the sky.
“Oh, how beautiful I look!” he said, gazing at himself in a pool.
Monyet the Monkey chuckled from a high branch of a tree. “Oh, how beautiful, how beautiful I look!” he said, making fun of Bintang.
The other animals laughed and Bintang was angry. “Wait till I catch you, Monyet!” he roared. “I’ll eat you up!”
“Monkey meat is not good for your skin,” said the playful Monyet. “You’ll break out in spots of a different kind, not at all beautiful!”
Bintang loped away. He was angry but still swayed gracefully, showing off his beauty. Monyet walked along a branch, swaying just like Bintang. The other animals laughed. Bintang walked on, growling to himself. “I’ll teach that monkey a lesson,” he said.
One day Bintang had his chance. As usual, he could not pass the pool without stopping to gaze at himself in it. He gazed and gazed, admiring his own beauty.
“My spots are really like stars,” he said, dancing with joy. “Is there any other animal as beautiful as I am?”
Monyet was on his favourite branch. He said, making fun of Bintang, “Oh, my spots! Oh, my stars! Is there any other animal as vain as I am?”
Then Monyet danced just like Bintang. The other animals chuckled. Monyet danced and loped and swayed, making fun of the vain leopard.
Suddenly Monyet slipped and fell to the ground.
Bintang pounced on him.
It was Bintang’s turn to laugh. “Ha! Ha! Now I can teach you a lesson. You’ll never be playful and naughty again. I’m going to eat you up.”
Monyet was very frightened but could still smile.
“Then how could you teach me a lesson?” he said. “I would be dead. Why don’t you give me another chance?”
Bintang thought for a while. “You’re right,” he said. “I can’t teach you a lesson. Never mind, I’ll enjoy eating you.”
“But... but you’ll break out in ugly spots!” cried Monyet.
“My beauty will make them beautiful,” Bintang chuckled.
Monyet began to cry. He could hot think of any more monkey tricks. Bintang was vain but kind. He said, “All right, I’ll give you another chance. Don’t ever make fun of me again.” Bintang became worse with nobody to make fun of him. Every day he spent hours gazing at himself in the pool. He danced and loped and swayed, wanting everyone to admire his beauty.
All the animals in the jungle knew about Bintang. Soon the people in the jungle also heard about the beautiful and vain leopard. The people were called Orang Asli. They hunted animals for meat and skin. One of them wanted to kill Bintang. He said to himself, “I must kill the leopard and take his beautiful skin. I’ll wear it and everyone will admire me.” He was vain, too.
The hunter was called Upas. “Upas” means poison, a very strong one used for hunting. The Orang Asli took the poison from a tree and smeared the darts of their blowpipes with it. Then they used their blowpipes to shoot animals. The darts pierced the animals and the poison killed them.
Upas’s parents gave him that name because they wanted him to be a good hunter. He became the best hunter in the jungle. Upas took his blowpipe and darts and went to Bintang’s favourite pool. From a distance, he saw Bintang. Bintang was gazing at himself in the pool, admiring his own beauty.
Slowly Upas came closer. He crawled in the undergrowth, coming closer and closer. He did not make any noise. Bintang could neither see nor hear him. Bintang could not smell him either. Upas knew the wind was blowing from the north. So he came from the south. He could smell Bintang, but Bintang could not smell him. Also, Bintang was busy admiring his own beauty.
Upas saw how beautiful Bintang was. His heart danced with joy. He raised his blowpipe slowly and aimed carefully. Bintang went on gazing at himself in the pool.
Monyet the Monkey was on his favourite branch. He said to himself, “Is there any other animal as vain as this leopard? He is so busy admiring his own beauty, anyone can kill him very easily.”
Then suddenly, from his high branch, Monyet saw the hunter in the undergrowth. He saw the blowpipe aimed at Bintang.
“Bintang! Run! Hunter!” cried Monyet. He spoke in animal language so that Upas would not understand. Bintang ran for his life. Upas ran after him. Monyet followed.
Bintang could not run very fast or very far. He never liked to play games or run about like the other animals. He liked to sit for hours gazing at himself in the pool. Sometimes he danced and loped and swayed so that everyone would admire his beauty. But that did not give him much exercise!
Upas was a very fast and strong runner. Every morning he ran as fast and as far as he could. He was vain, too, but not as vain as Bintang. He did not spend hours sitting beside a pool and admiring himself.
After a while Bintang felt tired. He ran more and more slowly. Upas came closer and closer. Soon he would see Bintang and shoot him. Monyet cried out in animal language, “Hide, Bintang! Hide in the undergrowth here, under this tree!”
Bintang hid in the undergrowth. Upas ran on.
Bin tang said, “Thank you, Monyet!”
“Don’t talk so loudly, Bintang,” whispered Monyet. “Don’t make any noise. Don’t move. He will turn back to look for you.”
Upas did turn back to look for Bintang. The wind from the north no longer brought Bintang’s smell. So Upas knew Bintang was no longer in front of him. Bintang must be somewhere in the south, behind him.
Slowly and carefully Upas looked for Bintang.
Bintang lay in the undergrowth. He was very frightened. He neither spoke nor moved. He did not make any sound.
Monyet watched. He was very frightened for his friend. “l don’t want him to die,” Monyet thought. “He is vain but kind. I want him to live and learn a lesson from all this.”
The hunter walked on to the south. The wind from the north was no longer blowing. He would not get Bintang’s smell until the wind started blowing again.
Monyet was happy to see the hunter walk on.
But suddenly Bintang was not. He wanted to show off his beauty to the hunter!
He wanted it so much that he forgot to be frightened. He loped out of the undergrowth and began to dance and sway. He called out to Upas, “Hunter! See how beautiful I am!”
Upas did not understand animal language but he heard Bintang’s voice. He turned to look and could not believe his eyes. His heart danced with joy. He raised his blowpipe and aimed it at the dancing leopard.
The next second Bintang would have been dead.
But Monyet threw a wild fruit at Upas and spoilt his aim. The dart went over Bintang’s head.
“Run, Bintang!” cried Monyet.
Again Bintang ran for his life. Upas wanted to run after him. But Monyet called out in human language, chuckling, “Hunter! Hunter! You can catch the silly leopard but you can never catch me – I’m cleverer than you are!”
Upas was very angry. He was a vain man. He thought he was the cleverest man in the jungle. How could a monkey be cleverer than he was?
He did not run after Bintang. He aimed his blowpipe at Monyet, saying, “I’m Upas the Hunter. Nobody is cleverer than I am!”
But Upas’s dart did not hit Monyet. A hunter must not be angry. Upas was so angry that he could not shoot straight. So Monyet got away from him very easily, chuckling happily, swinging from tree to tree.
Bintang never again danced and swayed to show off his beauty. He no longer spent hours admiring himself. When he looked at himself in the pool a little too long, Monyet would whisper from his favourite branch, “Remember the hunter, Bintang!”
Once upon a time there was a beautiful and kind queen. The king had died and so the queen ruled the country. The good people loved her because she was fair to everyone. But the bad people asked a wicked spirit to change her into a buffalo.
“I must go away,” she thought sadly. “The people won’t want a buffalo to be their queen. And I don’t want the wicked people to harm my children.”
So she left the palace, taking her three little daughters with her. The eldest princess was called Yasmin, the second Meilin and the third Shirin.
The princesses did not know how sad their mother felt. They thought she had changed herself into a buffalo for fun. In those days many people could change themselves into animals and back again. Magic was a subject in school.
But the queen was never good at magic. Her favourite subject was history. It helped her rule well, but it could not save her from wicked spirits and bad people.
The three little girls were very happy riding on their mother’s back. They looked around them, admiring the beautiful view. They saw fields, rivers, valleys and hills.
After a while it grew dark. They came to a little hut beside a rice-field. There was nobody in the hut, so they went in and rested. Soon the princesses were fast asleep. But their mother lay awake, thinking sad thoughts.
The next morning an old farmer came to the hut.
“Welcome!” he said. “Tell me who you are and where you have come from.”
The buffalo looked at the farmer’s kind face and told him everything. “But please don’t tell anyone who we are,” she said. “I don’t want the wicked people to come here and harm my children.”
“Don’t worry, Your Majesty,” said the farmer. The farmer’s name was Pak Utih. Pak Utih asked the buffalo and her children to stay in the little hut.
“Forty days ago,” said Pak Utih, “I had a dream. The Earth Spirit asked me and my family to build another house and move there. She asked me to leave this hut empty. She said some very special people would come to live in it.”
The buffalo and the three princesses thanked the farmer. They were very happy living in the hut. Every day the buffalo went out to work. She ploughed rice-fields and did all sorts of other jobs. The three princesses enjoyed themselves playing in the rice-fields.
The people in the village never came near the hut. The farmer had told them about his dream. They said, “We must help them but we must not come near them.”
The people were very kind to the buffalo. They gave her all sorts of jobs and rewarded her with food, drinks and pretty clothes for the girls.
Years passed and the little girls grew up into lovely young ladies. They were beautiful and bright but a little spoilt. Their mother never let them do any work.
One day, three princes from another country came riding into the village. They were happy to see the little hut near the rice-field.
“Let’s rest in there,” said Az, the eldest prince, hurrying towards it. His brothers Ming and Raj followed more slowly.
There was nobody in the hut. The three princes were surprised to see how clean and beautiful everything was inside.
“I like this little hut better than our palace,” said Az, looking round.
“I’m sure it belongs to a beautiful princess,” said Ming.
“Of course,” said Raj. “That’s why it’s so clean and beautiful.”
He was wrong. It was the buffalo who had kept the hut so clean and beautiful.
The three princes were very tired. Soon they fell asleep. The three princesses came home and were very surprised to find three handsome young men there, fast asleep.
They gazed at the princes. Suddenly all three opened their eyes. They thought they were dreaming!
“It’s not one princess, it’s three princesses,” said Az.
“This must be a dream,” said Ming.
“I don’t want to wake up,” said Raj.
Yasmin smiled and said, “It’s not a dream. You are in our hut. Tell us who you are and where you have come from.”
The princes and princesses chatted and laughed happily. Soon they were in love – Az and Yasmin, Ming and Meilin, Raj and Shirin.
“Please come with us and be our brides,” said the princes to the princesses, “and we’ll live happily ever after.”
The three princesses forgot all about their mother. They went off with their handsome princes, chatting and laughing happily all the way.
The Earth Spirit watched all this. She shook her head sadly.
Later in the evening the buffalo came home. She was tired and muddy but very happy. The village people had given her beautiful gifts for her children.
She called out, “Yasmin! Meilin! Shirin! I’m home! I’ve brought lovely things for you!”
But there was no answer. There was nobody in the hut.
She went to look for her daughters, calling, “Yasmin! Meilin! Shirin!”
The Earth Spirit watched and listened sadly.
The buffalo saw her children’s shoeprints on the muddy earth. She saw other shoeprints, bigger ones made by men’s shoes. She also saw hoofmarks.
“Wicked men have taken them away on horses!” she cried.
She followed the hoofmarks. Soon there were no more because the earth there was hard and dry. But she walked on and on, looking for her beloved children.
She went across fields and along rivers, over hills and through valleys. She forgot about eating and drinking. She did not even feel tired. She became very thin but she went on and on.
At last, early one morning, she saw her three daughters in a palace garden! They had married their handsome princes and lived in a beautiful palace.
The buffalo called out, “Yasmin! Meilin! Shirin! It’s me, your mother!”
The guards at the palace gate laughed. “Those are our princesses, not your children!” they said.
Yasmin said, “Tell her to go away, guards!”
Meilin said, “What a silly buffalo!”
Shirin kept quiet. She did not know what to do. The buffalo was shocked to hear her daughters’ words. “Oh, my children!” she cried. “I’ve walked so far and so long, looking for you. I’ve brought you beautiful gifts from the village people.”
“We are princesses,” said Yasmin and Meilin. “We don’t want gifts from village people. Go away!”
Then the buffalo’s heart broke. She turned and walked away from her children.
Shirin ran out of the palace gate and hugged her mother. “This is my beloved mother,” she told the palace guards. “I’m going with her.”
At that moment the three princes came back from their morning ride. Shirin told them everything.
“It’s not true!” cried Yasmin and Meilin. “Our mother is a beautiful queen, not this old buffalo!”
The Earth Spirit had followed the buffalo all the way. Nobody could see her. Now she smiled to herself, waved a rice-stalk twice and cast two magic spells. Suddenly the old buffalo turned into a beautiful queen, and Yasmin and Meilin turned into fat young buffaloes!
The palace guards fainted. The three princes were also very shocked, especially Az and Ming. The beautiful girls they loved had turned into buffaloes!
The queen guessed that the Earth Spirit had done this. She said, “Oh, Earth Spirit! Thank you for turning me back into a queen. But please, please turn my two daughters back into girls! Everybody makes mistakes. I’m sure they are very sorry.”
The Earth Spirit felt sorry for the queen. She did not want her to feel sad anymore. So she turned Yasmin and Meilin back into beautiful girls. They hugged their mother and said they were very, very sorry.
Everybody was happy again. The queen went back to her own beloved country. She did not forget Pak Utih and the other village people. She and the princesses and princes often went to see them.
The queen ruled her country well. She was fair to everyone. She learnt magic from the Earth Spirit. Nobody could turn her into a buffalo or anything else ever again.
Once there lived a man called Pak Pandir.
Everyone in his village called him a fool. His wife Mak Andeh and their son Awang and daughter Ara also thought he was a fool.
Pak Pandir was always dreaming. He dreamt at night and in the daytime. He dreamt of a beautiful and happy world. When he was a little boy he went to a village school. He learnt nothing. He was always dreaming.
One day Mak Andeh said to her husband, “Please go and get a buffalo. We need one to plough our rice-field.”
“What’s a buffalo?” asked Pak Pandir.
Awang and Ara laughed. They were little children but they knew what a buffalo was. All these years their neighbour’s old buffalo had helped plough their rice-field. The buffalo had just died. Now it was their turn to go and get a buffalo. Then their buffalo could help plough their neighbour’s rice-field, too.
Pak Pandir had seen many buffaloes in his life. But he never thought about them. He did not know they were called buffaloes. He lived in his own world of beautiful dreams.
“Tell your father what a buffalo is,” said Mak Andeh to Awang and Ara.
Ara said, “A buffalo eats grass and ...”
“All right, all right, I know now,” said Pak Pandir.
Mak Andeh gave him her gold chain to exchange for a buffalo. In those days people did not use money. They just exchanged things. A gold chain was about the same value as a buffalo. Pak Pandir went off, singing happily, “A buffalo eats grass! A buffalo eats grass!”
After a while he came to a field. The grass had grown long and a man was cutting it with a scythe.
“A buffalo eats grass,” thought Pak Pandir.
“That thing is eating grass very fast. It must be a buffalo.”
So he went up to the man and said, “I’d like to buy your buffalo.”
The man turned and saw Pak Pandir pointing at his scythe.
“Oh, it’s you, Pak Pandir!” he cried. “How clever of you to know a buffalo when you see one!”
Pak Pandir was very happy to be called clever. Most of the time he was called a fool.
“Of course I know what a buffalo is,” he said proudly. “A buffalo eats grass.”
“That’s really clever of you, Pak Pandir,” said the man, smiling.
Pak Pandir showed the man Mak Andeh’s gold chain. “Will you take this in exchange for your buffalo?” he asked.
The man looked at the beautiful gold chain. He could see it was very valuable.
“My buffalo is a very fine one,” he said. “Is this all you have to exchange for it?”
“Yes,” said Pak Pandir. “But I can ask my wife to come here and look at your fine buffalo. Then she may give you two of these things.”
“Never mind,” the man said hastily. “I’ll take that thing now and you can have my buffalo.”
Pak Pandir thanked the man. “What a kind fellow,” he thought. “This is a beautiful world, full of kind people.”
He gave his wife’s gold chain to the man, took the scythe and went home. He called out happily, “Andeh! Awang! Ara! I’ve brought a fine buffalo!”
Mak Andeh, Awang and Ara rushed out to see their fine new buffalo. “Where is it? Where is it?” they asked.
Pak Pandir showed them the scythe. “Isn’t it a fine buffalo?” he said proudly.
The two children laughed but Mak Andeh cried. Pak Pandir had exchanged her gold chain for a scythe!
For three days Mak Andeh did not speak to her husband. But he did not even notice it. He was too busy dreaming.
On the fourth day, late in the evening, Mak Andeh said to Pak Pandir, “I’m cooking something special for tonight. Please go to the Good Genie’s house and bring him here to have dinner with us.”
Everyone in the village knew where the Good Genie lived – everyone except Pak Pandir. Mak Andeh gave him directions. “Go straight on from here,” she said, “until the path becomes two paths, one left, one right. Take the left path, not the right. The left path takes you to the Good Genie’s house. The right goes to the Bad Giant’s house.”
“Remember, father,” said Awang. “Left, not right. Don’t go right, the Bad Giant will eat you up.”
Pak Pandir looked dreamy, as usual. Mak Andeh made him say over and over again, “Left, not right. Left, not right.”
He went off saying it. After a while he began singing it. All the time he went on dreaming. He dreamt of Bad Giants turning into Good Genies. Then the world would be really happy and beautiful.
Somehow the words changed. Instead of “”eft, not right”, he started singing “right, not left”. So he took the right path. He did not know it was the wrong path!
He knocked on the door of a huge house. The Bad Giant opened the door.
“What a pleasant surprise!” said the Bad Giant.
“How are you, Pak Pandir? You are looking well. You look plump and juicy, good enough to eat.”
“Thank you, Good Genie,” said Pak Pandir.
“I’m surprised you know me.”
The Bad Giant chuckled. “I’m happy you don’t know me,” he said. “But who doesn’t know you, Pak Pandir? You’re the famous fool... oh, I’m sorry, I mean you’re famous.”
“It’s all right, Good Genie,” said Pak Pandir gently. “Please come to my house and have dinner with us. Andeh is cooking something special.”
“How kind of you!” said the Bad Giant, licking his lips. “I wanted to have you for dinner. But now there will be your wife and children as well. It will be a special feast indeed!”
Pak Pandir took the Bad Giant to his house.
What a shock his family had! Mak Andeh put everything she had cooked on the table. “Please help yourself,” she said to the Bad Giant.
“I will, I will,” chuckled the Bad Giant. “What a feast – four at one time!”
“Five, Good Genie, five,” said Pak Pandir. He could count up to ten. “We are five happy people here at the feast.”
“Soon there will be just one,” chuckled the Bad Giant.
Suddenly Pak Pandir understood what the Bad Giant meant. “The Good Genie wants to eat us up,” he thought sadly. “Oh, when did he turn into a Bad Genie?”
He said to the Bad Giant, “There’s another family of four across the river – one woman and three little children. Come with me. I’m going there to invite them to join us for dinner.”
The Bad Giant liked to eat little children.
Another three – five altogether! He too could count up to ten. He said, “Sure I’ll come with you, Pak Pandir. I love children.”
Pak Pandir took the Bad Giant to the riverside.
There he had a boat with a small hole in it. He did not know how to mend the hole. So the boat just lay there.
“Come into the boat, Good Genie,” said Pak Pandir. “We’ll cross the river and meet the children.”
They got into the boat and began rowing. The water came in slowly through the small hole. The Bad Giant noticed it only when they were halfway across. The river was very deep there.
“The boat is leaking!” cried the Bad Giant. “Oh, you fool, we’ll both die!”
Pak Pandir smiled. He did not mind dying to save his family. Also, he was sad because the Good Genie had turned into a Bad Genie. The world was not so beautiful after all.
The Bad Giant saw Pak Pandir’s smile. Suddenly he understood. Pak Pandir had done it on purpose to save his family!
The boat began to sink. Neither the Bad Giant nor Pak Pandir could swim. “Help! Help!” the Bad Giant shouted.
Some people came out of their houses on the banks of the river. They felt sorry for Pak Pandir, but they did not want to save the Bad Giant.
“Help!” cried the Bad Giant. “I promise I’ll never eat people again! I promise I’ll be a Good Giant! Please save me!”
The people got into their boats. They saved Pak Pandir and the Bad Giant just in time. “Oh, you fool,” they said to Pak Pandir.
The Bad Giant became a Good Giant. It was not because of his promise. It was because he admired Pak Pandir. “He may be a fool,” he thought, “but he did something clever and brave to save his family.”
Pak Pandir thought happily, “I’m glad the Good Genie has become good again. The world is a beautiful place after all.”
Mak Andeh, Awang and Ara hugged Pak Pandir when he returned. They never laughed at him again. The people in the village still thought Pak Pandir was a fool, but his family knew better.
Long ago, in one of the lands below the wind, there lived a young man called Badang. He liked to watch ships in the harbour. They were sailing ships. When the monsoon wind blew, they sailed from their own countries to the lands below the wind.
Badang longed to go out to sea. He tried to join a ship. But he was thin and weak and the sailors laughed at him. “You a sailor?” they said. “One big wave, one strong wind, and you’d be swept off the ship.”
Then Badang tried to join a fishing boat that went far out to sea. But the fishermen too laughed at his thin and weak body. “You a deep-sea fisherman?” they said. “One big wave, one strong wind, and you’d be swept off the boat.”
Badang did not own even a little boat. He was very poor. All he had was a fish trap. It once belonged to his father. His father and mother were dead now. He felt alone in the world.
One morning he went to the river to look at his fish trap and found no fish in it. But there were many fish bones on the ground near it.
“Who has eaten my fish?” he said to himself. “Wait till I catch him.”
Badang was thin and weak but he was not a coward. He was very brave. His father used to tell him, “Remember, son, courage is stronger than strength.”
That night he hid in some bushes on the bank of the river. He waited patiently for the thief to come. At midnight he saw a tall, black figure heading for the fish trap. Badang crept closer. It was the Water Spirit.
The Water Spirit opened the fish trap and started eating the fish. Badang saw him very clearly. He had teeth like those of a shark. He had claws like those of a crab.
Badang had heard many stories about the Water Spirit. The Water Spirit liked to do bad things to fishermen and sailors. He brought big waves and strong winds. He sank boats and ships. He stole fishermen’s catch. Now he was stealing Badang’s catch!
The Water Spirit looked strong but Badang was not afraid. He was fearless. Nothing and nobody frightened him. He leapt out of the bushes and took hold of the Water Spirit’s arm. It was scaly and muddy.
The Water Spirit leapt up and tried to pull his arm away. But Badang held on. Badang looked him straight in the eyes. The Water Spirit was much stronger than Badang – but Badang’s fearless eyes made him feel weak.
“Please let me go,” he pleaded.
“I can’t let you go,” said Badang. “You have eaten my fish.”
The Water Spirit said, “Make a wish and I’ll grant it.”
Badang said: “My wish is to be the strongest man below the wind.”
“All right,” said the Water Spirit. He waved his free arm and cast a magic spell.
“What’s the catch?” asked Badang, for he saw a wicked look in the Water Spirit’s eyes.
“Fish!” the Water Spirit joked.
“I don’t mean that kind of catch. I mean, there’s a trick somewhere. What is it?”
“All right. You’ll become the King’s chief wrestler. You must only fight men from lands below the wind. If you fight a man who is not from a land below the wind, you will lose your strength.”
“I’ll remember that,” said Badang, and let the Water Spirit go.
The Water Spirit plunged into the river, calling, “Pull up a tree, Badang. You’re the strongest man below the wind!” Badang heard him laugh. It sounded wicked.
There was a small tree growing by the river.
Badang tried to pull it up. It came up easily in his hands, roots and all! He tried a bigger tree. He uprooted it easily. Then he tried the biggest tree in sight. It was as easy as pulling up grass.
Badang sat down. “I must not go round uprooting trees,” he thought. “Strength must be used wisely.”
He remembered his dearest wish in life. l le wanted to go out to sea. So he went to the harbour. There was a big crowd there. Everyone was looking worried. He asked, “What has happened?”
An old man answered, “There has been an accident. A ship rammed a fishing boat in the dark.”
Badang plunged into the sea. He found he could swim very well. In no time he reached the ship and the boat. They were sinking. Men in boats were trying to rescue the sailors and fishermen. Badang helped, rescuing many people at a time. Then he swam back to the shore, pulling the boat and the ship with him.
The people looked at Badang. They could not believe their eyes. He became their hero. Some sailors and fishermen came to say sorry to him. “We laughed at you,” they said. “Now you save our lives!”
The King heard about Badang. He asked Badang to become his chief wrestler.
Badang said, “Your Majesty, there is one thing I beg of you. Please don’t ever ask me to fight a wrestler from a land above the wind.”
“Of course, of course,” said the King.
So Badang became the King’s chief wrestler. Soon he was famous. Kings from other lands below the wind sent their chief wrestlers to fight Badang.
These were friendly fights. Everybody enjoyed the fun.
Badang always won. He became known as “the strongest man below the wind”. The King liked him very much. He often took Badang sailing, so Badang was very happy.
Then one day the King received a letter from a land above the wind. It was from the King of that land. It said: “We hear that you are afraid to let your chief wrestler fight anyone from a land above the wind. We challenge you to let him fight our chief wrestler, Aftabus. We are sure our Aftabus will make mincemeat of your Badang.”
The King was very angry. The other King thought he was a coward! He answered the letter at once, asking the other King to send his chief wrestler.
The King did not tell Badang that Aftabus came from a land above the wind. He asked everyone to keep this a secret from Badang. Badang did not suspect anything. He was never good at geography. He was not good at any subject at school. He spent the time dreaming about going out to sea.
The day of the fight was bright and sunny. There was a huge crowd around the arena. People had come from many lands to watch the fight. Aftabus had brought two shiploads of supporters. They called out, “Aftabus! Aftabus! Aftabus always wins!” But Badang’s supporters were very sure their hero was going to win.
Aftabus and Badang walked into the arena.
Aftabus was huge and hefty and looked very strong. Badang was thin and small and looked very weak. But everyone had heard of Badang’s strength.
The fight began. Badang knew at once he had lost his strength! Aftabus threw him down very easily, then sat on him. Badang remembered the Water Spirit’s words. In his mind he heard the Water Spirit chuckle, “You got tricked! I knew your King would make you fight everybody, below or above the wind!”
But Badang was not afraid. Nothing and nobody frightened him. He looked Aftabus straight in the eyes and pushed him off with all his might.
At that moment Aftabus was much stronger than Badang. Aftabus knew that, because he had thrown Badang down very easily. But Badang’s fearless eyes made him feel weak. So Badang could push him off very easily.
Badang won the fight. His supporters were very happy. Everyone admired his strength. Only he knew why he had won. He had lost all his strength. But he still had his courage. His father had said, “Remember, son, courage is stronger than strength.”