This is an ancient event.
There were two half sisters, Acienggaakdit (the older Acienggaak) and Acienggaakthii (the younger Acienggaak). Acienggaakdit was the daughter of the senior wife, and Acienggaakthii was the daughter of the junior wife. Acienggaakthii’s mother died suddenly, so she was brought to the home of Acienggaakdit’s mother. Acienggaakdit had an older sister. Her name was Ayan, but she was sometimes called by her nickname, Anyijang. She was married to a lion. Acienggaakdit and Acienggaakthii were the only girls at home.
Acienggaakdit was very proud. She saw her half sister as a useless beggar. The people at home also treated Acienggaakthii like a slave. She was sent for every errand. Achienggaakdit was no longer sent anywhere. She became the mistress of the house.
One day, the two sisters were pounding grain in a mortar with pestles. They pounded and pounded. Then Acienggaakthii put down her pestle. The pestle rolled onto Acienggaakdit’s beautifully decorated gourd and broke it. When Acienggaakdit saw this, she became very angry. She wanted to fight, but was held back. She said that if she were not allowed to kill her sister, Acienggaakthii must mend her broken gourd with a hair from the tail of a lion. If Acienggaakthii failed to get the hair, she would surely kill her. Acienggaakthii was small and weak from lack of care; Acienggaakdit could easily kill her.
Acienggaakthii wondered what to do. She was her mother’s only child. After her mother’s death her father suddenly turned to his surviving wives and neglected her. The only person who loved her was Ayan, her half sister who was married to the lion. She scratched her head and said to herself, “What shall I do? Where shall I go?”
One day in the early hours of the morning, Acienggaakthii decided to visit Ayan. She walked and walked. When she arrived it was nightfall. But the people had not yet returned from hunting. Only her sister was at home. After she had explained her problem, Ayan advised her, saying: “Daughter of my father, when my husband comes and suggests that you two should eat together, agree; share the gourd with him. I will put two shell spoons into the gourd: a large one and a small, broken one with a hole in the center. You should take that broken spoon and use it. You will not be eating much because the food will flow out of the spoon. Nevertheless, stop eating before the gourd is empty. Leave the rest for him to finish. If you finish everything with him, he will eat you in the morning.”
Acienggaakthii listened to her sister’s advice. Her sister went on and said: “At night, I will cut off hairs from the tail of my husband when they begin to stand up. I will bring them to you in the hut where you will be sleeping.” Her sister listened very closely and put everything into her head.
When Ayan’s husband returned that evening, he said, “O, my wife, what is this that smells like a human being?”
His wife retorted: “What sort of talk is this? Have you not known all along that I am a human being? If you now want to eat me, go ahead!”
“O no!” he said, “How can I eat my wife? Where will I go if I do? Ayan, my dearest!”
He sat with doubtful heart. Once more he said, “My dear wife, there is something which smells like a human being!”
But his wife repeated: “I have always been a human being. I told you to go ahead if you want to eat me.”
Then he said, “O no! How can a man eat his wife? Where would he then go? My dearest!”
Again he sat with a doubtful heart. Then he said again, “O, O, how you smell! You are more of a human being tonight than you have ever been!”
“Well,” said Ayan, “if you feel like eating me, why don’t you? I have always been a human being!”
He went into the cattle-byre where his sister-in-law was sleeping. As he entered, the human smell became stronger. “Who is here?” he said.
“Brother-in-law,” answered Acienggaakthii, “it is I, Acienggaakthii. I have been here for some time!” She spoke very courteously as she went towards him. She was a very courteous girl. He returned to his wife and said, “How dare you hide my beloved sister-in-law from me? What have you done to make her comfortable? Serve us our dinner together; I would like to eat with her.”
Acienggaakthii said, “Yes, my brother-in-law; let us eat together. How could I eat alone, having come all the way to see you?”
The lion was very pleased with her. A large meal was prepared from the meat he had brought. Then they were served. The broth was brought separately. They were given spoons for the broth. The spoons were placed in such a way that the large spoon lay in front of Acienggaakthii and the small, broken one in front of the lion. Acienggaakthii immediately remarked, “Brother-in-law, this is your spoon,” referring to the larger one.
“No, no,” he said, “it is yours, my sister-in-law.”
“No, it is yours, my brother-in-law,” Acienggaakthii insisted.
They argued and argued until the lion gave in. He took the spoon as he said to his wife, “What a lovely sister-in-law I have! She is the sister-in-law. I knew it from the time I married you!”
So they ate. In a short while, Acienggaakthii stopped eating. “My brother-in-law, I have had enough!”
“Sister-in-law,” he said, “how can you do such a thing? How can you stop eating so soon? You are insulting me! Please eat some more!” “No, my brother-in-law,” she said, “it is just that I have had enough! There is nothing wrong!”
He understood and continued to eat. He finished the broth and continued with the meat. He ate all the meat.
Then came the porridge. There were again two spoons: a small, broken spoon and a large, hollow spoon. Again, Acienggaakthii took the small spoon and insisted that the lion take the large spoon. They ate, and when they reached the middle of the course, she stopped. The lion said to himself: “What a small eater my sister-in-law is! She is truly my favorite sister-in-law!”
Then came the time to sleep. Ayan prepared their sleeping places. Acienggaakthii slept in the cattle-byre amidst the herd. The lion slept in the hut with his wife.
The people then went to sleep. Acienggaakthii had behaved very well and her brother-in-law the lion was very happy with her. She was definitely his favorite sister-in-law. He slept soundly.
His tail began to stand up. While he was sleeping his wife cut many hairs from his tail; she wrapped them and went into the cattle-byre where her half sister was sleeping. She tied them around Acienggaakthii’s arm.
She told her to leave early in the morning before her husband woke up. Then she returned to her hut. Her half sister left as she had advised. Her husband woke up and went straight to hunt. He wanted to see his sister-in-law before leaving, but Ayan told him that the girl was still sleeping and should not be disturbed. “Yes, my dear,” said the lion as he left, “I will go to hunt some meat for her. I will see her later.”
The girl ran and ran. She came across the beautiful and delicious red fruit called milat, but she did not stop; she continued to run and refused to stop for any pleasures.
Kur, the small stone with which spears are sharpened, had been awake in the cattle-byre and had seen everything that had gone on. When the cattle-byre was opened in the morning for the cattle to be taken out, Kur also came out. He went into the hut of the lion and found him gone. So he decided to follow Acienggaakthii’s footsteps. He ran and ran and ran, until he caught up with Acienggaakthii; then he sang, praising the lion, calling him by his bull-name, “Ebony Tree:”
Ebony Tree, Ebony Tree,
Your wife, Anyijang (Ayan),
She plucked your tail last night
And tied the hairs on her sister’s arm.
Acienggaakthii responded in a song:
What a liar of a stone you are!
Yours is not the courtesy of an in-law!
Yours is not the courtesy of the Ebony Tree!
No, it is not the courtesy of the Ebony Tree.
They continued to run. Then he sang again and she replied.
Eventually, the lions heard them singing and came running. The lions ran very swiftly until they found the stone, covered with sweat, but still running. They all joined in and ran after the girl. They ran and ran and ran. But the girl outran them.
She reached her home. When the house was quite near, all the lions returned except her brother-in-law. He went on after her until she was close to the village. The lion then stopped, but she continued running until she dropped at the edge of the village. Blood flowed from her mouth.
Neighbors saw her a distance away as she was running. When she fell to the ground, they ran and poured cold water over her. She slowly came awake. By this time her family had arrived, and she was taken home. She mended the broken gourd of Acienggaakdit with the tail hairs of the lion.
Acienggaakdit was very disturbed by her sister’s return. She had never expected her to get the hairs of a lion. “Where did you get them?” she asked Acienggaakthii. “You got hairs from a lion! I cannot believe it.”
Acienggaakthii said to her, “I got them from the home of our sister. But it is a dangerous place.”
They continued to work at home as before. One day as they were pounding grain, Acienggaakdit deliberately dropped her pestle and broke Acienggaakthii’s gourd. Acienggaakdit pretended to be very upset by what she had done. Acienggaakthii told her not to mind, but she continued to appear concerned.
Then she said, “Since I asked you to mend my gourd with a lion’s hair, it is only fair that I, too, mend your gourd with a lion’s hair. So I must go to fetch the hair as you did.”
Acienggaakthii tried to persuade her against doing that: “Daughter of my father, never mind my broken gourd. If you want to mend it, use a thread. You should not go to that lion home. It is an extremely dangerous place.”
Acienggaakdit became offended: “Do you mean to say that I, Acienggaakdit, cannot do what you, a miserable orphan, could do? If you had to mend my gourd with a lion’s hair, I, too, must. If you could get the hair from a lion, I, too, can.”
Acienggaakthii suggested that if all she cared about was to mend the gourd with a lion’s hair, then she could use the remaining hairs that she had brought. “Daughter of my father,” Acienggaakthii pleaded, “you will be eaten. Please listen to me and use a thread or my remaining hairs.”
But Acienggaakdit could not be persuaded: “Why are you so worried about me? If you went to the lion world, why should I not go? Is it perhaps because you do not want me to prove that I, too, can do what you did? Stop advising me and be silent!”
Acienggaakthii eventually gave up and said, “Do it your way, daughter of my father. I hope all goes well for you.”
Early the next day, Acienggaakdit left. Eager to reach her sister’s home, she ran and ran and arrived there within a short time.
She explained her problem to her sister. Her sister told her how to behave if they were to get the hairs. Her sister planned everything in the way she had planned for Acienggaakthii.
Acienggaakdit’s brother-in-law returned from his hunting. Ayan wanted her sister to hide for a while so she could observe the mood of her husband. The girl hid. As soon as the lion arrived, he raised his nose towards the sky and said, “There is something here which smells like human flesh!”
Before Ayan could answer her husband, Acienggaakdit spoke from where she had been hiding: “Brother-in-law, it is I smelling that way. I came some time ago, but Anyijang insists on my hiding here: I don’t know why!”
Her brother-in-law did not like her manner. He roared, saying, “My sister-in-law is broad, broad, as broad as the mouth of a spoon!”
Acienggaakdit responded with anger, “Brother-in-law, why are you insulting me? I, too, can insult you.” Then she went on to say, “I have a brother-in-law with a bottom as red as the fire of the summer camp.”
They exchanged a few insults and the lion became more annoyed by her presence.
Then dinner was served. Meat was brought first with broth. Acienggaakdit took the large spoon and started eating the broth while her brother-in-law, with the broken spoon, could not get any. When she finished the broth, she ate the meat as her brother-in-law watched, amazed by her greed. But she did not care. She even looked directly at her brother-in-law and said, “Am I not beautiful?”
Then they waited for the porridge course. When it came, she again grabbed the good spoon and cut through the porridge so fast that her brother-in-law decided to stop eating. She continued to eat. Her brother-in-law sat and growled as he watched her eat.
When they went to sleep, the lion remained half awake, suspicious that his sister-in-law was planning to do something.
The girl was sleeping in the cattle-byre. There were cattle in the byre. When Acienggaakthii had slept there, the cattle had trampled over her purposely. She would only say, “What soft feet the cattle of my brother-in-law have! How nice their bodies feel!” But when the cattle trampled over Acienggaakdit, she got angry: “Curse you cows!” And she took a large stick to beat them away from her, complaining, "What a stinking cattle-byre!” The animals groaned and returned to their places.
When the lion finally went to sleep, Ayan cut off some hairs from his tail. She went to the byre and tied them on Acienggaakdit’s arm.
Very early in the morning, Acienggaakdit left, according to the plan. Kur, the stone, followed her, as he had followed Acienggaakthii, and he sang the same song:
Ebony Tree, Ebony Tree,
Your wife, Anyijang (Ayan),
She plucked your tail last night
And tied the hairs on her sister’s arm.
Acienggaakdit stopped and said, “What a beautiful song! Please let me hear some more!”
The stone sang the song again. Acienggaakdit waited for the stone, picked him up, and praised him, “What a wonderful voice you have!”
She carried the stone; the stone continued to sing. Then they saw the milat fruit. She stopped and picked some. She picked here, she picked there, she picked here, she picked there. She did not know that the lions had heard the stone sing and were already on their way, following her. The stone continued to sing.
Eventually the lions caught up with her. Before any other lion could, her brother-in-law jumped from a long distance and fell onto her neck. He ripped off her head. The head started to run, dodging the lions and heading towards the home of Acienggaakdit. It ran and ran and ran. The lions got tired of following the head. They all held their tails straight up as they ran after the head, but with no success. The head outran all the lions.
The head continued to run until it suddenly entered a hut where people were gathered. Acienggaakdit’s mother was there. When the people recognized the head, they cried, “O! Acienggaakdit has been eaten by the lions!”
They addressed the head and said, “Acienggaakdit, you see why you were advised not to go! O, Acienggaakdit, if only you had listened!”
At that moment her father interrupted and said, “Bury her, she was killed by her own head.” The head was buried. That is how Acienggaakdit died. She was killed by her own head.