‘So much is asked of parents, and so little is given.”
– American writer, Virginia Satir.
JUST recently my two siblings and I marked the 35th anniversary of the passing of our mother. Mom passed away aged only 72 on Sept 1, 1988.
I remember on the evening of Aug 31 on the eve of her demise I was busy attending a National Day party held at the District Office of Julau but I received a message via fixed-line phone at the premises – it was highly expected as during the day she was not improving at all at the Sarikei District Hospital.
So I had to quickly drive down to the hospital and found out mom was still breathing but was at her end. Three cars of teachers from SMK Julau accompanied me and my wife to keep her company. She breathed her last around 4.15am.
I remember one of the active teachers around was Edwin Galan Terukie who went on to become Deputy Director General (Operations) of the Fire and Rescue Services Department of Malaysia.
At about 5 am, I carried her lifeless body from the hospital bed to the mortuary. It was a sad moment but I repaid her love, kindness, and care by holding her in my arms for the last time on the way to the mortuary.
That act was considered as paying her back for her suffering in ‘bekindu’ (whereby after giving birth she had to have her back to a constant wood fire for warmth and speedy recovery thus leaving a permanent scar on her back). The large scar became a permanent reminder of her sacrifice in bringing me to the world and making sure that I was taken care of right after birth.
Mom was always sickly and weak right from the start as far as I could remember. She gave birth to my younger brother in 1959 but Tambi lived only for 40 days. Thereafter I was my parents’ favourite child.
She was a keen weaver of mats and baskets. She also wove a few ‘pua kumbu’, a traditional fabric of the Iban. But she excelled more in making mats and was hired to weave baskets by Gawai Antu hosts at least three times that I can recall. This act of weaving baskets was to complete the act of filling in the ‘sungkup’ (miniature home of the deceased commemorated during Gawai Antu out of hard wood, belian) that would be placed above the tomb of the deceased at the end of Gawai Antu.) My late mother was in this special group of hired ladies with the necessary skill in weaving the special baskets meant for the ‘sungkup’ during the ‘ngayam’ fest, a month prior to the Gawai Antu proper.
Another of her skill was massaging dislodged or dislocated joints, a skill she acquired in a dream where she met an old lady who taught her how to massage such ailments. This skill was useful and she was a highly sought after healer in her last 30 years of life. But sadly the skill was hers alone and non-transferable. It died with her. She was also well versed with the ‘tusut’ (genealogy) and played a part in a few marriage ceremonies where ‘tusut’ was required to find out if the couples are related.
During our time together I was closer to my father because I saw in him leadership by example. This was because we did male duties together especially fishing at night using the special lamp ‘pigo’.
Since 1962 dad brought us out from the longhouse and built a hovel at our rubber plantation at upper Melupa River’s Bukit Tinggi just about 30 minutes’ walk from the newly opened primary school Nanga Assam School in Saratok.
Our longhouse Kedap is further downriver just about 40 minutes’ walk from the school. I recall there were frequent trips of nocturnal fishing using the ‘pigo’ where dad led me while at Bukit Tinggi. My duty was to carry a basket where we put the caught items such as fish, prawns and bullfrogs. This act lasted till 1972 when we finally moved back to the longhouse. Such a companionship bonded us closer but I loved mom too nonetheless.
Dad was a good story teller apart from being a lead bard in both the ‘pengap’ chanting (for Gawai Umai, Gawai Tajau, Gawai Burung and Gawai Batu as well for ‘timang jalong’chanting (for Gawai Antu).
He was the first Iban to record the ‘Sampi’ chant of appeasement in Radio Iban, Sarawak when his cousin Gerunsin Lembat (later Tan Sri Datuk) made the recording while Gerunsin was attached to Radio Iban in 1955. Circa 1926 at age 16 he was the first person to see a dragon flash above a pool that was later named ‘Letung Naga’ while he was tapping rubber mid morning.
Later at night he had a dream that the dragon he saw revealed itself to be Keling, the epitome of strength, valour and prowess as Keling is the folklore hero of the Panggau Libau (Raised World). This was written earlier by me in this column titled ‘Dragon by day, Keling by night’.
The teenaged rubber tapper requested Keling to grant him wealth so that he need not tap rubber anymore but Keling instead granted him longevity which proved to be true as dad lived a full life until 92.
Shortly after encountering the dragon 16-year-old Salok encountered another weird moment when he saw a big serpent that was really large that newspapers and tabloids would dig deep into the dictionaries for adjectives and superlatives to give it a deserving description. This was at dawn while he was just a short distance away from Letung Naga for another rubber tapping trip.
In the evening he dreamed again and met Keling who was embodied in the serpent. Keling said he was just passing and checking on the area and that he was back from Bukit Sadok in Betong area as he was lending help to Kalong Ningkan. Dad then had never heard about Kalong Ningkan who was born on Aug 20, 1920 according to my Google search, meaning Ningkan, who was to become Sarawak’s first chief minister in 1963, was then about five years old.
After getting married to my mom, dad who was from Munggu Embawang at upper Melupa moved down to be with mom and family.
Shortly after their marriage dad encountered a cobra with a talisman attached to its neck that it seemingly wanted to part with and give to dad. This was a stream bridged by a log called Sungai Kebuk a little further up Nanga Assam in Melupa. But dad wasn’t daring enough to get the talisman and after some minutes the cobra left.
It was only the night after the episode that he had a dream that the cobra was Aki Kawit whose real name was Naing Bungin nicknamed Naing Pengerambing kaki kuta, berinau panggau dara (Naing the conqueror of fortress) who said he wanted to give dad the talisman of bravery which dad failed to take. This was circa 1940 and coincidentally in 1963 (while we were at Bukit Tinggi) dad was going down to school when an infant son of a teacher Tom Meludin Dian just passed away, after passing the same log bridge at Sungai Kebuk and ascending a hill he encountered an item that looked like an ape. It was black and it was nearing darkness but the thing remained immobile and blocked his way. He made some noise to render it mobile but the item remained there. So dad, who was then aged around 53, had to tackle the item that finally moved and rolled down to the river below over the steep gradient.
At the school the vigil for the infant son was on but dad felt sleepy and lay down on a stool. He had a dream where he met a young man clad in Iban traditional costume who told him he lost in a wrestling match to dad just some minutes ago at the Sungai Kebuk hill. The man told dad he was from Panggau Libau (Raised World) but did not mention his name. He told dad that his hair on the right side of his head was meant to be ‘pengerabun antu gerasi’ meaning it would render him invisible to giants or demons. I did ‘steal’ some hair from his right hair side of the head and have been keeping it up till now.
On the ‘Letung Naga’, I have passed by the dragon pool three times since 1972 on the way to our durian orchard at Bila Dua up the Melupa. The water looked scary and it was rumoured a very large dark fish used to be seen there as the place was replanted with new rubber trees. I took some minutes to scrutinise the water but no big fish or dragon appeared. Presently the area is under the charge of SALCRA which will turn it into progressive oil palm plantation.
