Every man’s life is a fairy tale written by God’s fingers. – Hans Christian Andersen, Danish author
Steep gradients of riverbanks are typical scenes of our ulu (remote) hinterlands.
Known as tebiang in Iban, these are the best sites often chosen to ambush opposing warring parties during the headhunting days. So common were the scenes then that tebiang became the attack sites using advantage of its steepness to let loose barrage of cut logs upon the approach of war opponents’ boats that would cause big if not total damage and fatalities.
Those who have traversed along the Melupa River, a Krian tributary in Saratok, should be familiar with the various steep gradients of the riverbanks. Right from the estuary to Munggu Embawang, my dad’s birthplace, these tebiang are found at Lubuk Tedung, Lubuk Jelapa, Sungai Kebuk, Lubuk Wuong, Sungai Tapang, Lubuk Ran, Lubuk Nyumbuh, Lubuk Bundung in that order plus at least two others further upriver.
Some of these tebiang hold some memories as far as my family and I are concerned while some might have significance for others. However, none were ever used as strategic point for warriors to ambush their opponents because a war raid only involved one site, just a short distance downriver from our present longhouse Kedap.
But that happened in the late nineteenth century, long before the birth of the longhouse and did not involve any tebiang.
Perhaps, the most notorious Melupa tebiang in history is the one at the mouth of a stream Sungai Tapang just below our former residence at Bukit Tinggi, just about 50 metres from a deep pool called Lubuk Lalang downriver but later better known as Lubuk Muney for a reason.
This tebiang is different in terms of its location as below it is not a pool but shallow water and is situated just about 10 metres before the estuary of the stream. Both Sungai Tapang and Lubuk Muney were very familiar to me as these were my favourite fishing grounds.
This pool relates to the tebiang at mouth of the stream as it was renamed Lubuk Muney because the remains of a Chinese trader Muney was found at the pool after he was gunned down while approaching the said tebiang circa 1930s. The afternoon incident occurred when the victim and other person were on their way back using a longboat to Saratok town. Earlier they were at Munggu Embawang longhouse trading and also played poker with some men there.
Upon investigation a few days later, Muney was allegedly shot from the tebiang concerned and that some cartons of cigarettes were looted, but police said robbery was a secondary motive. One of the poker players who lost badly during the game was arrested and remanded.
After winning big money during poker, Muney and his friend Toh Ha left and celebrated with laughter, it was reported. This really annoyed most of those who lost the game, causing one of them to wait at the tebiang with a shotgun.
Police, however, were not able to find the shotgun used in the shooting. The suspect was released after some weeks in the police cell.
Another tebiang below the estuary of Sungai Kebuk stream,a short distance downriver from Lubuk Muney, also holds a memory.
In 1963 at around 7pm my dad was on his way from our Bukit Tinggi residence to Nanga Assam school. The infant son of our teacher Tom Meludin had died. But at the hilltop after the stream, dad came across a brown entity that blocked the jungle path which refused to move. After some minutes dad was forced to grab the item and wrestled with it until it rolled down the tebiang down to the water below.
At the teacher’s quarters dad felt sleepy and had to lie down on a long stool. He immediately met in his dream a man in full Iban war attire who said he lost to my dad in a wrestling match earlier at the hilltop.
“I hereby grant you Salok your hair from the right side of your head as pengerabun antu gerasi (making you invisible to giants/demons),” he told dad who woke up immediately.
In fact, many years earlier at Sungai Kebuk after crossing the log that bridged the stream, dad came across a king cobra with a small amulet attached to its neck that it seemingly tried to part with. But dad didn’t dare to take the charm. He only met our late granduncle ‘Aki Kawit’ whose real name was Naing in his dream later that evening.
Naing was embodied in the cobra. The amulet was meant for bravery but dad failed the test as he wasn’t bold enough to get it from the poisonous snake.
