Two Poor Girls and the Kekekow Bird

Kekekow is a kind of bird found in Minahasa, North Sulawesi Province, Indonesia. The word “kekekow” is derived from a local word that means “you are a girl;” “keke” (girl) and “kow” (you). People believe that there was a kekekow bird living in a forest in a place that is now known as North Sulawesi Province. It was a legendary bird that was famous for its kindness towards two poor girls who were suffering from starvation.

Unfortunately, there was a group of local people hunting for the bird at the forest. The question now is: why did those people hunt for the bird? What`s wrong with the bird? Find the answers at the story about Two Poor Girls and the Kekekow Bird.

***

As the story goes, there was a poor family living in a decrepit house under a leafy tree in Minahasa, North Sulawesi, Indonesia. The family consisted of a widow and her two daughters. Their life was unique because they depended much upon the foods and fruits stocked by the nature. They went looking for foods and fruits in the forest at dawn for breakfast, and went to the forest at evening when they were going to have a dinner.

Such a mode of life was just going on for a long time. It was because at the time, forest was still able to fulfil the needs of every single person living nearby. Totally different from today, a number of forests are now threatening toward deforestation. The Irresponsible people are exploiting valuable natural resources without considering reforestation. They neglect the sustainability of environment for need of the future generation.

One day, the two girls were not able to find any fruit at all. No one of the wood at the forest produced any fruit that time. They went further to the middle of the forest, but nothing they found. Feeling tired because of stalemate finding for foods and fruits, they leaned upon a big tree. They took a rest for a while, and talked to each other.

“Kak[1], I`m so hungry now; where will do we find any foods now?” the youngest said.

“Me either, I`m hungry too. But I don`t know where to get some foods today. There`s no fruit along the way we`ve traced,” the oldest replied.

Since then, there was a yellow thing fell down from above. They were shocked about that; hence they walked towards the thing. How happy they were to know that it was a bunch of banana.

“Hey, what`s the matter? Why is there a bunch of banana here suddenly?” the youngest asked.

“I don`t know. There must be someone else gave it from above. But I don`t see any people at above,” the oldest answered.

There was no another person there, except those two girls. There were only animals hanging around the trees at the forest. But, there was an unknown sound….

“Keke…kow…, Keke…kow, Keke…kow….!”

Yes, that was the sound of the Kekekow bird that was flying across the forest. The bird instinctively knew those who were suffering from food shortage, thus it gave some foods to those. However, it didn`t appear hence the girls couldn`t see the physical appearance of the bird.

They were speechless to know more fruits fell down from above. Various and abundant fruits were in front of them at the time. They ran back home and reported this to their mother.

“What`s the matter, Kids?” their mother said curiously.

“We`ve just got something miraculous, Mom! Here this, come with us! We`ll show you,” the oldest told her mother to get along with her at once.

They ran to the forest in a short time. Soon after arriving at that place, their mom was quietly shocked to know abundantly various fruits under that tree. She said, “Where did you get these all, Kids?”

“We`ll tell you later, Mom. How about taking these fruits home as we`re very hungry now?” the youngest said.

They brought the fruits home. All the family members were happy of that; they could still have a meal.

In the following day, such miraculous thing happened once again. They went to the forest, and leaned themselves upon the same tree as yesterday. The same sound came to ear; hence they looked around at the surrounding to find what`s kind of sound was that. However, nothing could they see.

All of sudden, there was a human-like voice summoning them, “O...the poor girls! Come here! There are some foods for you, here.”

What amazing it was, the sound came out of a bird, which was known as Kekekow bird. They moved to the tree where the bird was standing while keeping on being amazed to the speak-able bird.

No longer after that, the bird gave some foods as they got in the previous day. They were quite happy of that, and thanked to the bird.

“We are grateful for these all, Kekekow!” they said.

It was just going on for several times; the bird gave the poor girls some foods and fruits. The bird also gave them household utensils as they had no such appliances to make some foods at home. On dry season, the bird even stocked them with adequate water.

Until one day, that news came to the ear of those girls` friends. Their friends got furiously jealous about the “extraordinary service” from the Kekekow bird. They sent the information to the kampong leader; thus summoned all the kampong settlers to catch the bird.

In a short, the bird had been caught in life by the kampong settlers. The bird was brought to the kampong leader`s house. There, many of the kampong settlers stood in row waiting for being served by the bird. They asked for household utensils and other appliances as well as wealth from the bird. However, none of the settler`s wish came true. The bird gave them emptiness. Knowing such, they all, both the kampong leader and the kampong settlers turned to anger.

Their ire was a consequence of their disappointment as the bird was not able to give what they wanted. Their hostility peaked up, thus wanted to slaughter the bird. With approval from the kampong leader, the settlers began to slaughter the bird at the back of the kampong leader`s house.     

The two poor girls were late to know that the Kekekow bird was died at the hand of the kampong settlers. Nothing could they do as the only thing they found was just the bird`s corpse.

They soon buried the bird`s corpse near their house. They put the corpse at the back of their house.

Several years later, the two poor girls grew up into two beautiful girls. They no longer lived in poor as they were capable of managing what the bird had given so far.

A miracle just never stopped coming to them. Above the Kekekow bird`s funeral, there was a tree that never stopped producing abundant fruits. The girls thus could take advantages from it. Not only did the tree produce numerous fruits to fulfil the girls` daily needs, but sweet-scented smell came out of the tree all day long as well.

***

Here is the story of Two Poor Girls and the Kekekow Bird originating from Minahasa, North Sulawesi, Indonesia. That is a legend with several moral messages for everyone to be applied in daily life. At least there are two messages that can be drawn from the story.

The first message from the story is that jealousy will lead to unluckiness. It can be seen from the figures of the kampong leader and his people, wherein none of their wish to the Kekekow bird would be coming true. Their jealousy of the two poor girls drove them into unluckiness.

Another message from the story is that jealousy will drive someone to do evil deed. The story depicts that the settlers` jealousy of the two poor girls had driven them into such an evil deed; slaughtering the Kekekow bird that had given hand to the two poor girls often. In Tunjuk Ajar Melayu, it is said that “dengki,” a Malay word for jealousy, will lure the anger from friends and God.

Samsuni (sas/113/11-08)

Translated by Irfan Nugroho (ter/100/02-08)

Sources:

• Adapted from Anneke Sumaraw. 1992. Cerita Rakyat dari Sulawesi Utara. Jakarta: Grasindo.
• Effendy, Tenas. 1994/1995. “Ejekan” Terhadap Orang Melayu Riau dan Pantangan Orang Melayu Riau. Pekanbaru, Bappeda Tingkat I Riau.
• Anonim. “Kamus manado”, available online at http://books.google.co.id/, retrieved on November 27^th, 2008.

---

Insert your comment here :