Cerita sejarah ditemukannya Pipa, "DONGENG"

pipa

Many years ago in the village of Kamaku there were very many rats. There were hunderds  and hunderds of rats. These rats walked on tables, when people were at dinner and ate the food from their plates. When the babies were sleeping in their beds, they came and bit their fingers. They bit holes in shoes and stockings. When the man wanted to put on their hats, they found the nests of the rats in them. These rats ate the porridge, the sugar, the tea, the fish and the meat in the houses. In the village there were many cats and dogs, but the rats killed the cats and bit the dogs. In the gardens the rats ate the oranges, banana and mangoes. They climbed up the coconut trees and ate the coconuts. They dug holes in the ground and ate the roots of plants and the young green maize. They went into the chicken houses and killed the cocks and the hens and ate their eggs. They went to the river and caught the ducks and theirs babies. They bit the cows, the sheep and the goats and drank their milk. At last the people grew desperate. When they went to bed at night, they could not sleep. The rats came and bit their feet, their toes and their noses. The people of the village went to their Cheif and said : "These rats are eating all our food and all our clothes. It is your duty to kill the rats. If you cannot do this, we shall soon have nothing to wear and nothing to eat. Then we shall die". The Cheif of village did not know how to kill the rats. He called the old men to his house. When they came, he said: "what can we do ? The man in the village are angry with me, but i do not know how to kill the rats." The old men sat in the Chief 's house for three day and talked about it. The rats were not afraid of them. The came into the Chief 's  house and carried away his food. The Chief  asked again and again : "Tell me, what can we do?" But the old men did not know how to kill the rats. Suddenly they heard a man knocking at the door. The Chief cried : "Come in!"

A man came in. He said : "Good morning, Chief ," All the old man looked at him. He wore in silk coat, which was half yellow and half red. He was tall and thin. His eyes were large and bright. Hos cheeks were sun burnt. Round his neck he wore a pipe. He walked up to the Chief and said : " I have heard that there are a great many rats in your village. What will you give me, if kill them all for you?"

"Oh," cried the old man, "can you do that?"

"Yes," cried the Chief, "if you can do that, we shall give you.

How much do you want?"

"I will do it for a thousand guilders," said the man with the pipe. "Help us quickly," said the Chief, "and we shall give you a thousand guilders."

"All right," said the man with the pipe. " I will do it for a thousand guilders."

He laught and went out of the house. Then the piper stepped into the street. He put his pipe to his mouth and began below. The rats held up their heads and listened. They liked the music. There was a pitter patter of a great many litte feet and all rats came running after the pipper. There were hundreds and hundreds of rats: big rats and small rats, fat rats and thin rats, long rats and short rats, brown rats and black rats, father rats and mother rats and all the little baby rats. The piper walked on and on, playing all the time, and hundreds of rats follow him. All the rats came out of the house, till the road was full of them. On and on they went, the man with the pipe infront of and all rats behind him. At last they came to a very big river with a lot of water in it. The man stopped playing and all the rats ran into the river. They tired to swim. But the was too big and they all died, except one very big and strong rat. This rat swam to the other bank and told his friends, that the rats were in delightful country.

"There they will always get delicious things to eat," he said. "No rat will ever  be hungry.

I am sorry i did not go with them."

The piper walked quietly back to the Chief 's house. When the village people heard that the rats were dead, they were very happy. They dance and launghed and sang, because there were no more rats in their houses.

The piper went into the Chief 's house and said :

"The rats are dead, Chief , now give me my thousand guilders".

"Are they really all dead?" said the Chief, "you have done that very cleverly. But we have talked about the matter. I do not think we can give you a thousand guilders. A thousand guilders is a lot of money and we are not rich. The village is very poor and we cannot give you as much as that. We shall give you three hundred guilders. It was an easy thing for you to put the rats into the river".

When the piper heard this, he got very angry.

"If you do not give me my thousand guilders at once,"he said, "something terrible will happen".

The Chief and old man laughed loudly. "The rats are dead and you cannot make them alive again," they said. The piper did not say anything. He went out of the house on to the road. He put the pipe to his lips and blew. The childern held up their heads and listened. They stopped  the playing and came running after the man with the pipe. All the childern of the village followed him. When the Chief and old man saw the childern running after piper, they were afraid. They called the childern, but they did not come back. All the childern ran after the piper; big childern, little childern, short childern, tall childern, fat childern, thin childern, bad childern, good childern, pretty childern, ugly childern, boys and girls and fat little babies. The road was full of childern. They laughed and sang and danced and were very happy. They went the piper out of village. They listened to the music at last came to a very high mountain. The mountain opened before them and all the childern went into the mountain. Only one little boy was left behind. He told his parents that his friends were delightful country. "They will always get delicious things to eat," he said. "They will always happy. I am sorry I did not go with them."

The old Chief and the fathers and mothers were very sad. They looked everywhere, but they could not find their childern.

They said : "We shall give the piper a thousand guilders, if he give us back our childern."

But they never saw the piper again in their village and they never saw those happy little childern again.