8. The Golden Cock
Attendants put Kinantan and one of the king’s strongest cocks in the middle of the circle. Under the watchful eyes of the crowd the fight began. It was a very short fight. Kinantan killed the king’s cock with a single bow. His strength amazed the king and the smile disappeared from the false queen’s lips.
“Bring my golden cock,” ordered the king.
A silence fell over the people. The golden cock was the strongest cock in the whole country. He was famous in other countries as well. Never before had he lost a fight.
Of course Panjilaras didn’t know anything about this. But even if he had known, he wouldn’t have been afraid. He was sure that Kinantan was the strongest cock in the world. Had he not been hatched by a snake? Had he not been training in fighting by the fierce birds which so often visited them in the forest? So, when the king asked him whether he would let Kinantan fight against his golden cock on the same conditions as before, he said he would.
The two cocks were put in front of each other. Kinantan was not as big as the golden cock, but he was certainly as beautiful. The fight began immediately. At the beginning it seemed that at last Kinantan had found another cock as strong as himself. The golden cock attacked him several times and blood coloured his long neck red. Then Kinantan attacked fiercely. For a few minutes the crowd saw only a huge ball of feather, rolling in the sand. Then, one cock came out from the dust and the other lay still on the ground. Kinantan had killed the golden cock! The crowd was amazed.
Then suddenly Kinantan stretched his long neck and crowed loudly and clearly: -
“Cockle-cockle-doo.
I belong to a boy of fame,
Panjilaras is his name,
The dark forest is his home,
There were animals freely roam.
Dewi Murti his mother is called,
And his father is king of us all.”
It was the false queen who first broke the deep silence after Kinantan’s song.
“Catch that boy and kill him. How dare he think that the king is his father!” she cried out, pale with fear.
The king however, didn’t listen to her. He called Panjilaras to him and questioned him about his life and how he got his wondercock. Panjilaras told him about his life in the forest, about the bird who gave him the egg out of which Kinantan was hatched, but he didn’t tell the king that he, Panjilaras, was his own son.
