How The Queen of The Sea Punished Greed
(Central Java)
It was a very dark night. On the beach everything was quiet. Only the song of the waves broke the deep silence. There was nobody to be seen on the sand. There was not a single man or a single animal.
At one place near the sea there rose a high rock. The waves had been throwing themselves for centuries against the walls of this rock and had made holes in them. Some of the holes were small, but some were big and formed Continue reading
The Tiger People
(A tale from Sumatra)
In the dark green forests of Sumatra there used to be many tigers. The villagers were frightened of these big cats which, from time to time, stole away their cattle. When they spoke about a tiger, the villagers would never call the animal by its real name. They respectfully called the tiger “Master” or “Grandfather”. They thought the tiger could understand the human language and that they would feel insulted if weak Continue reading
Once upon a time there were two brothers. One of them was very poor and lived in a small house with his wife and son. The other, who was unmarried, was very rich and lived in a large house.
The rich brother never did anything to help his less fortunate brother. He was much too busy showing off to his rich friends to have any time for his poor brother and his family. In fact, he was rather ashamed of him.
Naturally, the poor brother was very surprised when one day he received an Continue reading
