ONCE UPON A TIME a very beautiful Kadazan girl disappeared. Her mother was unable to eat or sleep for worrying about her, and went about the whole day asking where her daughter was. One day she was sitting in the yard bemoaning her loss when a sparrow flew down on the roof and began to twitter. "Dear Sparrow", the mother said, "if you know where my daughter is and can lead me to her, I will give you a gantang of padi." The sparrow agreed. So the mother tied a red string onto the sparrow's tail as a sign, and they set off on their search. But the bird flew much quicker than the woman and was always waiting for her. Finally, it flew to a cave in the mountains, where it sat down on a stone and chirruped. A girl came out of cave, and was much surprised to see the red string on the sparrow's tail. "Where did you get the red string from our house?" she asked. "Your mother gave it to me," said the bird. "She will soon be here herself." While they were speaking, the mother arrived. "What are you doing here, my child?" she asked. The daughter answered, "I was going for a walk in the village when a monkey came up and carried me off. He will be here in a moment. You muct hide, because if he sees you he will eat you up." The mother had just time to hide under a jar before the monkey appeared. He sniffed and said, "Why is there a smell of human flesh?" His wife tried to conceal it from him, but eventually, seeing there was nothing to be done, she told him the truth, "My mother is here but, fearing you would eat her, she hid under a jar." The monkey, however, was very pleased. "Your mother has come?" he said . "Tell her to come out quickly. I want to meet her," and he went and turned up the jar. The daughter said to him, "This is your mother-in-law." Whereupon they embraced, and were very happy. The monkey then said, "Today, we have nothing good to eat. I will buy some meat and wine." He went out. The mother and daugher decided to take this opportunity to run away. First, the daughter told her mother to cook a pot lime. When the little monkeys saw it, they asked, "Grandmother, what is thatt?" "It is a good eye medicine," she said, "but it isn't for children." "But we want some," said all the little monkeys. So she covered their eyes with lime, and said to them, "Go into the sun and let it dry." When it was dry, they could not open thier eyes. Then the mother and daughter fled, taking with them all the gold and precious stones that the monkey had stored away. When the old monkey came back and saw the little ones could not open their eyes, he asked them what had happened. They told him the whole story. He boiled a great pot of water and told the children to wash their eyes. From then on, every morning the old monkey took the children down to the house of their mother. He sat down on the oathstone in front of the house, and in a sad voice began to sing his song, "Monkeys wife, it is unnatural to leave your children. Your children weep and your husband is sad." The girl began to be frightened as well as affected by the tragic song. She made a plan with her mother. One lonely night they made the oathstone red hot. In the morning the monkey came as usual with his children. When the little ones sat sown on the stone, they jumped up with a scream. "What's the matter?" cried the old monkey. "I will sit down." When he did, he also jumped up with a great scream of pain, and they all fled home together. When thay examined each other, they found that their hair was burned off their buttocks. They never returned to look for rheir mother again. From that time onwards, all monkeys have bare buttocks.
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