In her haste she cut her finger

Many centuries ago there existed in the ulu near Kampung Bandukan a prosperous village ruledby a great Chief of examplary virtue. This great Chief, called Taki Karanganan,really cared for the welfare of  his people. In spite of his exalted position and great wealth, he led a Spartan, ascetic life, wearing coarse clothes instead of silk, eschewing rich food for a vegetarian diet and  denying himself even the companionship of a beautiful wife. The beloved bachelor Chief moved freely among his people, finding out their grievances and attending to them. He promulgated just native laws and enforced them with a praiseworthy  combination of firmness and mercy. His excellence, naturally enough, communicated itself to his peranaks and it was happy, harmonious villagers who hailed him as their liege.
    Alas, that a tale which opens so heroically must needs so soon take such a tragic turn-for, either through the work of an evil spirit or a jealous God, events of multi9plying horror were to disturb the golden leadership of Taki Karanganan. It all began with a curious development in the Chief 's mouth. The Chief 's cannie teeth began, unaccountably, to grow in size and prominence, until they threatened to assume the proportions of fangs. Alarmed and perplexed, the Chiefsummoned his famous Babalian (physician) and sought his advice on the weird change in his appearance.
    Unable to discover a physical cause, the Babalian retired to consult his oracles and books of omens and finally going into a trance while clutching a magic stone in his hands.
    When he awoke, beads of sweat stood out on his forehea and a bout of shievering shook his frame. He hurried back to the Chief's house, fell on his knees and declared with great agitation, "My Great Chief knows that I love him above all things and place my loyalty to him before life. If therefore, I utter grave words without explaining them, he will know that I have no other course. It is my dreadful duty to inform my Great Chief that the forces of darkness treaten to inflict upon his person and his people an unspeakable calamity. The growth of his canine teeth are an omen and portent. In order to thwart this evil plot my Great Chief must abstain for one hundred days from eating his favourite dish of stewed sansam (spinach). If he suceeds, all will be well and his teeth will regain their normal porpotions. I beg my Great Chief to refrain from questioning me. for I can say no more."
    Taki Karanganan was more than a little puzzled by these words. But as the man's love and loyalty were indeed beyond question, he agreed to abstain from stewed sansam without pressing for an explanation. Accustomed as he was to a vigorous self-dicipline, the bChief expected little difficulty in making the tiny sacrifice demanded by his Babalian. But as the days passed, a strange craving for stewed sansam (spinach) tormented him in his sleep causing him to awake in a cold sweat. The Chief had to summon all his moral resources to fight against the temptation to call for his cook. He became testy, irritable and moved among his people less and less.
    At the end of fifty days he sent for the village Babalian and said, "I have gone without my favourite fare for half the alloted time and much agony it has caused me. Have I not earned the right to know the secret of my growing canines and the nature of the grave peril which you say threatens myself and my people?"
    The Babalian hung his head and replied, "I am fully aware of the sore trials which my Great Chief has had to endure. I fear that still greater struggles lie ahead. I pray that Kinoringan (God) will grant him the strenght to overcome evil temptations. As for the calamity of which I have warned, I beg my Great Chief to accept my plea that his interests and those of his people require that my lips should continue to be sealed." Taki Karanganan knew his loyal peranaks was acting in good faith, yet he could not help feeling a flash of anger as he gave him to leave to go.
    As the Babalian (physician) had predicted, the Chief's craving for stewed sansam grew stronger and stronger. By the end of the sixtieth day, each minute had become an intolerably exhausting struggle against temptation. By the end of the eightieth day, the Chief experienced all the agony of a opium addict tantalised by the negligent in the performance of his duties. The enemies of the village Babalian saw this and realised that the situation could be exploited for the purpose of destroying his high standing with the Chief and thereby enhancing their own. Subtly, the conspirateors suggested to the Chief that the Babalian was making a fool of him. They even hinted that he was plotting to usurp his position and was burdening the Chief with groundless worries so that he would forsake his duties and fall out of favour with the people. They clinched their arguments by pointing out that the Chief's canine teeth showed no signs of returning to heir normal size, thus rousing the Chief's suspicions over the Babalian's strange refusal to discuss the dreadful omens he claimed to have seen.
    So successfully were they in poisoning the Chief's mind that, on the ninetieth day of his "spinach fast" Taki Karanganan summoned the Babalian and ordered him on pain of death to speak fully and frankly on the premonitions he had seen.
"If you refuse I shall be forced to conclude that you have been deceiving me for base and selfish reasons and to punish you accordingly." The Babalian, head proudly erect, looked fearlessly into the Chief's eyes and replied, "For ninety days my Graet Chief has triumphed over extreme temptations. Ten days from now the dangers of which I spoke will have been averted and I shall be able to remder a full account to my Great Chief. If at the end of that period, his canine teeth still have not resumed normal proportions I shall gladly die the most miserable death. Meanwhile, I besech my Great Chief to trust me a little longer and to refrain from pressing me for answer that I must not give."
    The Chief was torn between instinctive belief in his loyal peranaks and the desire to end the great mental suffering which abstinence from stewed spinach was causing him. Fearing that the Chief might decide in the Babalian's favour, the enemies of the good medicine man spoke up persuasively.
    "The fellow has the audacity to defy a great command," said one.
    "If he can speak in ten day's time, he can speak now," said another.
    "The scoundrel is playing for the time in order to hatch some treasonable plot," said a third.
    These crafty words eroded away was left of the Chief's resistance. He immediately ordered the arrest of the Babalian and instructed his cook to prepare for him a large helping of the dish for which he had yearned for so long.
    The Chief's cook hurried to the kitchen to carry out her master's order. In her haste she cut her finger. Blood from the wound dripped into the cooking pot. There being no time to prepare a new pot, she clamped on the lid, hoping the Chief would notice nothing amiss. When the dish first mouthful he noticed that the spinach tasted different, deliciously different. He ate up the last scrapt, then summoned the cook and questioned hes as to whether she had made use of other ingredients. The frightened woman denied at first that the dish was in any way different from others she had prepared. But under insistent questioning she finally admitted that a few drops of her blood had found their way into the pot.
    A fiendish look appeared on Taki Karanganan's face. Baring his fangs, which had grown noticeably long, in cruel smile, he said, "I want stewed sansam at every meal and it must taste exactly the same as the dish I have finished. I shall see that you get the necessary ingredients."
    The nest day, the Chief ordered the execution of the disgraced Babalian. He secretly added the further instruction that a cup of his blood should be delivered to his room. Thereafter, the Chief withdrew pardons he had previously granted to prisonerd held for serious offences. Istead, he ordered them to be executed at the rate of one a day. When there were no capital offenders left, the Chief revised the laws of his village to impose the death penalty for offences of petty theft, non-payment of taxes and disrespect toward any sort of Wakils 9Officials) of the Village. The list of misdemeanours puinishable by death grew as the Chief's appetite for human blood increased. Soon he was drinking blood by the jars and dining on slices of human heart and liver. Taki Karanganan's vampire practices could no longer be kept a village secret. News of his gruesome orgies eventually became known to the people, filling them with fear and revulsion.
    The great alarm of the villagers turned to panic when people began to dissapear in the dead of night, never to be heard of again. Within a short space of the time, the relationship between the Chief and his people had deteriorated from one of love and loyalty to one of hatred and fear. Driven to desperation, the more courageous men banded together to resist the Chief's warriors and work for his overthrow. The more timid souls trekked through the jungles to seek new homes elsewhere. A once properous and happy village had degenerated into a desolate, revolt-torn community held together by savage repression. Taki Karanganan, meanwhile, called for more and more blood. The ugly transformation in his soul was matched by an equally hideous change in his physical appearance. The Chief's fangs grew longer and more predatory, his eyes glinted with the wildness of a lunatic, his arms and body sprouted a growth of bristly, beast-like hair. He lost touch with and interest in the affairs of the village, caring only for his meals of blood and flesh and exerting himself only to ensure that the supply should never cease.
    Then one night, the Chief had a dream in which he saw the old Babalian whom he had put to death. There was grief and sorrow in his eyes as he spoke the following words: "Tomorrow a saviour will come from across the mountains to deliver my people from their sufferings. Tomorrow a Great Chief who has fallen from grace will meet his retribution."
    Taki Karanganan awoke with a great start and immediately summoned his warriors. He ordered them to send men to guard the hill, emphasising that all strangers encountered were to be immediately destroyed. He also ordered that all his new followers or peranaks should be rounded up and put to death. Then he retired within his heavily guarded residence, content that the precautions he had taken would prevent his dream from becoming prophetic. Dawn broke, and Taki Karanganan nervously awaited news from his warriors, But as the hours rolled by and no strangers were reported on the hills dream was merely the result of a cup of blood too many at supper. He ordered his cook to prepare lunch.
    As the Chief sat down to table, an excited Wakil burst into the room. "Great Chief," he gasped, "a stranger riding on a white horse has evaded the guards and entered the village. Warriors at once attacked him, but their spears and swords glanced off his invulnerable body. However, the stranger has allowed himself to be captured and is at this moment being brought to the hall,"

The stranger from across the mountains turned out to be a slim, mild looking young man who did not look in the least bit invulnerable.

    The Chief hstily took up a sword and moved into the hall to meet his voluntary prisoner. The stranger from across the mountains turned out to be a slim, mild looking young man who did not look in the least bit invulnerable. He stood there peacefully in the centre of a ring of the Chief's warroirs and, when challenged by the Chief to state his identity and mission, simply replied, "I am Tinzuzan and I have come to kill you."
    This answer enraged the Chief who ordered his warriors to cut the starnger down. When they stood mationless, he raised his own sword and leapt to the attack. A general gasp of  astonishment went up when Tinzuzan suddenly changed into a bird and flew out of range of the Chief's sword. The Chief called for a blow-pipe and poison dart, but as he blew the dart the bird dropped to the ground and changed into a snake. The maddened Chief grasped the reptile by the head and drew his hunting knife. But before he could stab it he found himself holding the horn of a tambadaw (wild cow). The tambadaw broke free from his grip, pawed the ground and the charged. The Chief turned tail and fled into a bamboo thicket. Tinzuzan circled the thivket menacingly for a few moments and then resumed his human form. Turning to the assembled warriors and Wakils, he said,"I have brought the Vampire Chief to bay. But his final destruction must be accomplished by yourself-the people who have endured his tyranny. Go forth into the tricket where he hides and drive your swords and spears into his body,"
    The crowd, encouraged by the presence of the wizard from across the mountains, charged into the bamboo grove. Eerie shrieks rang out as numerous steel points found their mark in Taki Karanganan's body. For a month the people celebrated the death of the Great Chief who turned Vampire. A special measure of grandeur was reserved for a ceremony to rehabilitate the martyred Babalian (physician) who had tried in vain to save the Chief. The village elders unanimously decided to invite Tinzuzan to assume the mantle. He declined, saying, "You must shape your own fortunes. I must return to my own poeple."
    Then he mounted his white horse and rode off across the valley and hills.