Kisah Atu Belah, Inggris Indonesia

One day, the father went to hunt a deer in the forest. He left his wife and sons in the house. When lunch time, the oldest son sulked because there is no dish for the rice. Looking for what happened, the mother felt really sad.

Then, the mother told her son to take grasshoppers in the barn. When the son opened the barn door, he was careless, he forgot to close the door. It makes all of the grasshoppers flown out of the barn.

When the father came back to the house after the hunting, he pissed off and tired cause he didn’t find even a deer. He was very angry when he found out that all of the grasshoppers had flown out of the barn. His anger got even bigger while he remembered how long he had been collecting all of the grasshoppers. All of them gone in a short time.  In his unconsciousness, he hit his wife until she battered. Then he dragged her out from the house.

While moaning in pain, the mother went out from the house. In great despair, she went to Atu Belah. Atu Belah is the giant stone which always accept and swallow anyone who willing to be swallowed. This intention can come true if she sings a spell in Gayonese. The spell is “Atu belah, atu bertangkup nge sawah pejaying te masa dahulu." Which means “Split stone, cupped stone, our promise in the past has arrived”

The spell was sang by the poor mother softly. When the mother came to Atu Belah, her sons followed her while crying from the distance.

After the mother sang the spell, the stone was opened. Without any doubt, the mother entered into the stone. Little by little her body was swallowed by the stone. 

When her sons came to Atu Belah, it was raining heavily accompanied by gale. The earth shake cause watched Atu Belah swallowed human. After all things stopped, with the broken heart, the sons only could saw her mother hair which left outside Atu Belah. Then the oldest son cut the seven strands of hair of her mother for their amulets.