Chapter I - Folk Literature

Summary

Folk literature (sastera rakyat) is a literature that lives in the midst of the people. A mother may tell a story to her child in the cradle. A storyteller may impart a tale by word of mouth to other villagers who cannot read. (The storyteller him- or herself may not be able to read either). Such stories are passed down orally from one generation to the next. This is a different situation from the written literature that exists in the royal courts of the king (although it should be mentioned here that the boundary between folk literature and written literature is not always clear in Malay literature). Stories of the Mousedeer, for example, were widespread among the common people. As time went by, these stories were gathered and turned into a book at the behest of a ruling nobleman or king. The Hikayat Hang Tuah, according to a Russian scholar, also had its genesis in folk literature which was subsequently rearranged and adapted according to the dictates of the palace. Conversely, there were also works of written literature which later became oral literature; for example, the story of a magic bird became the basis for Hikayat Ahmad dan Muhammad. Another famous example is the story of a king who understood the language of animals, as found in the Hikayat Bayan Budiman (Winstedt, 1958: 62). This story gave birth to a story among the Gayos and Bataks which goes like this:

There was once a husband who went in search of deer liver for his pregnant wife. In his quest, he killed a black snake which he found fornicating with a white snake. The black snake's mate was very thankful to the man and granted him the gift of animal language. One day, the man heard a conversation between cockroaches which made him laugh. His wife asked him to teach her the language of animals. She said, “Alas, if you don't teach me the language of the animals, I will die.”[…]