Hantu Laut (Sea Ghosts)
There are many sea ghost in Pulau Banyak and they get the blame for
many bad things. There are both a female and a male sea ghost.
These ghosts are not human, but instead are some kind of fish
ghosts. The female sea ghost is called "Bundung" . Her evil
specialty is to cclimb the masts of ships. Up in that position she
is visible, but otherwise not. Up in the mast she an do two evil
things. One is to empty her bowels over the ship. The excrement
looks like palm oil, and the end result of this is that the ship
sinks. The other activity is to cause lightning to hit the
boat,causing the boat and crew to perish. The male sea ghost is
called "Ka'aswin". He can be seen at the start of storm. He has one
eye, which appears as green light. If you come very close,it turns
red instead. If it red you are on very dangerous ground. Ka'aswin
influences your brain and can cause boats to sail aground, or to
give you fever. If a fisherman sees the eye he has says the name "
Ka'aswin " repeatedly .
Hantu Buaya (Crocodiles Ghost)
The crocodile ghosts can enter a crocodile and make it vicious. The
last crocodile in Pulau Palambak Besar disappeared in the beginning
of the 70'ties, but according to some people there is one still
left, living together with a crocodile ghost, somewhere behind
Gary's Pondok near " The Point" in Palambak Besar. The last time he
was seen, was 1990, but his bad breath can sometimes be felt close
to the beach. Unfortunately, for the crocodile, he cannot get out
of the junggle because too much vegetation has grown up, and his
genitals get stuck in the branches! The last crocodile in Rangit
Besar island was killed in seventies. It was caught by Pak (Mr)
Silong, a crocodile "pawang" from Padang. ( A "pawang" is a person
who can ccommunicate with animals. ) He used a chicken as bait of a
hook. The rocodile was nine "hesta" long. (One "hesta" is the
distance between a grown-up's elbow and fingertips, hand held flat
out.) According to another version, this crocodile was killed by an
old woman with a piece of wood from magic tree. She just hit the
crocodile in the head three times and it died. When a fisherman
meets a crocodile at sea, he says :" Jauh nenek, jauh, saya pergi
cari makan " (Go away grandmother, go away, I am just looking for
food. )
Devil and ghosts in Bangkaru
Up until 20 to 30 years ago people mainly from Haloban, used to
arrive to Bangkaru by sailing boat. They landed just as in "modern"
times at Pelanggaran Beach. There were always three persons on
board . One of them was a "dukun" (medicine man or magician man ).
The dukun's role was to protect them from all the devils and ghosts
that inhabited Bangkaru and to make the waves become smaller to
facilitate and easier landing. The devils used to call to the
visitor with human voies. They called for help and tries to make
the visitor go after the sound. Obviously the dukuns did a good
job, because no one can remember that anyone ever got lost. During
all the years only one person ever drowned at Pelanggaran.
The Pirates in Palambak Besar and Kecil
Many faraway island, not only Palambak Besar and Keil, were
controlled by very primitive pirates. They were brutal and killed
temporary visitors in order to steal their supplies. Their ruler
was the strongest person. In both Palambak Besar and Palambak
Kecil, they collected the sculls of their victims in a well. In
Palambak Besar no one remembers where this well is, but in Palambak
Kecil the well can be seen. This lawlessness continued until the
30'ies.
Hidden treasures
There are many hidden treasures in Pulau Banyak according to the
locals. Some from the Dutch who hid them from Japanese and
sometimes from Japanese who hid them when they left. On Ujung Utara
(Nothern Point) in Bangkaru Island, a Duchman once built a house
and started coconut plantation. He entered the small river there
and built his house at a shouting distance to the east. Somewhere
there, a metal box was found that was impossible to open. When
people came back with better tools they could not to find it. In
Telik Nibung there is a cave with a treasure in it. It is however
protected by magic powers and it is strongly recommended not to try
to enter !.
