From Dusun Folklore
Long ago men planted only tapioca, caladium and beans; at that time there was no rice. When they had planted them they fenced them round, and after a time they cleared away the weeds in the crop. At weeding-time they found that wild pigs had been getting it and had eaten all their caladium. “What use is it,” said they, “our planting crops? The wild pigs only eat them.” In the evening the men went home to their houses, and when it was night they went to sleep.
Now one man dreamed, and in his dream an old man came to him, and he said to the old man: “All my caladium and tapioca and beans which I planted have been eaten by wild pigs.” Said the old man: “You must make a blatek [spring-trap] at the edge of your fence where the pigs enter.” Then the man awoke, for it was near morning, and thinking over the dream, he resolved to make a blatek near the edge of his garden. So he ate, and when he had finished he went out to his clearing and started making a blatek. When he had finished it he set it and returned home, and on the fourth day after he had set the trap he went back to his plantation to look if it had caught anything. When he got there he found a wild pig in the trap, but it had become decayed and was not fit to eat. He poked it with the end of his walking-stick, and found that its head was separate from the body, and that the under jaw and teeth had fallen away from the head.
The man went home, and at night he went to sleep and dreamed that the same old man came to him and said: “What about your blatek? Did it catch a wild pig?” “Yes,” said the man, “I caught a pig, but it had become rotten and I was not able to eat it.” “Did you take a walking-stick with you?” said the old man. “And did you prod the wild pig’s head with the stick?” “I did,” said he. “Very well,” said the old man, “do not plant caladium and beans this year; plant rice instead.” “But where shall I get rice from?” said he, “for there is no rice in this village.” “Well, search for it in other villages,” said the old man. “If you only get two or three measures that will be enough. The marks where you thrust your stick into the pig’s head shall be called the puru-puru. The lower jaw shall have its name of the ror, and the blatek also shall keep its name, and all these shall become stars.”
Then said the man: “I want instruction from you, for if I get rice how am I to plant it?” Said the old man: “You must watch or the blatek, the ror and the puru-puru to appear in the sky, and when, shortly after dark, the puru-puru to appear in the sky, and when, shortly after dark, the puru-puru appears about a quarter way up in the sky, that is the time to plant rice. The puru-puru will come out first, the ror behind it and the blatek last of all.” When the man woke up he found that the old man’s words had come true, and that the puru-puru, the blatek and the ror had become stars. To the present day they follow this custom, and the rice is planted according to the position of these stars as seen shortly after dark (about seven o’clock).
Source:
Among Primitive Peoples in Borneo, Ivor H.N. Evans, 1922
Kotharian Lightning 