One famous Remun Iban Chief named Numpi, was one person who settled permanently at Tebelu. He owned 30 slaves, who worked for him when he was left an orphan after his parent died while he was still very young. Only two of these slaves were good to him, while the rest plotted to kill him as his parents had been cruel to them.One day, when Numpi’s two favorite slaves went out to fish for him, the rest of the slaves held a secret meeting to discuss ways of killing the boy. They decided to do it during the burning season of the padi planting cycle. Eventually, when the burning season came, they took Numpi with them to the farm. At the same time, they had requested Numpi’s two favorite slaves to go out fishing at the nearby river. As they reached the farm, they quickly placed Numpi in the middle of the farm near the foot of an ijok palm. The set the field on fire and ran to the edge of the farm to stay away a safe distance from the raging fire that burn the dry trees and bushes they cut earlier. The burning fire created a strong wind, which make the Ijok palm leaves to swing violently, splashing water from the nearby pool into Numpi’s tiny body, which saved him from being burnt or hurt by the flames and heat.
The ijok palm (Arenga pinnata) is a plant capable of yielding a small amount of edible flour (tepong mulong). Its trunk is covered with a coarse hair-like fiber (bulu) which serves as a valuable source of cordage, particularly for rope making. This useful palm also yields sugar and occasionally toddy (tuak ijok).
At the river side, while casting their net, the two loyal slaves saw a thick smoke in the direction of their farm from their boat. Sensing something wrong, they rushed home and found Numpi was not there. Worried about his safety in the hands of the other slaves who dislike their young master, the two loyal slaves immediately rushed to their farm. When they reached the paddy field, they found that the fire had already burned itself out. They also notice that Numpi was not together with them at their temporary hut on the edge of the field. They began to search for Numpi while mentioning that they would kill the other slaves personally if Numpi is found dead. Fearing for their lives, the other slaves left the field immediately while the two loyal slaves searched for their master.
As the two men searched for the child at the centre of the burnt out field, they heard a faint weeping sound of their master. Thus they knew that their master is still alive. When they saw him, they found that he had been miraculously cooled by the water splashed by the ijok palm leaves. Seeing the miracle, the two slaves made a vow, “since this ijok palm has saved our master, the people of our race must no longer eats its shoot, forever and ever”. It was and is because of this that the Remun Dayak does not eat the shoot of the ijok palm even to this very day. It is thought that anyone who eats it by mistake will be afflicted with boils (pisa).
The two slaves took their young master back to the house where they scented him with perfumed mambong leaves and the bark of the lukai tree in order to restore his health. They also urged him, when he was grown up, to kill all the disloyal slaves who had plotted to kill him. These words were overheard by some of the slaves, who still live close by, and they held an urgent meeting. Desiring to escape from their master’s retaliation, they secretly fled to the Batang Ai, Skrang and Saribas Rivers.
Mambong plant (blumea balsamifera) is a flowering shrub; commonly grow on newly abandoned farms (jerami). It is an important ritual and medicinal plant. Dried mambong leaves are burned, particularly at sunset, to repel malevolent spirits. Lukai is a small tree and its dried bark is also burnt to drive away both spirits and insect.
When Numpi had grown up, the two slaves had died of old age. So he lived alone and became very sad. There were a lot of other people living up and the Sadong River not very far from him, but as a man of very high rank, he felt ashamed of leaving his house and lived with them. Due to his loneliness, one day he decided to leave his house and settled on the sea coast. Here he lived by fishing. One day, while fishing, his net caught a bamboo. After he took the bamboo out of his net, he threw it back to the sea again. He paddled to another spot to cast his net. This time his net caught the bamboo again. He threw the bamboo back into the sea again and paddled to another spot to cast his net. At the new spot, he cast his net again. When he drew it out of the water, it has again caught a bamboo piece again. Seeing this repeated occurrence, he became puzzled and he decided to place a mark on the bamboo before he threw the bamboo piece towards the shore.
He paddled to another spot where he cast his net for the fourth time. This time it again caught on something. As he drew it up, he was surprised to see the same bamboo get caught in his net. This time, he placed it on his canoe. Numpi continued to fish and after some time, he caught enough fish for his food. As he reached his landing place, he brought the fish and bamboo to his house. As he carried the bamboo to his house, he heard strange noise coming from inside the bamboo node. At his home, he carefully split open the bamboo and found an egg inside. He placed the egg on a chupai basket and took it inside his room. He then went outside to dress himself on the gallery.
After he had dressed, he again heard a noise in the room, which he completely ignored. Shortly afterwards as he was looking towards the room, he saw a lovely young lady cleaning the fish which he had left in the basket. He thought to himself, “Maybe the egg has miraculously turned into this woman”.
Numpi then went back to the room. Before he could ask a question, the lady spoke to him. “Numpi, I have been asked by my brothers and sisters to follow you, in order to marry you, if you agree to become my husband”.
“Of course I want to marry you, if you agree and your family gives their consent”, replied Numpi.
The lady then told Numpi that she had tried many times to come to him when he fished in the sea. “It was I who was caught by your net in the sea. My name is Rambia Bunsu Betong. If you threw me away as you had so often done, my brothers and sisters might not agree to my marriage with you.”
They were married that evening and after a year had passed, they begot a son who they named Maar.
Eventually, when the child was growing into boyhood, his mother told Numpi that she must return to her spiritual world and could no longer live as husband and wife. However, she advised Numpi not to worry about the divorce as she promised to give Numpi another woman for his wife. After she had finished spoken, she disappeared from the sight of Numpi and their son.
One day, Numpi went out fishing in the sea again. This time he caught a huge patin catfish. He then started off to take his catch back to his home. As he paddled homeward, he happened to pass by a Sebuyau Dayak longhouse where a feast was being celebrated. When some of these people saw Numpi, they begged him to join them. He, at first refused their invitation as he is in a hurry to bring back the fish he had caught to his son at home. The Sebuyaus urged him to come in for a short time in order to taste their tuak (rice wine) and the delicious food they had prepared. On hearing this, and knowing that it is a taboo (puni) to refuse an invitation to taste the food, Numpi went up to the longhouse after securing his boat on their landing place. At the longhouse, he was served food and drinks by the host and joined in their merry makings. Very soon afterward, he began to forget about the patin fish he had left on the boat. Quite sometime later, when he remembers about the fish he left on the boat, he asked a boy to fetch it from his boat to be cooked for the feast. The boy then went out to fetch the fish from the boat and saw a young lady sitting there. When the boy asked the lady for the fish, she ignored him completely. Seeing this, the boy returned to the house and told Numpi what happens and what he saw on the boat.
On hearing the boy’s story, Numpi became suspicious and returned instantly to his boat at the landing place. As soon as he reached the landing place, he saw a beautiful lady sitting inside the boat. He quietly untie the boat and paddled away, too shy to speak to the young lady at the time.
As Numpi paddled the boat, the lady spoke to him. She said, “You are a strange man, Numpi. Why should you leave your son alone at home without anyone to look after him?” Numpi then guiltily asked the lady where she had come from. The lady told him that she was the patin fish that he had caught and her name is Rambia Bunsu Patin. Knowing that she was the lady his first wife had promised to send him before, they were married that evening.
They lived together as husband and wife and soon she gave birth to a son, whom they named Lau Moa. One day after the boy had grown to boyhood, his wife told Numpi that she cannot live with them in the human world any longer as she had come from their spiritual world. She advised Numpi that none of their descendants should eat the patin fish (heliocophagus). She too disappeared from their sight and Numpi was heartbroken again. He was happy that he was blessed with the two sons from the two marriages he had.
His sons grew up to be the leaders of their people. Maar was married to a woman named Riu, a daughter of Orang Kaya Saja of the Remun country. The descendent of Maar became chief of the Remun Dayaks, who lived between the other Sea Dayak (Sebuyaus) and the Land Dayak in the First Division, Sarawak. His brother, Lau Moa, moved to Batang Skrang, a tributary of Batang Lupar, and lived with his wife’s family there. He is most remembered as the first Iban pioneer to settle at Nanga Skrang. He was the father of the famous Iban bards Geringu, Sumbang, Sudok and Malang, who were believed to have been taught the correct wording of the Gawai Burong chants (Pengap Gawai Burong), by Sengalang Burong’s own bard, Sampang Gading. Most of his descendent still live in Skrang, Saribas and Kalaka region to this day.
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