NGGERANG - ENGLISH Edition

Folklore of Loke Nggerang

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Folklore of Loke Nggerang

      Long time ago in Flores, there was a beautiful girl. Her name was Nggerang. She lived in a village called Ndoso Village, Manggarai regency in West Flores. She was very beautiful. Because of her beauty, she was very famous not only in that village, but also around the Manggarai regency. People in that village, however, said that she was strange because of her father. Her father was ancestral spirit while her mother was a human. (also read : THE STORY OF KI AGENG MANGIR)

      Besides having beautiful face, Nggerang also had a beautiful smile. Her skin was smooth and reddish as a princess from heaven. She had beautiful eyes and nose. Her hair was long, black, and straight. One more, Nggerang had a magic power and ability to transform into whatever she liked as her magic was given from her father. When she transformed herself into something else, none could recognize her.

      As Nggerang was beauty, many people wanted to marry her, however, she did not know what love was. Even she dared to refuse the Kings’ proposal.

      Meanwhile, the great King Todo wanted to marry Nggerang so he sent his messengers to propose Nggerang. But, Nggerang had transformed herself and disappeared. When the King’s messengers arrived to her house, Nggerang’s mother was surprised. The messengers explained about what they came for. Then a Tongka (spokesman) was invited to talk about Nggerang to the messengers.

      “The King’s will be better if the King want another girl from this village to be his consort. that would be better. It is hard for us if the King want to marry Nggerang,” said Tongka.

      “Why is it hard?” ask one of the messengers.

      “If she is at home or she can be seen in this village, it won’t be hard for us to call her.”

      “Where does she go?” asked the messenger again.

      “We don’t know, sir,” said Tongka.

      “Do you hide her?” asked the messenger.

      “No, Sir. If you would like” said Tongka, “You can search for that girl in every part of the houses in this village, Sir.”

      Then they searched for Nggerang, but nobody was able to find her. The result was nothing. The King’s messengers back to the palace without Nggerang.

      The next few days, the King heard that Nggerang came back to the village. He sent his messengers to propose Nggerang again. Unfortunately, when the messengers entered Nggerang’s house, she transformed herself and disappeared again. This is the second time the King failed to propose Nggerang.

      King Pongkor, a family of King Todo, heard that King Todo failed to marry Nggerang because he didn’t find her. He also sent messengers to propose Nggerang. But they came back without Nggerang, just as King Todo’s messengers. Nggerang did not want to marry anybody.

      Besides those two kings, there were two other kings, they were King Cibal and Mori Reok. They were from North Manggarai and also heard about the beauty of Nggerang. They sent their messengers to propose Nggerang, and they failed.

      Mori Dima from Bima was also failing to propose Nggerang and disappointed. Because of that, he blew up magic power to Ndoso village. Then, a thick dark cloud came to the village.

      The villagers felt that the thick cloud as a big wave that would destroy them all. The cloud would stop if Nggerang accepted to marry Mori Dima. But Nggerang still did not care about it. It made the villagers angry and wanted to kill Nggerang so they could get rid of the cloud. However, it was so hard to kill Nggerang.

      One day, when somebody wanted to kill her, she disappeared. The only way was to subdue her magic power first. They were then asked a shaman to kill Nggerang. This shaman had stronger magic power than Nggerang. Nggerang was not able to transform again. Then shaman killed her, and the cloud was gone.

      Nggerang was killed. Her body was buried but her smooth skin was- taken to Todo. Nggerang’s skin was use as a drum. The drum made from Nggerang’s skin sounded, “Tu..tuung Loke Nggerang, Tu..tuung Loke Nggerang”.The sound was so loud so that Mori Dima in Bima, Sumbawa could hear it.

      That was the end of Folklore of Loke Nggerang. hopefully the story of Folklore of Loke Nggerang above will be useful. (visit another story in Indonesian : Pelajaran dari Tukang Sate)