The Story of the Indonesian Dwarf Deer Translated by Anne Marijke Oruk Chapter 1 The Orphan He was born near the edge of the jungle, hidden in a tangle of branches and leaves. All around him lay old, heavy moss-covered trunks of fallen down trees; above him the wind rustled through the shimmering leaves. There he lay, alone, in his quiet and shady, steamy warm hiding place, where his mother had brought him into the world. She had left him then, to go and find food and water for herself, but she had not returned. For hours she had wandered through a hot ravine, searching for a creek or a water hole, and when she had finally found water with a bit of fresh greenery around the edge, she drank so quickly and greedily, that for a few moments she had forgotten her usual watchfulness. She had been seen and stealthily followed by a hungry, rose-yellow panther, when she was warned by the screech of a frightened pheasant it was too late. She took a few jumps to get away, but the panther threw himself on top of her and had her in his claws. One fierce bite in the neck – and it was over. Therefore, it happened that her tiny baby was left helpless and abandoned in the jungle. It lay waiting and waiting, looking with his bright, intelligent eyes at the movements of the leaves in his little nest; there was nothing else to see. What will become of you, little Kantjil? Soon it will be evening – oh will your first day in the world also be your last? Night will be here soon, when all the creatures of the jungle will be on the prowl for food. If you were lucky enough, and no one were to find you, you would still die of hunger and thirst, because you were abandoned, and those who are left abandoned in the jungle, are lost. Keep quiet, lie still, Kantjil, someone is approaching. Branches snapped. A dark grey creature pushed through the jungle. It stopped often, bending its head with heavy horns to the ground to eat, while chewing it moved along. It was a water buffalo, a mother buffalo. She was so thin that her ribs were showing. That was why she had done what she normally would not have done: because she was so hungry, she had left the open fields and had walked into the jungle. There was a big drought, there had been no rain, and the fields were brown and scorched, the earth dry and parched by the heat of the sun. The deeper she went into the jungle, the more green and edible plants she found. Snorting, she pushed her heavy body through the thorny bushes of the underbrush, until she suddenly stopped and looked with large, dull eyes across a fallen tree trunk. She had seen the tiny dwarf deer. The Kantjil shyly lifted his head, stood up, wobbling on his small, one-day-old legs and snorted. He was not afraid when the large buffalo stretched her neck out as far as she could to sniff the orphan. And – what is the buffalo doing? She had heaved herself across the fallen tree trunks and with her long, rough tongue was licking the tiny deer! What a kind buffalo she was! She lay down next to the kantjil and seeing how hungry he was, she allowed him to drink and greedily suck and pull on her udder, which did not hold very much milk, but just enough for a tiny kancil stomach. “Drink your fill, little one”, said the buffalo, “your mother seems to have abandoned you.” But the kantjil did not understand her; those were the first words he had ever heard. He could not reply, he could only smack, and that showed the buffalo that the orphan liked the milk. Soon the kantjil had had enough to drink, he sighed and lay tired next to the large, kind animal. “Well, here you are, but you can’t stay here. Or – did I perhaps scare your mother away? She would normally not be afraid of me.” The Kancil moved his head, but did not answer. “Poor thing – I really don’t know what I am going to do with you. If you stay here, things will go wrong for you. The kantjil copied her, scooted through a hole under the heavy tree trunk when the buffalo jumped over it, and followed her. What else could he do? He had a feeling that he should go with her. On his tiny, unsteady legs, he trotted behind the buffalo and he learned to walk pretty well that afternoon. It took a long time and it was quite far, where the buffalo was going, but finally they came to a wide open field where more buffaloes were lying together near a dried up water hole. They were all starved-looking, listless, some were very ill, and a few had already died. “What do you have with you?”, asked a tired old bull. “Oh – the creature had been abandoned. It followed me.” “It would have been better if you had brought back some rain – not a drop of rain has fallen in three months.” It became evening – and then night. The frightened kantjil huddled close to the kind mother buffalo and drank two more times that night.That same night the wind started to blow, dark clouds chased across the sky and suddenly the first heavy drops of rain fell to the ground. All the buffaloes stood up, the sick and the healthy, and took long, deep breaths. Slowly the shallow water hole filled up. The kantjil also stood straight up underneath the wide body of his protector and felt very cozy with the sound of rain pattering all around him. When the animals went to drink from the water hole and to lie in the cool mud, the kantjil stayed on the edge of the pool and jumped up and down from pure joy, although he could not say why he was so happy. When the kind buffalo saw that, she was satisfied and said: “I have brought good luck with me out of the jungle – the bad times are over.” I do not know if the author is still living, and/or if his family has the rights to the book. If requested by the author/family I will remove this story from this site. Fable of the Indonesian Dwarf Deer, also known as the Kantjil, from the author JOH. VAN HULZEN Het boek van de kantjil Het Indische dwerghert 2e DRUK UITGEVERIJ W. VAN HOEVE- DEVENTER Band en Illustraties van RONALD FRIJLING