Once, there was a huge rock in the middle of the sea. At the time, there was no land, only water. When the big rock opened its mouth, a man and a woman walked out. The man and woman looked around and saw nothing but water. The woman asked the man, "How can we walk when there is no land?" They got down from the rock and tried to walk on the top of the water. They found that they could.
They went back to the rock and sat down to think for a long time. Then they crossed the water again, and after a long time they reached the house of Bisagit, the spirit of smallpox, who had built land even though it was very far away. The man and his wife both had names that started with "Ken." Bisagit gave them some of his land after they asked for it.
So, they went back home, beat up the rock, mixed it with Bisagit's soil, and it turned into land. After that, Kenharingan made the Dusun, and Munsumundok made the sky. After that, Kenharingan and Munsumundok made the sun because it was dangerous for men to walk around in the dark. "Then," Munsumundok said, "there is no light at night. Let's make the moon." So they did, along with the seven stars, the blatek, and the kukurian [constellations].
The children of Kenharingan and Munsumundok were a son and a girl. People who lived with Kenharingan were now crying because there was no food. So, Kenharingan and Munsumundok killed their daughter and cut her up. From the different parts of her body, everything edible grew: from her head came the coconut, which still has the marks of her eyes and mouth. From her arm bones came sugar cane, from her fingers came bananas, and from her blood came padi. All of the animals also started out as parts of the child.
When Kenharingan was done with everything, he asked, "Who can shed his skin?" If a person is able to do this, he will not die. The snake was the only one who heard and replied, "I can." Because of this, the snake does not die until it is killed by a person. (If the Dusun had known, they too would have shed their skins, and no one would have died.) Kenharingan cleaned the Dusun in the river and put them in a basket. Unfortunately, one of them fell out of the basket and floated away down the river, stopping near the coast. The Bajau, who still live near the water and are good at fishing, are his descendants.
When Kenharingan was done washing the Dusun in the river, he held a ceremony for them in his house. One man left before Kenharingan was done and went into the jungle to look for something. When he came back, he was a monkey and couldn't get back into the house. This man is the father of the monkeys.
Adapted from Evans, Ivor H. N. “Folk Stories of the Tempassuk and Tuaran Districts, British North Borneo.” The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 43 (1913): 471–473.
Notes
This story comes from Sabah, North Borneo, East Malaysia. Borneo is the third largest island in the world. It is in Southeast Asia and is in the middle of the Indonesian archipelago. It is shared between Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei in the 21st century. The Dusun, Bajau, and Illanun, whose stories are told below, are three of the island's more than 30 different ethnic groups. Depending on where they live, different indigenous cultures rely on fishing, farming, or both to make a living. Islam has had a big impact on a lot of different groups, like the Bajau and the Illanun.
Indigenous beliefs are at the heart of stories like "The Beginning," though. The main gods of the Dusun people of Borneo are Kenharingan and Munsumundok.
References
Evans, I. H. N. (1913, July). Folk Stories of the Tempassuk and Tuaran Districts, British North Borneo. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 43, 422. https://doi.org/10.2307/2843543
Green, Thomas A. "World Folktales: The Beginning." The Greenwood Library of World Folktales. Santa Barbara, CA: Greenwood Press, 2008.