Timun Mas (Golden Cucumber)

Okay children, today let us listen to Miss Snow White's story. It's called as Timun Mas or Golden Cucumber...............

There once lived an old widow whose name was Mbok Sarni. Everyday she spent her time alone, because she did not have any children. She really wanted to have children to live with her, so that they could help her.

One day, Mbok Sarni went to a forest  to look for firewood. On the way to the forest she met a very very big giant. The giant asked her about her destination. And after he had heard her answer, the giant told her to give him a child for his meal before continuing her trip.

Because she had no children, she could not give him a child. After the giant had heard that Mbok Sarni actually wanted to have children, he told her to take cucumber seeds he gave. She had to plant the seeds, in two weeks she would get a baby girl from the cucumber she had planted. But when the child was six, the giant would come to take her for his meal. That time Mbok Sarni agreed with that.

Two weeks later, Mbok Sarni’s garden was full of cucumbers. Mbok Sarni took the biggest cucumber and cut it into two. She was very happy to find a baby inside, a very beautiful baby girl. She named her “Timun Mas” which meant “Gold Cucumber”.

Day after day Timun Mas grew up. Mbok Sarni was very glad to realize that she was not alone anymore. She could work faster because Timun Mas always helped her.

Uncounsciously, the time had come for the giant to pick up Timun Mas. Mbok Sarni asked the giant to give her more two years to make her bigger and fatter. She said to the giant that the fatter and the bigger Timun Mas was, the more delicious she would be. The giant thought that what she said made  sense to him. And he believed Mbok Sarni, so he decided to come back again in two years.

Two years was not a long time. That was why Mbok Sarni was so worried about it. Until one day, Mbok Sarni had a dream. In her dream, she was told to send Timun Mas to a hermit at a mountain. Soon after she had woken up, she asked Timun Mas to go to the mountain to meet the hermit.

When Timun Mas said to the hermit about the reason she wanted to meet him, he told her to take four small pouches with her. Every pouch contained a different thing. The first one was for cucumber seeds, the second one was for needles, the third one was for salt, and the last one was for terasi ¹⁾. Timun Mas had to throw them one by one to the ground just in case she was chased by the giant.

The giant’s second arrival made Mbok Sarni get on her knees to beg him to let Timun Mas live, because Mbok Sarni loved Timun Mas very much as if she was her own daughter. Mbok Sarni said to the giant to replace Timun Mas with herself. But the giant ignored her and he became furious. He said to Mbok Sarni angrily that she had to give him Timun Mas right away.

Timun Mas did not want Mbok Sarni to cry any longer, so she decided to come out from her hiding place. When the giant had seen Timun Mas, he chased her. So she ran as fast as she could. When the giant had gotten closer to her, she threw the cucumber seeds on the ground. Suddenly, the ground became a cucumber plantation. The cucumber trunks wound around his body, so he could not move for a while. But after he had broken the trunks, he chased her again. Because the giant had long legs, he could get closer to her easily. She was very surprised, so she threw the needles on the ground. The needles changed to be bamboo trees. Those bamboo trees were very tall and sharp. They wounded his feet. But the giant did not care about that. With the bleeding feet, he still chased her. Timun Mas did not believe it, but she could not stop running. She threw the salt on the ground. At the same time the ground became a very wide and deep lake. Unfortunately the giant could still run in that lake as fast as on the ground. She felt no hope anymore. But she kept running. She still held a pocket of terasi on her hand. It was her last hope. So she threw the terasi on the ground. In a second, that terasi turned into a lake of boiling mud. This time, the giant could not stand the heat. He fell into the mud and died in it. She was relieved to know that. Timun Mas said to herself, “If the hermit had not given me that terasi, I would have died.”

Timun Mas thanked God to have escaped from mortal danger. And finally, Timun Mas and Mbok Sarni could feel free to live. They lived happily and peacefully for the rest of their lives. 

¹⁾ salted, fermented fish or shrimp paste.