The Legend of Surabaya
A long time ago in
East Java there were
two strong animals,
Sura and Baya. Sura was
a shark and Baya was
a crocodile. They lived
in the sea.
Actually, they were friends. But
when they were
hungry, they were very greedy.
They did not want to
share their food. They
would fight for it
and never stop fighting until
one of them gave u p.
It was a very hot
day. Sura and Baya
were looking for
some food. Suddenly, Baya
saw a goat. “Yummy,
this is my lunch,” said
Baya. “No way! This
is my lunch. You are
greedy! I had not
eaten for two days!” said
Sura. Then Sura and
Baya fought again. After
several hours, they
were very tired. Sura had
a plan to stop their
bad behavior.
“I’m tired of
fighting, Baya,” said Sura. ”Me too. What should we do to stop fighting? Do you
have any idea?” asked Baya. “Yes, I do. Let’s share our territory. I live in
the water, so I look for food in the sea. And you live on the land, right? So,
you look for the food also on the land. The border is the beach, so we will
never meet again. Do you agree?” asked Sura. ”Hmm... let me think about it. OK,
I agree. From today, I will never go to the sea again. My place is on the
land,” said Baya.
Then they both lived
in the different places. But one day, Sura went to the land and looked for some
food in the river. He was very hungry and there was not much food in the sea.
Baya was very angry when he knew that Sura broke the promise.
“Hey, what are you
doing here? This is my place. Your place is in the sea!” “But, there is water
in the river, right? So, this is also my place!” said Sura. Then Sura and Baya
fought again. They both hit each other. Sura bite Baya's tail. Baya did the
same thing to Sura. He bit very hard until Sura finally gave up. He went back
to the sea. Baya was very happy. He had his place again.
The place where they
were fighting was a mess. Blood was everywhere. People then always talked about
the fight between Sura and Baya. They then named the place of the fight as
Surabaya, it’s from Sura the shark and Baya the crocodile. People also put
their war as the symbol of Surabaya city.
"Pardon,
O King," cried the little Mouse, "forgive me this time, I shall never
forget it. Who knows but I may be able to do you a turn some of these
days?" The
Lion was so tickled at the idea of the Mouse being able to help him, that he
lifted up his paw and let him go.
