Folklore from West Sumatra
robbers.
ONCE upon a time, there was a gambler
in Payakumbuh West Sumatra. His name
was Bincik. He really liked gambling.
Whenever people asked him to do
gambling, he was always ready.
Sometimes he won a lot of money, but
sometimes he lost. And when he lost all
his money, Bincik did a terrible thing.
With  his friends, he robbed people's
houses. However he did not rob the
houses in his village. Instead he went to
other villages and robbed the houses.
Bincik was a short man. But he was very
strong. He was never caught in his
criminal action. Everybody knew that
Bincik was a gambler and a robber. And
people from other villages also knew
about that. However they did not have
the courage to fight against Bincik. So
people from other villages started not
to have contact with the people in
Bincik's villages.
The people in Bincik's villages started
to suffer. They could not do business as
usual. Slowly they became poor. To
solve the problem, all the villagers talk
to Bincik's parents. They asked the
parents to advise Bincik not to rob
people's houses. Bincik really loved his
parents. He obeyed his parents' advice.
Bincik then told his friends not to rob
people's houses.
However, they rejected his idea.
Especially Brewok, who really enjoyed
robbing people's houses, he told other
robbers to kill Bincik. Brewok had been
jealous with Bincik. He wanted to
replace Bincik as the head of the
Other robbers agreed. They attacked
Bincik and threw him to a canyon. The
robbers thought he was dead. Well,
they were wrong. Bincik was
unconscious but he was still alive.
Later Bincik opened his eyes. He felt he
could not move his body. Suddenly, he
saw a shadow. Bincit asked for help,
"Help! Please help me! I will do anything
if you help me."
The shadow replied "Really? Hmm… Ok,
I will help you. And I will give great
strengths. But I want you to use your
strength to help me. My daughter is
trapped in a cave. The mouth of the
cave is covered by big stones. I want
you to open the cave and free my
daughter."
Bincik agreed. And suddenly he felt he
was very strong. He was able to stand
up and walk. He ran to the cave and in
just a minute he was in front of the
cave. With his power; he lifted all the
big stones covering the mouth of the
cave. Slowly it was opened.
Bionic found a very beautiful girl in the
cave. She was a human. Bincik was very
grateful to find her. He fell in love and
later he married her. Bincik and his
wife lived in the cave.
Bincik and his wife lived happily. But
soon he missed his parents. He wanted
to visit his parents in the village. After
asking his wife's permission, Bincik left
to his village.
Sadly, he could not find his parents. His
village was in a terrible condition.
After Bincik left Brewok and his
friends continued to rob. They also
started robbing the houses in their own
village! And they all were very cruel.
They would hurt anyone who was trying
to stop them. Bincik heard that his
parents were dead. Brewok and his
friends killed them. Bincik was angry!
Bincik used his great power to fight
against Brewok and his friends. One by
one, all Brewok’s friends were killed.
And finally, Bincik was fighting head to
head against Brewok. Bincik was too
powerful. In a very short time, Brewok
lost the fight.
After all the robbers were dead, the
village was peaceful. Sadly, their
peaceful life was soon ended. Dutch
people came and they wanted to occupy
their place. Bincik led the villagers to
join the war. Bincik's power was very
useful in war. The Dutch lost many of
their soldiers. The Dutch finally knew
about Bincik. They planned to kill him.
It was a massive attack. So many Dutch
soldiers looked for Bincik. First they all
went to Bincik’s village. They could not
find him there. Then they went to the
jungle, again they could not find him
there. Later they heard about Bincik’s
wife who lived in the cave. They hoped
they could find Bincik there. Still,
Bincik was missing.
Until now people did not know if Bincik
was still alive or already dead. And if he
was dead, people did not know Where
he was buried. To commemorate
Bincik's great fight against the Dutch,
they named his cave as Ngalau si Bincik,
ngalau means cave. And the cave is in
the outskirt of Payakumbuh.***