The Legend Of Batu Punggul Sabah

The story takes place a time long ago, when the Sapulut River still passed between Punggul and Tinagas, which then were not limestone outcrops, but longhouses! It was a time when there were only a few boats in the possession of the Murut people. One fateful night, the Punggul people had no fire any more, and they asked the Tinagas people on the other side of the river to help them out. Only there were no boats that evening, and so the villagers on both sided riddled how they could get the fire over the rapid water. Finally a man from Tinagas had an idea. He tied a bundle of firewood and embers onto the back of a dog, and then told him to swim to the other side. But the current was too strong, and the dog drowned. The villagers broke out in laughter, and then someone proposed jauntily: "Take a chicken, take a chicken," and everybody in the Longhouse was laughing even more. Duly, the man took a rooster and tied another bundle of firewood and embers on its back. He told the rooster to fly across the river, and to the Longhouse on the other side to give the fire to the people there. But the unfortunate cock could not handle the burden, and midway over the river dropped into the water. He drowned, extinguishing the fire, just as the dog did. Now the people on both sides were cheering even more, though the Punggul people had still no fire to cook. This sneering laughter arose the wrath of the gods in the jungle, and in their anger they turned the two longhouses on either bank of the river into stone. Nothing and no living thing they spared, and in one big thunder houses, utensils, animals, everything turned to lifeless rock, except for the man who tried to get the fire over the river. But he was trapped in a cave from which he could not get out. Some time later a few villagers from down-river came to visit Punggul, but to their great amazement they found nothing but two huge rocks. They were looking for the houses and the people, but there were none. When the visitors climbed the rocks and entered the caves with their smooth, even floors, big halls, rooms and entrances, they realised that they stood in the very Longhouses they were looking for. Suddenly they heard the feeble calls of a man. They went looking from where the shouts came from, but when they found the man they had to realise that they could not get him out. He was imprisoned in the rock. Instead, they begged him to tell what had happened. In awe the visitors listened to his story. Then they asked him to show his hand, and the wretched fellow pushed it through a narrow crevice. When it appeared the visitors chopped it neatly off and went back to their kampung, leaving the man to perish. Back in their village they told everybody the story of Batu Punggul and Tinagas, and they held a big party to commemorate the unfortunate villagers. The hand of the survivor was buried during the feast, which is now called 'Elau. It is still practised when someone dies in the Punggul area. Much later, the river changed its course.

The two longhouses of solid stone stand now on the same side of the river, towering high above the jungle as a warning to all those who pass by.