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HORRIBLE RAKSASAS

And then they remembered their promise - the offering of a roasted tailless pig. Which, to put another way, means - a roasted baby. (Well, I told you it would be gruesome)

Of course, they were very sad. All that day they discussed their dreadful dilemma. But a promise is a promise, and next day found a solution. Many children came to play with their baby daughter, and often, when night fell, they all went to sleep together. So, they would take one of their daughter's playmates for the roasted tailless pig offering. To make quite sure that, in the dark, they would not accidentally take their own beloved daughter (they were a pair of thorough-going nasties, I fool you not) Ibu gave her a golden bracelet - a golden life-preserver.

But the gods take a dim view of cheats, and so it came to pass that another baby borrowed -the beautiful bracelet, and went to sleep still wearing it. (The tale's getting spooky now, isn't it)

That night, when Ibu and Pak crept amongst the sleeping children, feeling for the golden bracelet, they spared the one wearing it, took the child beside her, and roasted her. (Don't give up - worse is yet to come)

So now they had their roasted tailless pig - and they tippy-toed that same night down to the temple at Tjampuhan and offered it to the god there with all appropriate prayers - for they were a very correct couple indeed. Their vow fulfilled, they were about to leave the temple, when they remembered that their prayers would not be complete until they ate some of their offering. (If you have a queasy tummy, you shouldn't be reading this, anyway).

Very timidly, each tried a little piece of the roasted tailless pig. But, so delicious was it that, once started, they kept eating until all the offering was finished. (Gory, isn't it)

Clouds covered the moon as lbu and Pak stumbled home feeling very ashamed about the whole affair.

Next morning things turned from grim to ghastly when they discovered their own daughter was missing, and realised what they had done. Tears streamed down their cheeks, but as they wiped them away they felt something wrong with their mouths. In shocked silence they looked at each other - their teeth had pushed

through their lips and were growing longer and longer - like tusks. Back they rushed to the Tjampuhan River and stared down at their reflections. They no longer recognised themselves, so bestial had they become.

The villagers, naturally, asked what had happened. A good question - to which the two tusky monsters had no good answer. Late one night, they sneaked out of the village and back to the Tjampuhan River, where they found a cave just below the temple, and hid in it.

This might have been a good solution, except that every time there is a temple festival, it begins with a procession to the river to collect holy water, and, up to the present day, these processions are led by little girls - the rejang.

Once the Raksasas, as the villagers now called the two monsters, were living in the cave, whenever a procession went down to the river, the Raksasa would jumpt out, grab one of the little rejang - and eat her. Soon, all the villages around Ubud were terrified (as well they might be, with young girls becoming scarcer than virgins in a brothel).

Then came a time when there were no processions to the temple - and the Raksasa became so hungry they were forced to leave the shelter of their cave and tramp through the fields searching for someone to take home for tea, as it were. In one field they saw a man ploughing, but when they tried to catch him, the poor man grabbed a fistful of mud, frantically moulded it until it looked like a large, fat leech and shook it at the Raksasa, in the hope of scaring them off.

The Raksasas were indeed terrified, because they dread leeches - they were also hungry. So the female Raksasa ran to a tree and commenced stropping her tusks, until they tangled with the roots and couldn't be freed. Seeing what had happened, the farmer rushed up, lopped off her head, and pinned it to the ground with his spade. To this day, the spot where the Raksasa was killed is known as Pacekan, which means "fasten to the ground", and on the short walk from Tjampuhan to Penestenan, the path takes you right through this famous ricefield.