Narrative
Lafaek Diak
Not translated into English
Anonymous · 1934
Synopsis
A small crocodile, in distress far from the water, is rescued by a boy who carries it to the sea. Grateful, the animal promises to help him and takes him on its back for long journeys over the waters, towards the lands where the sun is born. The years pass and the crocodile feels the urge to eat its companion; it goes to ask other animals for advice, among them a monkey. The tale tells the origin of the island of Timor.
Context
In the colonial period, Portuguese missionaries and administrators collected the legend and published it under several titles: Júlio Garcez de Lencastre in 1934, in O Mundo Português, Father Ezequiel Enes Pascoal in 1950, in the journal Seara, and Joana Fradique in 1955. Fernando Sylvan took it up again in 1988 in a trilingual volume of Maubere legends, in Portuguese, Tetum and English. The crocodile, regarded as sacred by most of the island's groups, is called grandfather, and people address it when crossing rivers; since 2002, it can no longer be killed.
Who it is for
A short legend, which the Timorese know under several titles; to be read in the Portuguese collections or in the trilingual volume of 1988.
Prizes and reception
Having become a collective myth of Timorese identity, it makes the crocodile a national symbol, protected since independence.
Sources for this page 4
The pages consulted to check this page.