In ancient Indonesian society, there were lots of stories involving animals, as fables written by Aesop in Western society.
In Indonesia, the creators of those stories are unknown. The similarity is, the animals
speak and do things as humans.
The theme of the stories are giving moral lessons to children, sometimes to adults.
In ancient Malay society, mouse deer was the protagonist in almost every fables and I'll give you an example.
One day, when the mouse deer was dancing, he accidentaly stepped on the otter's child and killed him.
Why was the mouse deer dancing?
Because he heard the music of war drum.
Why was the war drum played?
Because the woodpecker pecked it, after he saw the gecko used his sword.
Why did the gecko use his sword?
Because he saw the turtle wore his shell.
Why?
Because the turtle saw the crab aimed his trident.
Why?
Because the crab saw the river shrimp carried his spear.
Why?
Because the river shrimp saw the otter was going to eat his children.
Then King Solomon (yes, that famous King Solomon), gave them a conclusion as a judge that
the mouse deer was innocent, and the guilt was charged on otter himself.
Mouse Deer
Mouse deer is very popular in Indonesia. It's very small like a mouse and has no horns.
Mouse deer's photo is here
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King Solomon
Bible story is familiar to Indonesians because many of them are Muslims.
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