Folklore And Legends
FOLKLORE OF SEVEN BOYS

Once upon a time, in a village in Nanggro Aceh Darussalam, there was a husband and wife who had seven young boys. The oldest child is ten years old, while the youngest is two years old. To make ends meet, the couple grew vegetables to eat daily and the rest was sold to the market. Despite all the mediocre, their lives are always harmonious, peaceful, and serene.

At one time, their village was hit by a prolonged dry season. All plants died from drought. The villagers also started to lack food. Their food supplies are getting thinner and thinner, while the dry season does not end. Eventually, the entire village was starved, including the families of the couple and their seven children.

Seeing the situation, the couple became panicked. Vegetable plants that have been the source of their livelihood are no longer growing. They had no other job but to grow vegetables in the garden. They had thought hard to find a way out of the difficulty, but did not find the answer. Finally, they agreed to throw their seven children into a forest far from the village.

One night, when her seven children were fast asleep, the two made a deliberation to find a way to throw away their seven children.

“Bang! How to avoid getting caught by children?” ask the confused wife.

“Morning tomorrow our children took us to go looking for firewood to a forest that is located quite far away. By the time they rest lunch, we pretend to look for drinking water in the river,” explained the Husband.

“Good, Bang!” the Wife agreed.

Without them knowing, apparently their third child who at that time had not slept heard all their talk.

The next day, the couple took their seven sons into the forest to find firewood. Arriving in the nearby forest, the father said to them:

“All my children! We should find a large forest and many trees, so we can get more firewood,” said the father.

“Good, Dad!” answer the seven boys simultaneously.

After a long walk, they arrived in a very large forest. How happy they are, because in the forest there is a lot of firewood. They immediately gathered a lot of firewood. When the day before noon, the mother also invited her seven children to rest unwind after almost half a day of work.

At that time, the couple was about to start running their plan to leave their seven children in the middle of the forest.

“Oh my children! You all rest here first. Me and your mother want to find a river around this forest, because our drinking water supply is up,”, said the father.

“Good, Dad!” answer the seven children simultaneously.

“Don't be long huh, Dad... Mother...!’” sahut the Bungsu.

“Yes, My son!” she answered and went to follow her husband.

Meanwhile, after waiting for some time and their parents had not returned, the seven children began to fidget. They were worried that both their parents would suffer. Finally, the eldest also invited his six siblings to go after their parents. However, before leaving the place, the third child suddenly spoke up.

“Abang! There's no point in us catching up with mom and dad. They've left us all,” said the third child.

“What do you mean, Dik?” ask the Eldest.

“Last night, when you fell asleep, I heard father and mother talk. They deliberately leave us in the middle of this forest, because they are no longer able to support us all due to a long drought,” explained the third child.

“Why did you tell us this?” ask the second child.

“I fear father and mother wrath me, Bang,” replied the third son.

Finally, the seven children did not go after their parents, especially when it was getting dark. They immediately sought shelter from the night air. Fortunately, not far from where they were, there was a large tree whose trunk was hollow like a cave. They rested and slept in the hole until morning.

“Bang! What do we do now? Where should we go?” ask the second child.

It turns out that, when he was on a tree, the Eldest saw a puff of smoke from a distance. He immediately came down from the tree and took his six sisters to the direction of the smoke. After walking a long way, they finally arrived at a village. How surprised they were when they saw a very large house standing upright on the edge of the village.

“Hei see! Very big house,” exclaimed the fourth child.

“Waaahhh... lest it's a giant house,” says sixth child.

Just as the words were coming out of his mouth, a loud voice suddenly came from inside the house asking them to enter the house. A few moments later, the occupants of the house came out. Apparently, she's a female giant.

“Hey, son of man! Who're you?” ask the Giant Female.

“We're lost, Lord Giant! Our parents left us in the middle of the forest,” replied the Eldest.

Hearing that statement, suddenly the Giant Female felt sorry for them. He immediately invited them into his house and served them food and drinks. Because they were starving, the seven children ate the food with greed.

“Spend that quick meal, then climb up to the top of the attic! Otherwise, you will be eaten by my husband. Soon he comes from hunting,” said Giant Female.

For fear of being eaten by the Giant Male, they immediately finished their food and rushed up to the attic to hide. Not long after, the Giant Man came home from hunting. When he opened the door, he suddenly smelled good food.

“Waaahhh... delicious!” said the male giant while inhaling that pleasant smell.

“Bu! There seems to be good food in the house. I smell human. Where do you keep them?” ask the Giant Man to his wife.

“I keep them in the attic. But they're still small. Let us wait for them to get a little big to be good to eat,” replied Giant Female.

The Giant Man also obeyed the words of his wife. Congratulations the seven children from the menace of the Giant Man. The next day, when the Giant Male returned to hunt animals into the forest, the Giant Female immediately sent the seven boys away. However, before they left, he provided them with food as necessary during the journey. In fact, the Good Female Giant supplied them with gold and diamonds.

“Baw this gold and diamonds, may be useful for your future,” said Giant Betina.

“Thank you, Giant Man! Sir is a benevolent giant,” said the Eldest while saying goodbye.

After walking a long way through the dense forest, up and down the mountain, finally they arrived by the beach. They also immediately made a small boat and sailed across the vast ocean. After a long time sailing, they came to a land ruled by a just and wise king. In that land they sold all the gold and diamonds of a giant gift to a rich merchant. As a result of the sale, they used to buy plantation land. Each got a fairly large plantation. The seven brothers were very diligent in working and always helped each other.

A few years later, they were adults. Thanks to years of hard work, they finally have a lot of wealth. Then each one of them made a pretty good home. The seven men lived in peace, peace and prosperity.

One day, the Bungsu suddenly remembered and missed his parents. He immediately invited his six brothers to come to his house to go together to find their parents.

“I'm sorry, all my brothers! I invited you here, because I wanted to invite you to go find father and mother. I miss them so much, and I'm sure, they must be alive,” said the youngest to his brothers.

“Yes, Brother! We feel it that way too. We miss very much the father and mother who have given birth to us all,” added the sixth child.

“Alright then! Tomorrow morning we go looking for them. Do you agree?” ask the Eldest.

“Agree!” answer his six sisters simultaneously.

The next day, the seven brothers set out to find their parents. After sailing across the vast ocean, they came to an island. On the island, they walked from one village to another. Dozens of villages have already visited, but have not found them. Until one day, they found their parents in a village in pain. The seven brothers were very sad to see the condition of their parents. Finally, they took their parents to their residence to live and live together in a nice house.

Since then, the parents have reunited and are living with their seven children. They continued to worship Almighty God. All his needs were met by his seven children who were already quite rich.