By Ling Hui
MIRI, March 25: Once upon a time in Lio Mato, a giant named Alan got bitten by an ant while crossing the Baram river and accidentally dropped his toddler into the water.
Alan’s aggressive digging and scraping in the river, searching for his lost son with his gigantic hands, moved the earth and left hundreds of islands behind.
This was how the name ‘Lio Mato’, which literally means “hundreds of islands” in the Kenyah language (‘lio’ refers to island while ‘mato’ means hundreds), came about.
Ungau Njau, a 70-year-old man in Lio Mato, Ulu Baram here, narrated this to DayakDaily when met at his house in Lio Mato Village yesterday (March 24).
“The story was that there was a giant named Alan. He had a son. One day, Alan wanted to cross the Baram river, and the son wanted to follow.
“It was quite funny how the story went. So, Alan carried the son on a piece of wood. Then, an ant bit Alan. Surprised by the bite, he dropped the child into the river.
“After that, Alan went crazy looking for his son. He dug at the river with his gigantic hands, so parts of the river became shallow and soon islands were formed.
“That’s how Lio Mato got its name, ‘hundreds of islands’. But, even after that, Alan didn’t find his son,” he said.
The mythical incident was said to have happened near ‘Awang Pamen’, a door-like rock structure (‘pamen’ means door in Kenyah) that stands in the deepest river in the Baram area.
While standing in the river, the water level was at Alan’s waist, according to Ungau.
Continuing the story, he said Alan went further down the river just before Long Anap and built two ‘fish traps’ across the river to ‘catch’ his lost son if he was ever swept downstream.
Sadly, his son was never found.
Legends aside, the two massive ‘fish traps’ are actually two ridges of rocks in the middle of the Baram river, which become narrow towards the rear, so anything that is washed through can be caught.
As for the ‘hundreds of islands’ saying, Ungau explained that there were never really hundreds of islands in Lio Mato. The locals back in the day found quite some little islands along the river, and they assumed there were hundreds of them out there.
Today, Ungau said there are probably only five of those islands left in the vicinity of Lio Mato. — DayakDaily
