Jaka Tarub

Meeting 2

Once upon a time, in a village of Central Java there was a poor farmer and his son named Jaka Tarub.
Jaka Tarub was very handsome as well as kind, honest and brave. He liked to help other people. He always sympathized with those who were weak but innocent and those who were poor but honest.

One day, when he was returning from hunting, he saw seven beautiful young women bathing in the lake amid a dense jungle. As he was thinking hard to get acquainted with anyone of them, he caught sight of their clothes. which were piled up under a tree at the bank of the lake. He decided to steal the clothes of one of the women.

After finishing their bath, they walked ashore to where they had left their clothes. One of them, however, screamed suddenly and wept as she found out that her own clothing had vanished.
While they were searching for the lost clothing, a rainbow appeared in the sky and glided down toward the lake. It was time for them to go back to heaven. As the women climbed up the rainbow on their way back to the sky, the one who had lost her clothing was left alone weeping for she could not enter heaven, without her heavenly clothes.

Seeing this. Jaka Tarub was astonished greatly, because he, then, knew that they were certainly not ordinary women, but nymphs. He felt sory for the poor nymph and decided to approach her.

How surprised the nymph was when suddenly he saw a young man standing before her. She, at once thought that he must have been the thief who had stolen her clothes, so she blamed and scolded him.
He begged her pardon for what he had done and told her the reason. She forgave him. She begged the gods as well to pardon him and the gods blessed him and the gods blessed them. The two soon fell in love with each other.

Later on, Jaka Tarub and the nymph, who had been changed by the gods into a very beautiful ordinary maiden, got married, and lived happily ever after.