The Story of Lebui Tey Ngaso’, or ‘Lebui Goes Hunting’: A Kayan Folktale

This article presents the Kayan folktale Lebui tey ngaso’ ‘Lebui goes hunting’ in the Kayan Uma Beluvuh dialect, an under-researched variety spoken by approximately 2,000 people on Borneo Island, primarily in Sarawak, Malaysia. The study provides basic information about the language and data collection methodology, noting that Kayan is an Austronesian language with wide distribution across Sarawak and Kalimantan. The Lebui tey ngaso’ story is a part of the Lung Lebui: A Kayan Folktale Collection. The folktale revolves around Lebui’s misunderstanding of the Kayan word san, which can mean both ‘ladder’ and ‘to stay in the forest for at least one night’. When his wife, Duyu, asks him to san ngaso’ (go hunting with a dog and stay in the forest for a few nights), Lebui mistakenly interprets it as ‘go hunting a ladder with a dog’. Keywords: Kayan Uma Beluvuh, Austronesian, Bornean