The
story of my great great grandmother
As
narrated by my cousin, Datuk SKK
A long time ago in the late 19th
century a very young damsel of about 15, living in a farmstead far away
somewhere in the thick of the Crocker range of the Tambunan region, joined her parents in a convoy to a faraway place
to the west of where they were, where, she was told, a centre, famously called Kolombuong, existed, where all manners
of people gathered together every 10-day interval to exchange all manners and assortments
of goods and services.
A typical of such expeditions would take
several days and nights to make, traversing mountains and valleys on foot along
hazardous jungle path often much infested with leaches and all manners of bugs,
while all along every member of the convoy would be carrying their burdens of jungle produce on
their backs for the prospective exchange at their destination. The convoy would
usually take several overnight stopovers in some friendly settlements along the
way where several new members would join in and lengthen further the convoy.
On the day of the return journey, though,
Soluoi volunteered to look after the newly farmed area in Sobog. Her parents let her be, knowing they would meet her in their
next Tamu expedition. She never did
return home for soon her new farmstead became her new homestead. She became
familiar with the earlier crops of travellers from her region who had settled
earlier on in the neighbourhood of Kg. Sobog.
In time an elderly man noticed her and proposed her for his son, Sombuling. For the prospect of a farmhand, she accepted him readily though, presumably, shyly; and so began the genesis of the Soluoi Clan.
