The Day-Dreamer Mat Jenin

That was a long break...

This is an old folklore.

Mat Jenin was not an elite in the community, not a land-owner. Rather he was some sort of a village handyman. You could hire him to do things and apparently he was quite skillful.

One day he was hired to pick coconuts. Ever seen a coconut tree?
I picked this up from - where else - Wikipedia:

The Coconut Palm (Cocos nucifera) is a member of the Family Arecaceae (palm family). It is the only species in the genus Cocos, and is a large palm, growing to 30 m tall, with pinnate leaves 4–6 m long, pinnae 60–90 cm long; old leaves break away cleanly leaving the trunk smooth. The term coconut refers to the seed of the coconut palm. An alternate spelling is cocoanut.

The coconut palm is grown throughout the tropical world, for decoration as well as for its many culinary and non-culinary uses; virtually every part of the coconut palm has some human uses.

The coconut has spread across much of the tropics, probably aided in many cases by seafaring people. The fruit is light and buoyant and presumably spread significant distances by marine currents. Fruits collected from the sea as far north as Norway have been found to be viable (and subsequently germinated under the right conditions). In the Hawaiian Islands, the coconut is regarded as a Polynesian introduction, first brought to the islands by early Polynesian voyagers from their homelands in the South Pacific. They are now almost ubiquitous between 26°N and 26°S.

OK enough digression. Back to the story.

He was hired to bring down the fruits from the coconut tree - bring down coconuts. The other alternative was to hire a trained monkey - a short tailed monkey called "Beruk". Anyway Beruk lost out to Mat Jenin. Mat Jenin the skillful man won the contract.

He was able coconut tree climber. Unlike you or me. I might not quite get off the ground. You think you can? Read the part from Wikipedia again....

So he climbed one and pick up the coconut meant for harvesting and threw them down one by one. Then another tree. Then another tree. And another tree. Pretty soon there was quite a big pile of coconuts. He looked at the pile and felt quite proud of himself.

After a moment's rest he went up another tree.

There was a really nice breeze. Really pleasant. Ahhhhh really pleasant. You would just love to lie down and sleep and perhaps dream the day off..

So here was our Mat Jenin. Up on top of a tall coconut tree with the breeze and all. He was very proud of himself. And he started to do some mental calculations.

He could get quite a bit of money for this job. He had been thinking of improving himself. Now, with this money he was going to get he could really start something - a small project but that could be a start to bigger things. He could start with buying eggs. Chicken eggs. How about a hundren chicken eggs for a start?

He would get to these eggs to hatch. He was sure he could learn how to do this as he had been watching one old man doing just this at the edge of the village. Yes, he could.

Maybe not all would survive. Let's say eighty would. He could sell these when the chicks were much bigger. He could. He had seen the chickens being sold at the bigger village market.

With that money from the sale of the chicken, he could buy a goat!! No, a pair of goats!!! One male and the other female. Yes, he could use the plot where he had reared the chickens to rear goats instead. A pair. It would not be long when the she-goat would get pregnant and... there would be more goats!! And more goats. The grassland near the edge of the village should be more than adequate to support a hindred goats.

He could sell the goats. Sell half of it and buy cows. That would be a brilliant idea. Cows can give much more milk than goats. More meat. More money.

Hhhhmmm he would need land for that many cows. Must buy land.

Let's start with the northern part of the village. The land would be much cheaper there. then he could extend himself to the... the east! And next the west!!

Ahhhhhh he could walk around the village one fine day and when people asked him to whom all the goats and the cows and the land belong to, he would spread his hands out proudly and say, "They are all mine. They all belong to Mat Jenin who used to ne an odd-job man."

He was on top of a coconut tree.

He spread his hands while he was at the top of a very tall coconut tree.

He fell.

He fell way down below.

There were no goats. There were no cows. Not even chickens or eggs. Only hard ground.

He died. Without the cows. Without the goats. Without the chickens. No egg either. His head cracked open as an egg would from that height. Very messy.

Now, that was not a good time to darydream. No, it was not..