When I moved to Indonesia more than thirty years ago, I fell in love with its archipelago, its people, and its folk tales. Every island, every village, every tribe I visited had its legends, and they became for me souvenirs of travels in my adopted homeland. But most of the tales, especially when passed on to me orally by natives, were as fragmentary as an Aesop fable. I wanted to ask why a wizard would do this or why a goddess would choose that, but knew that the story-teller would have no way of knowing. When I did dare to be impolite enough to raise such queries, I would usually be told to "believe it or not. It's up to you."I took on the challenge, and worked to understand characters and...