Badang is a poor fisherman of Singapura who seizes a hantu, a demon, robbing his fish-traps by night and, as the price of its freedom, is made to swallow the spirit's vomit, whereupon he gains prodigious strength. He uproots great trees, hurls a massive boulder to the mouth of the Singapore River, and is taken into the service of the ruler, whose honour he defends by overcoming a celebrated champion sent from the Kling coast of India. His feats, and the stone that bears his name, pass into the legendary memory of the island.