| Translation | |
|---|---|
| Ana kera rua | A child who is divided into two |
| Embu wisa telu | A grandchild who is cut into three |
| Ha’i sEka nggEka | With legs being wide apart |
| Lima repa dema | With arms being outstretched |
| Su’u iwa sele kolo | Carrying something on his head, |
| Wangga iwa bega wara | Bearing something on his shoulders, |
| Kolo detu | Flat is his head |
| Wara dena | Even are his shoulders |
| Wiwi kau ria | If your lips are too big |
| Ata laki wira | Mosa laki will tear them |
| Lema kau bewa | If your tongue is too long |
| Ata laki esa | Mosa lakiwill pull it out |
| Ria pidhi wiwi laki | Ria’s lips speak for Laki |
| Bewa lapi lema ongga | Bewa’s tongue utters for |
| Kore liru mbore | Dig the sky through out |
| Taka tana mbegha | Till the earth through out |
| Ulu beu eko bewa | The far head, the long taiil |
| Ulu boko eko dhonggo | The short head, the coiled tail |
| Ulu kuu beu | The far head |
| Gheta Sinde Rendu | (Lies in) up Sinde Rendu |
| (lit., “Crest of Snake”) | |
| Eko kuu bewa | The long tail |
| Ghale Naga Nefu | (Lies in) west Naga Nenu |
| (lit., “River of Mirror”) | |
| (Ata Wolo) | (Ata Wolo is) |
| Kunu kamba bewa | One who shares the prohibition |
| with a long buffalo | |
| Kamba boko | And a short buffalo |
| Dhoa no’o dora | He went down with the rainfall |
| Wa’u no’o apu | Descended with the dew |
| Kore liru mbore | He dag the sky through out |
| Taka tana mbegha | Tilled the earth through out |
| Pate bela leke | He cut the leke-vine |
| Toa loru lele | Broke the loru-vine |
| Liru se-siku | The sky had been just one-elbow high |
| Tana se-paga | The earth had been just one-hand wide |
| Mesi deso | The sea ebbed |
| Liru nggendo | The sky sprang |
| (Ata Wolo) | (Ata Wolo is) |
| Eja kera eo Tegu Bela | A brother-in-law of Tegu Bela |
| (“Thunder and Storm”) | |
| Wuru wai eo Uja Angi | A brother-in-law of Uja Angi |
| (“Rain and Wind”) | |
| Kunu dolu bewa | Kunuof the long dolu (?) |
| Dolu boko | The short dolu |
| Tebu kamba | A maternal relation of the water |
| buffalo | |
| Raa gaja | A paternal relation of the elephant |
Once upon a time, there was a husband and a wife. The husband was an Ata Wolo. One day, he went out to call on his friends named Bata (bata literally, means “a wave”). Instead of going to Bata’s house, he went down to the seashore, where he cried aloud, “Bata eee!” After a while, waves lapped him and he found his legs wet. He got angry at the waves. “Why didn’t you come sooner? Look! My legs are drenched now.” Saying this, he took out his machete and cut at the waves near his legs. Naturally enough, he hurt himself on the knee. Seriously wounded, he managed to return home.
The next morning, he wanted to go out to make palm wine. Finding himself unable to walk by himself, he asked his wife to carry him on her back. Then they started to the palm tree, with the husband pointing out the way from the wife’s back. On arriving at the foot of the tree, she began to climb up the tree. Looking up from under the tree, he noticed his wife’s vagina. Thinking his wife was seriously wounded, he cried out:
In the house, he gave her medicine, but she did not seem to get well at all. He would not listen to her saying that it was not a wound at all and that every woman had that. So he decided to send for a magical curer. A curer came in and asked him which part of her body was wounded. He pointed out the vagina. The curer told him to go out of the house. Having gone out, he peeped inside. He found that they were doing a strange sort of thing.
Another day, he went out hunting. Shooting a wild bore, he smoked the game in the forest. After waiting a long time, his wife went out to search for her husband. She found him sound asleep in the forest. She took the meat and concealed it. Then she cut the hide into the form of female sexual organ, and put it on his sexual organ. Then she hid herself. After a moment, he woke up to find that the meat was gone. Wondering who had stolen the meat, he found the hide on his sexual organ. He got angry at it and cut it. He died.
His wife married the curer, and the curer became rich, as he inherited the large properties of the Ata Wolo.
After defeating the Portuguese, Rhorho and Rhea were going to hold a feast. They sent a man on an errand to Kepi, asking him to come down from the mountain and join the feast. Kepi would not reply. They had sent messengers for seven days and seven nights. And then, finally Kepi said: – lost footnote –. 12024-03-23
| Translation | |
|---|---|
| Ja’o ndia | As for me here |
| Huu ngere kuru pumbu | My hair is like overgrown weeds |
| Rhonggo ngere wawi koi | My back is like a baked pig |
| Wiwi dhiki | My lips are small |
| Rhema rho’o | My tongue is little |
| Mepu ngere manu | Crouching like a fowl |
| Rhengga ngere rhako | Lying like a dog |
| Mepu iwa mbepa | Crouching still, and not moving |
| Rhengga iwa menggo | Lying quietly, and not stirring |
| Mere-si weta | May the sisters be big |
| Rhewa-si ane | May the sister’s sons be long |
On hearing this reply, Rhorho and Rhea said:
| Translation | |
|---|---|
| Kita weri pe-deri | We will divide the jaw into two |
| Rhema pe-kera | Cut the tongue into two |
They arranged the division of the former land of Kepi between the two of them. They went so far as to arrange also the system of land tenure in each domain. Rhorho said:
| Translation | |
|---|---|
| Tana ja’o iwa kowe | My domain is not of kowe |
| Sia murhu tendo murhu | Where the rain falls first, |
| they plant first | |
| Ata mbo’o ja’o mbo’o | When others are satisfied, |
| I will be satisfied also2 |
Rhea said:
| Translation | |
|---|---|
| Tana ja’o tana kowe | My domain is of kowe |
| Ja’o tendo murhu | I will plant first |
| Ata pesa dheko | Then others may follow me |
The relationship of Kepi and Rhorho/Rhea is, as told in the text,that of a wife-giver (Kepi) and wife-takers (Rhorho/Rhea). Kepi is the mother’s brother of the two men. As mentioned earlier, wife-givers are always superior to wife-takers and this superordination is evident especially in its spiritual aspect: wife-givers have the power of “putting curses” (somba oa) upon their wife-takers. They can perform wesa lEla, that is, asking nitu pa’i (evil wandering natural spirits) to attack their wife-takers. Furthermore, once a wife-giver performs pui siku (a kind of magical act – brushing over his elbow with another hand), his wife-takers can die.
Such is the spiritual power of wife-givers.The origins of Rhorho and Rhea is not mentioned explicitly in the text. But it is implied that they were of foreign origin, since, given village exogamy, they must be from outside Kepi.3
Now, from the story of ngemi Nggenda // jera Kepi, we can construct the following scheme:
| Kepi//Nggenda | Rhorho//Rhea |
|---|---|
| wife-giver | wife-taker |
| spiritual power | political power |
| motionless | active |
| stupid | clever |
| autochtonous | foreign |
There is a striking concordance between this scheme and that of Lionese diarchy shown above. The idiom employed for political power in the right hand column is the same in both schemes: ria bEwa in Lio and mErE rhEwa in Ende both mean “big and long”.
By the structural concordance between these two schemes, one derived from Lionese political organisation and the other from an Endenese story of politics, we find diarchies similar in their expression to those found in other parts of eastern Indonesia, but founded in very different systems of social organisation.
In contrast to the Lionese society, which has a set of objectively structured vocabulary for social organisation, and where they order their social life by the ideology of diarchy, the Endenese society, as it lacks the suitable kind of verbal expressions in the sphere of social structure, manages to employ the notion of diarchy in terms of kinship, and to fix it in the legendary past as a transitive event, in order to avoid the inevitable discrepancy between the ideology of diarchy and that of its social structure.
CUNNINGHAM, Clarke E.
1965 Order and Change in an Atoni Diarcy. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 21: 359-382
DUMEZIL, G.
1948 Mitra - Varna: Essai sur deux Representations Indo-Europeenes de la Souverainete Paris: Galiimard
FOX, James J.
1980a Obligation and Alliance: State Structure and Moiety Organization in Thie, Roti. in Fox (ed) 1980: 98-132
FOX, James J.
1980b Models and Metaphores: Comparative Research in Eastern Indonesia. in Fox (ed.) 1980: 327-333
FOX, James J.
1980 (ed.) The Flow of Life: Essays on Eastern Indonesia Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press
HOCART, H.M.
1960 Kings and Councillors: An Essay on the Comparative Anatomy of Human Society Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press
ROOS, S
1877 Iets over Ende. Tijdschrift voor Indische Taal-, Land- en Volkenkunde 24: 481-580
SUCHULTE-NORDHOLT, H.G.
1971 The Political System of the Atoni on Timor The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff
SUCHTELEN, B.C.C.M.M. van
Endeh (Flores). Weldvreden: Papyrus
TRAUBE, E.G.
1977 Ritual Exchange among the Mambai of East Timor: Gifts of Life and Death (unpublished Ph.D. thesis)
WOUDEN, F.A.E. van
1968 Types of Social Structure in Eastern Indonesia The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff