SD1-116

Genre: Narrative adat/ritual. Title: Cele wae. Sosu Wakene (b. 1930), kampong Ndeo, recorded by Hilarius Ratu in Ratu's home around noon 22 Aug 2014, one of his first recording sessions, using only the H4N Zoom, as it was just before I had purchased the AR2020 mic. Sosu recounts a traditional oath, Cele wae ("Dive into water"), used in disputes about ownership of things or land, to settle who is right and who is wrong. In Sosu's narrative it is about who owns a coconut tree. The ritual uses a large earthen pot, filled with water and paddy grains (raw unpolished rice grains). The two who are challenging each other, or one the other, having a dispute, will swear on the ancestors and then put their heads into the pot, and the one who is wrong will be attacked by the paddy grains, which would hurt badly. And the oath might even cause death in the long run. The provocator, the one who claims ownership to something that is not his, is 'ere ce bo', the one who starts the quarrel. Sosu has himself experienced this ritual, which is not, to my knowledge, performed anymore.. Sosu is also known as Sosu Karapaune (Buffalo Sosu), because he is the care taker of the Ndeo domain's buffalo for the five years from the ritual Pua Karapau (Bringing buffalo) until Pati Karapau (Cutting Buffalo), when the agricultural cycle ends, to begin again. Photo in SD1-093. See also the similar ritual Tao bhali, also told about by Sosu in SD1-117.Palu'e, Flores, Nusa Tenggara Timur, Indonesia. Recording made in kampong Ndeo, Ndeo domain. Man originally from kaju keri, Keli