SD1-128

Genre: Legend. Title: Pion pikariwu. Aloysius Sinde-Pima, then village chief of Desa Lidi, recorded directly to the Zoom HN1 (stereo) on kampong Woja, at the village office around noon time 3 July 2014, during the second field trip. With Pitu Sopune and a friend of Aloysius. Aloysius does not narrate often, but he is skilled in oral traditions, and known for that, both prose and ritual language. He had as a youth taken keen interest in Palu’e oral traditions and often visited an elder, Ngange Du’a, in kampong Nara, where many Woja people descend from. Aloysius also took notes when completing an assignment while in senior high school. Ngange Du’a was acknowledged for his knowledge about Palu’e oral literature, and often told stories for children and youth. Tales might be based on a historical character, or, the story is pure fiction, a myth or made-up legend. The character Pio pikariwu (Pio “killer of many”) is such a mystery. Everybody on Palu’e knows about Pio pikariwu and there are several tales about him and his deeds in the collection that resemble fairy stories. Pio is the subject of Palu’es only prose epic, Pio pikariwu, which in Aloysius’ 1 hour long narrative has an ordered structure of events that only a few people can tell at length, or as a whole. It is a marvellous narrative, full of adventure, fighting, magic and war. The large amount of magic events suggests that Pio pikariwu is a myth, a fantastic work of fiction. Pio appeared on Palu’e as a tiny baby, inside a bamboo that washed up on the shore near Cawalo (village and domain), in a time when the Palu’e villages where already there. The couple Sosu and Pali from Cawalo heard his cries while they were searching for sea snails. Sosu cut open the bamboo until he found a mini-baby, the size of a small lizard. The couple brought the little thing back, to poko lae bola, soko lae dhudhu, hamama no’o hina hama pu mori (wrap in package, cover in box, like the ancestors). After eight days in the box the little thing was like a normal baby. Then the parents arranged loge bundo, the name-giving ceremony, and named the baby Pio. When Pio was twelve he was stronger than all his friends and beat them in games and fights. He dominated and became a nuisance. Soru and Pali became angry with him. Then Pio discovered, seeing night-time bonfires, the different villages on Palu’e. He asked his siblings about the villages. For each mentioned village, Pio replies that “I refuse to live there because”... The next part of the sentence mentions specifics of a place that become its adat name, in pa’e metaphoric parallelism. The only place he wants to live in is Dhua nggeo, Nunu somba (lit. Bent lontar tree, Banyan worship), which became the ritual centre of the Kéli domain. There he would sit and be paid respect/worshipped, and from there would he “move around himself” (nggeo nggiku wekiku). As an adult, Pio, with seven helpers, conquer every village that does not pay tribute to him. He is a pisa molo ( a true pisa) and invulnerable, and can strike the enemy with thick fog, rains and strong winds. The narrative consists mainly of fighting. In the end he and his helpers travel to Flores where they are finally captured after a chant dance (togo). Invulnerable, his capturers cannot kill him, until Pio explains how they have to do: cook him with a fire made of Banyan tree, his symbol and medicine. Pio disappears as mysteriously as he once appeared. This item also contains a PDF-file with images of a four-pages text recounting the same legend, but shorter and a little bit different. In Indonesian and composed by 'Bapak Soru' from kampong Cawalo, Cawalo domain, the one that, like Kéli, claims Pio as theirs.Palu'e, Flores, Nusa Tenggara Timur, Indonesia. Recording made in Lidi, Woja domain