SD1-001

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2014-07-03

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Genre: Oral history/Legend. Title: Ngange Kabe (Cawa Lai). The legend Ngange Kabe narrated by the then village chief Bapak (Mr) Aloysius Sinde-Pima, kampong/desa Lidi, 3 July 2014, in the early evening and inside the village office (kantor desa). Bapak Alo is skilled in oral traditions and has a talent for narrating. Ngange Kabe lived for about ten generations ago, including two of the living, and was from the kampong Nara, Kéli domain, where Bapak Alo also has family and ancestors. Ngange is remembered because he had extraordinary, hereditary, supernatural abilities, such as clairvoyance and being able to ”freeze ships” at sea (or ar least the ship in this story). It is also a story of thievery; Ngange kabe and Ngasu Legane travel to Sikka village on mainland Flores to steal a large ivory tusk and a golden jewelry from a woman that they have seen in a dream. Because Ngasu gets the things before Ngange, Ngange is ashamed to return home emptyhandied. So, he stays near the beach on Palu'e, while Ngasu walks back to Nara alone. Later he “freezes” (by way of reading mantra and waving, ‘kabe’) a Bugis boat at sea, paddles out and plunder their goods. After that he foretells that he will fall into a canyon and almost die, and it occurs. He is cured by the healer Ndasa Pisane, as predicted, and she later becomes his wife. Ndasa gets mysteriously pregnant with a special child, a lizard baby, while Ngange is away in the area of Lidi for a few months to clear land for planting. The baby, named Cawa Lai by Ngange, and born miniscule as a tiny lizzard, dying and living again several times, as predicted by Ngange, is destined to be a great man with extraordinary abilities, but he is accidentally killed by a man from another village. We were just the two of us (with SD, the editor), sitting by a desk in the empty building in the evening, Alo with his back facing the wall and I in front of him listening. The recording atmosphere was conducive; still, as quiet as it can be on Palu'e, a little sound from the wind and a few animals that I tried to reduce by lowering the recording level. The narrator speaks rather quiet and sometimes his voice level was lower than optimal. But in this way distortion was almost eliminated and Aloysius' intonation is excellent. That I (SD) was the only listener did not affect the narrator in any adverse way seemingly, although the story is long, 30 min, and he also told another tale of about 12 min length. He narrated as if in front of others, or as to a group of youth or grandchildren (the future). The recording was done directly with the with H4N because I was not satisfied with my external mics at the time (later I used the excellent AT2020). As a youth, Mr Aloysius had an interest in Palu'e oral traditions and often visited an elder, also Ngange (du’a), in kampong Nara, who was acknowledged for his knowledge and ability in this field. Aloysius memorized the tales and took notes for his senior highschool assignment. The eaf file has both transcription and translation in Indonesian, and one (Notes) tier with notes about language, and one tier (Metadata, previously Explanatory) with metadata. This is how the ELAN-files are arranged in the collection. The picture is of the narrator, shot before noontime the same day when we were sitting in a group and chatting on that hill overlooking the sea. / Updated 18 July -22, The editor.

Keywords

Sara Lu'a

Citation

Extent

0:29:50

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digital wav file recorded at 44.1 khz/16 bit
eaf file
photo jpeg file

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Palu'e, Flores, Nusa Tenggara Timur, Indonesia. Recording made in kampong/domain Woja.

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