Myths and Social Structure in the Timorese Archipelago

Abstract

The question of the number of clans into which the tribe was originally divided in Timor is more or less decisively answered in the myths. According to the origin-myth of Waihale the immigrant ancestors were divided into four “tribes” (hutun). Three of these hutun were led by brothers; the fourth had no leader. The number four also plays a great part in the Fialarang myth. The third mythical lineage, which sprang from the marriage of a brother and a sister, was made up of two brothers and two sisters, who married one another. The fourth lineage consisted of ten brothers and three sisters: the youngest became ruler of the land, five brothers went to the west, and four went to the east, of which regions they became the rulers. Nothing further is said about the three sisters. The supposition that the ruler and his three sisters were the four ancestors of Fialarang would thus seem not to be absurd. The next ruling lineage of Bauho consists again of two brothers and two sisters, and the one after this consists of one brother and three sisters. The last mythical generation is connected with the present-day order in the kingdom. The Djenilu myth, finally, tells how the four dasi with two sisters came out of a hole in the ground. The two sisters were carried away by birds to become the ancestresses of the ruling houses of Bauho and Vohotérin, while the fourth brother was thrown into the sea as a sacrifice.