Ancient Customs of Vietnam's Edé People

Ancient Customs of Vietnam’s

Edé People

A translation of

Recueil

des Coutumes Rhadée du Darlac

(Hdruôm Hra Klei Duê Klei Bhian Dum)

Collected by Leopold Sabatier and

Translated into French and annotated by Dominique Antomarchi

Published in 1940 by

Ecole Francaise d’Extrême-Orient

Hanoi

Imprimerie d’Extrême-Orient

English Translation by Evelyn Desurmont

Edited by Kerry Heubeck

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English Translation © Copyright 2010 H’Broih Nie

Edited by Kerry Heubeck.

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This translation

is dedicated to

H’Broih Nie,

the memory of Y-Blieng Hmok

and to their descendants

Contents

Acknowledgments

Notes on the Text and English Translation

English translation of Recueil des Coutumes Rhadée du Darlac

(Hdruôm Hra Klei Duê Klei Bhian Dum)

INTRODUCTION

PENALTIES

EXAMPLE: TRANSLATION WORD BY WORD of a text from the Collection of Rhadé Customs

Chapter I

Chapter II

Chapter III

Chapter IV

Chapter V

Chapter VI

Chapter VIII

Chapter IX

Chapter X

Chapter XI

Original Text in French and Edé

Acknowledgments

Of course, this work would not have been possible without the efforts of Leopold Sabatier in collecting the Edé customs in the 1920’s. Likewise, Dominique Antomarchi’s translation into French in 1940 provided a base from which others might gain a more substantive understanding of the meanings behind the original words.

We are deeply indebted to Evelyn Desurmont who, under less than ideal conditions, translated Antomarchi’s French into English from an extremely ‘distressed’ copy of the 1940 mimeographed publication. Our genuine appreciation goes to H’Cham Nie Heubeck for clarification of Edé words and phrases and her assistance in deciphering illegible type in the original.

To Jan Davidson we offer our sincere thanks for the excellent typing and proofing skills she brought to this project. We gratefully acknowledge Rita Trujillo for her assistance in organizing and editing the finished product, as well as Anne-Marie Emanuelli for her help with last minute translations.

And lastly, to the person who trusted me with his copy of the original book, I thank for his gift, with the hope that we have helped him preserve at least a portion of his culture.

Without any one of these individuals, this work would not have been as rewarding an experience. My heartfelt gratitude goes out to each of you.

Sincerely,

Kerry Heubeck

Notes on the Text and English Translation

In 1927, Leopold Sabatier published his collection of the oral traditions and laws of the Edé people of Viet Nam. Dominique Antomarchi translated Sabatier’s Edé text into French with notations in 1940.¹ Our translation to English is derived from this later text.

The Edé people make up one of the largest of the Highland Montagnard tribes, centered around Banmethuot (Buon Ma Thuot in Edé), Dak Lac (formerly Darlac) Province, Viet Nam. They descend from Malay-Polynesian ethnic and linguistic roots.

This text and the earlier translations represent the Edé laws and customs that have been passed down orally through the generations. Until Sabatier’s effort to preserve this orally transferred knowledge, the Edé tribal memory was an unwritten, stylized poetry traditionally learned by those who remember.

As it was told to me: In the old days, if a disagreement arose between two people, their families and respective elders would meet before the village chief and the elders of each side would alternately ‘sing’ the relevant old laws as they had been passed down orally over the years. The chief would then make his decision based upon such oratory.

Over how many centuries these laws have been passed down cannot even be guessed. The Edé that is recited is of such an archaic and poetic nature that many speaking the language today can make little of its meaning. The French translation done prior to 1940 is particularly important because the attempt to preserve the original meaning was transcribed at that time, when there were still those who remembered.

The particular book from which this translation came is a mimeographed printing on age-yellowed newsprint-quality paper (obviously not archival) bound by large staples and black tape. The type is apparently that of a typewriter of that era. Typographic errors are not uncommon and the general quality is rather poor. Add to this the despoilment of time. Some pages are out of sequence or missing altogether. Some print is faded to such an extent as to be indecipherable.

This same volume was handed to me by an Edé friend on the 30th of April 1975, as North Vietnamese tanks were rolling into Saigon (the last day of the American war). He and a companion were going to attempt to escape Saigon on motorcycles to the town of Vung Tau on the coast, and there take to the sea and leave Viet Nam. He asked me to take care of the book, as he did not know how many still existed, and he was worried that the communists would confiscate and destroy it if they found it on him. This may be the only thing left of my people.

That very day banners would be stretched across streets proclaiming in Vietnamese: Viet Nam is one; the people of Viet Nam are one. Only later would I come to understand the full implications of this slogan when I asked a North Vietnamese Colonel how he thought the ethnic minorities would fare under the new regime (naiveté continues to be one of my strong points). He replied, We have no ethnic minorities; we are all Vietnamese. I had just been awarded a hint of what some people have called the cultural genocide that was soon to take place in the highlands of the South, even though the bloodbath expected by some never occurred.

My friend and his comrade were not able to escape. They were stopped halfway to Vung Tau, their motorcycles ‘confiscated’ at gunpoint, and they were told to return to their homes. Fifteen months later my wife and I were able to take this book out of the country in our personal possessions. That day other Vietnamese publications would be confiscated, but the inspectors did not discover this one.

We recently learned that Antomarchi’s French translation had been translated into Vietnamese by Nguyen Huu Thau shortly after the liberation of the South in 1975. In 1984 the translator revised these Vietnamese texts and they were published in 1992.²

In the year 2000, Ngo Duc Thinh of the Institute of Folklore in Hanoi published an anthropological study summarizing in English the Vietnamese translation of Nguyen Huu Thau.³ This is the only reference to the text in English of which I am aware.

I doubt that many copies of the original text exist in this country. I do not know of any previous attempt to translate it into English. At least one member of the Edé tribe has expressed the opinion that the customs and manner of recital expressed in this publication probably could not be replicated today, as most of those, if not all, who sang the words from memory have died out.

Please note: page numbers listed alongside numbered topic headings refer to the pages in the original volume. The words Edé, Rhadé and Rhadée are interchangeable in the foregoing text. Not all Judgments have been included in the translation. The background of the cover depicts detail of a traditional Edé wedding blanket, hand-woven in the early 1970s.

You will undoubtedly find mistakes in this material. We welcome any help you can give us in making corrections or improving the wording. We offer these words to those generations of Edé growing up with a new culture and language.

Lac jak lu,

Ama H’Krih

English translation of

Recueil

des Coutumes Rhadée du Darlac

(Hdruôm Hra Klei Duê Klei Bhian Dum)

INTRODUCTION

Rhadé Customs is a very old oral document. Its origins, like those of the Rhadé Tribes, get lost in the night of time. Some texts (#5 & #197) mention the arrival of the Chams on the plateau, probably during the XV and XVI century.

The very many archaic terms confirm the antiquity of the Customs which is in reality a poem. The Rhadé judge tells the [appropriate] custom in verse. And the Rhadé poetry has a syntax and vocabulary which have almost nothing in common with the language that is currently spoken. Moreover, the use of elliptical forms has been pushed to its furthest limits (see examples of translation word by word). Of a long sentence containing three or four essential words, it is with those words that one can reconstruct the whole sentence.

This excessive elliptical use has been, all in all, only a mnemonic device, thanks to which the customs have been able to be passed on from mouth to ear for long centuries.

Another characteristic of the language of Rhadé Customs is in the abundance of metaphors, many of which would be enjoyed by our best poets, even without experiencing does not yet distinguish the blue of the mountain from the blue of the sky; a large house is long like the resonant sound waves of the gong, etc.…

As it is presented, this work is not strictly speaking a book of customs. Each text is made up of several articles having to do with particular cases. This results in the same article being repeated in several different texts. It is, therefore, not possible to lean on a whole text to settle some matters. One must draw from different texts, articles or paragraphs regarding these matters; this way one will get new texts.

The layout of this [original] work, its structure and the lack of a table of contents make it difficult to consult. One will find in this work a table of contents in Rhadé and French [English, in this translation], an analytical table in alphabetical order, an index and a list of observations. A brief study of punishments expected in the old customs follows this introduction. The jurisprudence at the end of each text indicates the judgment by the court of Buôn Ma Thuôt from 1917 to 1938.

In spite of the shortcomings that one can find in its presentation, the Bi Duê stays one of the most beautiful monuments of the Rhadé oral literature. They can be grateful to M. Sabatier for having collected and written [it down] since he told them often the words on paper [are better (original illegible)] than the words on the lips.

Buôn-Ma-Thuôt, 15 October 1939 [D. Antomarchi]

"I was a young man when my feet newly walked upon the land of Darlac, and it is in your country that the hair upon my head became white.

During fourteen times twelve moons we drank the same water, ate the same rice, we were soaked by the same rains, burned by the same sun, bled by the same leeches.

L. Sabatier

(words of oath to Darlac 1926)

PENALTIES

All physical or moral harm caused to a person or someone’s goods must be corrected (mkra); its author can or could be pursued (bi kmhal) for having violated the prescriptions of the custom.

The expected penalties as per the Rhadé custom are:

1•The sacrifice (kpih ou wat) whose aim is to pacify the gods (ya) that the culprit irritated. The sacrifice is said [to be] wat when it is done with a chicken, without emotion; it is said [to be] kpih when done with a pig, an ox or a buffalo or any other mammal and the feet are anointed with a mixture or rice wine and the blood of the animal.

To [pay] the cost of a sacrifice, the sentenced culprit must give the animal to be sacrificed.

2•The amending indemnity or fine (kdi) can be paid in kind or in money and can go from one piaster [1939 currency] (sa song) to twelve piasters (tlâo).

When the fine could not be paid, because of insolvency, the guilty committed for debts; he put his body as security (tuic asei) until his family has paid the fine that had been given to him. Following an extreme interpretation of the oral custom, the one engaged for debts was in fact slave for life. It is estimated that the work he put in hardly covered his keep and was of no profit for his master. It was the same for those who could not pay the ordinary debts they had acquired.

3•Replacing objects borrowed, lost or broken.

4•The reimbursement of theft. Stolen goods must be reimbursed three times their value (ngam tle sa kdrêch ba kdi tlå kdrêch).

5•The payment of the price of the body (tam ênua) to the family of the victim of homicide or assassination. The value of the person is assessed as a large flat gong (char) of one cubit and a span in diameter for a rich person and a large flat gong (char) of one cubit and one fist ...[illegible] for a poor person.

6•Slavery. The culprit who could not pay the price of the body was sold as a slave (hlun) in a country or a foreign country (Cambodia or a neighboring tribe).

7•The death penalty. The culprit is tied up then killed with blows of saber or spear or hung to a tree in the forest. His body was then left to the crows and vultures or ferocious animals.

D.A.

EXAMPLE: TRANSLATION WORD BY WORD

of a text from the Collection of Rhadé Customs

•individual have affair guilty him offer goods

•to chief so chief say give affair just his

•he woman look affair, man look trial, then he go find to chief powerful

•bracelet he come offer to banyan headwater, dishes offer, afraid chief stay this wayside strangers, follow side inhabitants, afraid chief follow behind non-parents

•afraid chief stay side chicken, accept side weasel, phrase fine, afraid follow other

•he want chief say give to approve, speak give to right, act give to just

•he not have legs he take legs rabbit, he not have strength, he take strength tiger, not have mouth take mouth chief powerful

•he not able walk come to climb elephant, not able come to climb horse

•he child feeble poor devoid alone hungry come to chief rich, so chief rich carry give like carry younger, make bathe give like bathe child, chief protect give so agreeable good

•for this goods he give to chief

•tree kcik all have roots, tree êrang all have roots, mother he come do with chief

•drew water he lean with mountain, obstruct river have stones [illegible] have [illegible] other he lean with rich chief

Chap. II, no. 8

page 14 Other examples of Translation

•buttocks wet, thighs damp, dead elephant young, broken gongs resonant, dead chief because him

Ch. II, no. 22

•he see he child, path not yet know understand, hole not yet know place, blue land with sky not yet know recognize

Ch. IX, no.7

•owl fascinate crab, woman takes off skirt seduce man, affair thought he seduce want eat goods others

Ch. IX, no. 9

•then goods he again add two, reimburse three, goods in front, behind he again give, so this way other accept

Ch. IX, no. 10

page 15 Glossary of Rhadé Terms

[note: • indicates additional diacritical mark not available on keyboard]

alê      small male bamboo

ao      vest, blouse

ba      name of certain pot, certain jar

be      old money valued at roughly one-half piaster

biê      name of pot

Bih      tribe of the Darlac of Cham language

blang       wild kapok

bô      name of jar

bung      name of pot

char      large flat gong

du      impose a fine, ask for an indemnity

cing      gong with a bulge in the middle

Êdê•      Rhadé; tribe of Darlac

Ênin      tribe of Darlac

ênôah-dôah   share of goods acquired in common going back to the family of the husband when he dies

epang      plant with very sweet smelling white flowers

hda      darts planted in the ground

Hrôe      Djarai tribe at the border of Phú Yên

kcik      tree with very hard wood

kdi•      matter, trial, disagreement; fine, indemnity

kdjar      tree with beehive, of which the owner of the ground keeps the honey

kêñ      fish of the river

kga•      Rhadé machete

khô      trap with spear

kir      inheritance, goods of the ancestors

klông      path, tree

knia      hirvingia olive tree

knôk      tree

nu’       debts

pla      to plant, put in the ground; darts

pô       owner

pô lan•    owner of the land

puic      herb whose fruit symbolizes a person without a family when he is young and a desirable young girl when she is older

am giêng   bind-weed, creeper

song      ancient money

knông      sign forbidding passage

ko      old money valued at 4 or 5 piasters; in the jurisprudence the indemnities or damage-interest paid by one party to the other are in ko; the amount in piasters are for fiscal fines

Ko’yông   Rhadé tribe of Darlac

kpang      tree

phal      slit bamboo used to dig the ground

kpang      tree

kpin      pargne, belt

pung      fish of the river

Kriêng    Rhadé tribe of Darlac

krôa•      fish of the river

kto’ng      tree containing a beehive whose honey is reserved for the pô-lan•

kung      sign prohibiting passage

lan•      land, ground, property

Mdhur      Rhadé tribe of Darlac and Phú Yên

mling-mlang      bird whose flight is interpreted as an omen

mnhai    kpin ao   share of goods acquired in common that the family of the deceased

                           wife must give to the widower when there is no replacement      

Mnông      tribe of Khmer language

mnut      banyan; symbol of the chief

mo’ar      tree with large leaves

mo’ô      female bamboo, hollow

tiêt      sign indicating the presence of traps, or a forbidden house

tuh      to pour, spray, to water or irrigate

tuh-lan•   to make a