The Well at Rombo

Title in Kulisusu: E'e i Rombo

Told by: La Tunde

Date: March 1996

This story of mine is the story of when they found water down there in Rombo.

The well at Rombo hadn't been dug. The well down there, all the people of Rombo got together to do it. When they worked, when they got together to work, when they worked, it was all the people.

As they were working, if the sun was hot, they shaded themselves with sarongs. The people who chewed betel, there under the sarongs was where they stored their betel chewing paraphernalia, while the people who smoked, there it was that they kept their tobacco, and they worked until seven nights had passed. On the eighth day that they had been working, they opened it. Opening it, they found it, they saw water, it became water.

Therefore then and there, that’s why they were glad. The women were so glad that they danced the scarf dance and the shuffle dance, while the men danced the war dance and the mimed-combat dance.

Therefore at that time they promised every three years they would commemorate that event, but should they not commemorate it then that well down there would dry up. Until today whenever it is three years they commemorate it.

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