FIRST, THE TITLE. It literally translates ‘was there someone/were there individuals, who did some unusual, faultable, ‘unkind’, etc., things – that caused these Da-sheb signs, viz. intermittent – or continual, rains – steady in volume, and appearing to be ceaseless?’
MAYBE TOO LONG for you a translation, but we cannot just ‘abridge’ the embedded implications of the beliefs – traditional, about the phenomenon: Da-sheb.
AMONG THE IBALOIS – both Ehnontogs and Ikulos, when someone (or a group of individuals) willfully do a deed or act of unusual nature like: matching two spiders on a coconut broomstick – and ‘enjoying’, or laughing over what, as observers all, they see in the ‘fight’ for survival of said two spiders; or making a ‘covered wagon’ out of a Tagumbao/Tangan (Psychic Tree) and have this pulled by a captured rat – while the audience is encouraged to sing. ‘Roll along covered wagon, roll along’, etc., or, other deeds to derive ‘mere fun’, the old folks say:
‘DON’T DO THOSE things, or the Namarsua (He who created us and all things) and/or Adi Kaila (The Unseen One) will be displeased and shall send you stern warnings (like rains, thunders, winds, etc.); please stop or discontinue’. But
IF THE ACT is already done, or half-done, expect the rains and related signs. And the old folks say:
‘ARA! GWARA NGOY nan Da-sheb!’ If the people say there was nobody in the village who did it, next day or the next: they’ll be asking about it in the other neighbouring villages. Often, they’ll find one; if not in a nearby village, in a farther one.
AT A YOUNGER age – I was Grade V that time, there came that strong rain – with loud thunders and some winds. I heard some older males in a nearby store say:
‘GWARA Y NAN Da-sheb man! The next day, we learned that some children caught a rat in the rice fields just a half-kilometer from our then present location.
THEY GOT SOME rice hay and tightly bundled it – then, after letting it being pulled by the rat for sometime on the widefield, somebody got a lighter and set the bundle of hay (not so big), on fire! The narrations indicate the children had their kind of ‘fun’ unknowing.
AND MANY WERE saying: ‘no wonder, those rains, with winds even, etc. somebody – or some children did a Da-sheb!’
‘LET’S REMIND OUR children not to play with our co-creations, enges ja manbidabidai or else, the Da-sheb comes!’ So, dear reader:
DO YOU HAVE these kinds of beliefs – traditional, in your villages? Some schooled people classify these as Superstitious beliefs, and thus should not be given that much connexion of ‘equivalence’ but
WHETHER SUPERSTITIOUS OR not, are not those ‘consequences’ of such acts fearsome enough to deter us from ‘causing’ a Da-sheb? Ayuhh!
