Tadarimana's clan voices

aije

Source term: zunidor

aije: the Bororo bullroarer and the water-being it embodies. minhocão: Portuguese, a giant earthworm or serpent of river lore. Tugarege and Ecerae: the two Bororo moieties. Paiwoe, Aroroe, Kie: Bororo clans.

The night the aije passed through Tadarimana, an old Paiwoe woman lay curled on her bed, sweating with fear; women and uninitiated boys had to stay shut indoors. Her granddaughter, listening, decided the Paiwoe clan's roarer had the most beautiful voice, for every clan's aije has its own shape and its own sound. Tugarege men carve the blades and Ecerae men whirl them as the spirits of the earth. The aije is also a creature of rivers, lakes and mud, called here the minhocão, the great worm. A Paiwoe man named Rubugu found it, and two Aroroe chiefs, Baitogogo and Mano Kurireu, took it from him; pieces of that story are told at the funeral itself. In the funeral songs it is never named outright, only called capybara or monkey.

o som do barulho de Aije de Paiwoe era mais bonito

the sound of the Paiwoe's Aije was the most beautiful

Leila Aparecida de Souza, Bakaru na comunidade indígena Bororo da Aldeia Central de Tadarimana (UFMG, 2014), p. 108

Particulars

Object

Wooden aije blades made by Tugarege men; each clan has its own shape and sound.

Function

Whirled by Ecerae men at funerals as the Aije-doge Aroe, the spirits of the earth; women and uninitiated boys are confined indoors, forbidden to see them, while initiated boys take part.