Hơ Nhị

Hơ Nhị is the elder of the two sisters whom Đăm Săn is obliged to marry under the matrilineal juê nuê custom, by which a man succeeds to the husbands of his kinswomen. She and her sister Hơ Bhị are heiresses of a rich and powerful long-house, and it is her abduction by rival chiefs that sets the hero's campaigns in motion. The life of both sisters is bound to the sacred smuk tree of their lineage: when Đăm Săn fells it in his pride the two wives die, and they are restored only when he ascends to the sky-lord Aê Diê for the remedy. Her figure embodies the matrilineal principle central to Ede society, in which house, land and wealth pass through women.

Domains

• clan hearth

Powers

• holds the wealth and hearth of the matriline

Relations

• spouse: Đăm SănSabatier, La Chanson de Damsan (1927). (primary)
• sibling: Hơ BhịSabatier, La Chanson de Damsan (1927). (primary)

Sources

• Hơ Nhị is the elder of the two sister-wives of Đăm Săn, heiress of a wealthy matriline whom the hero marries under the levirate custom.: Léopold Sabatier (coll.), La Chanson de Damsan (Paris, 1927). (primary)