t 



A SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I.i 



evidence of this practice has yet been found among the Ch'uan Miao. Ti 

 Ch'uan Miao, however, have a very strange custom: Certain female relatives 

 the man are his "guest-wives," and certain male relatives of a woman are h 

 "guest-husbands." Without marriage they are allowed to practice sexual relatior 

 and it is not regarded as wrong. In recent years, owing to Christian influenc 

 there have been endeavors to discontinue this practice. 



The Ch'uan Miao are not a tribe with a political organization that includ 

 the whole group. There are no tribal rulers, but they have local headmen, calk 

 gii leo or "old clubs," who sometimes cooperate for the common good. The 

 people are an ethnic group bound together by common language, ideals, ar 

 customs and by a strong sense of unity. They are very sociable and mutualj 

 helpful. 



SOCIAL LIFE AND CEREMONIES 



Practically the only amusements of Ch'uan Miao women and girls are visitin- * 

 attending feasts, marriages, funerals, and other ceremonies, listening to peop 

 singing songs and watching the men dance and play the liu sheng, going i 

 market, making love, and gossiping. They are supposed to use their spare tin 

 for sewing and making hemp thread and yarn and embroideries. 



Among the more popular amusements of men and boys are hunting, kickir 

 the shuttlecock, and playing "snake protecting her eggs," blindman's buff, shai 

 battle, or dogs chasing wild animals. During the New Year holidays and ; 

 weddings "playing lion" is a popular amusement. Both men and women smolj 

 tobacco and drink wine. While the Miao have no theatricals, they often join til 

 throngs and look at Chinese plays being performed in temples or in the open i 

 Chinese towns and cities. 



Like the other Miao groups in China, the Ch'uan Miao are lovers of musi 

 Except the singing and the responses of go-betweens while making engagement 

 in contests between men and women, and in the newly established schools an 

 chapels, there is no group singing. There is a kind of band music, but usualj 

 all the instruments play the same tune in unison. Generally the liu sheng 

 played by one man who dances, and vocalists sing one at a time while all liste 

 with rapt attention. This singing of stories and songs is one of the princip; 

 amusements of the Ch'uan Miao. 



The singing may be by either a man or a woman, generally of middle age ( 

 older. Nearly all the stories and myths and bits of history of the group have beei 

 made into songs and as such are handed down from generation to generation 

 taught by one singer to another. Some of the singers know only a few songs, bi 

 there are some who know and can sing several hundred. It should be emphasize 

 that the Ch'uan Miao have no written language or literature. 



There is a great deal of love-making among the Ch*uan Miao, who have the; 

 share of pretty girls. Marriage is through go-betweens, and the arrangements ai 

 made between the older members of the two families, the bride and the groor 

 often not even being consulted. There is a gift from the parents of the grooD 

 to those of the bride, and the value of the gift often determines whether th 



