!nO. I CHUAN MIAO SONGS AND STORIES — GRAHAM 7 



impersonate cows and pretend to fight and to cause the death of six. Women rub 

 soot onto the men's faces until they are black. A woman carries a dummy child 

 Iwhich is beaten to pieces. There is much fun and laughter. 



There is also a ceremony performed about once in three years making offerings 

 to the souls of deceased domestic animals. 



In addition, there is the ceremony of eating new grain, and there are at least 11 

 calendar festivals which in date, method of conducting the ceremonies, and pur- 

 !pose correspond very closely to those of the Chinese. 

 i 



I RELIGION 



One can easily get the impression that the Ch'uan Miao have no religion, and 

 they themselves sometimes confirm this impression. They have no religious 

 organizations, no organized priesthood, no temples, and no visible gods. It is my 

 opinion, however, that they are a very religious people. Through their daily toil, 

 by the help of their ancestors and the gods, and by means of religious ceremonies, 

 they hope to achieve a long and satisfying life in which the basic needs of food, 

 sex, protection, security, and play and recreation are insured, and after death to join 

 their departed ancestors in the ancient level land of Ntz'i. Two of the fundamental 

 elements in their religion are belief in demons, which cause diseases and other 

 calamities and which must be exorcised by the magician and his ceremonies, 

 and the commemoration of their ancestors by ceremonial rites and offerings. 



The untutored Ch'uan Miao does not know that the world is round, and he 

 has seen so many mountains that he does not regard it as entirely flat. There is an 

 end somewhere, but he does not know how big the world is. 



Above or on the sky is a level land where the souls of the deceased remain with 

 their ancestors after death. It is called the ancient level land of Ntzi (ntz9^ Ti'^ 

 Iau^ gAu^ bi°). Here there are no hills to climb and neither sickness nor death. 

 The sun shines every day, and although there are no rains there is no lack of mois- 

 ture. People do not farm but gather fruit and berries in the forests, which are much 

 as the forests were on the earth in very ancient times. At the memorial and 

 calendar festivals the offerings of their descendants provide them with food, 

 clothing, money, and wine to satisfy their needs. Formerly there was a ladder 

 connecting the earth and the sky or paradise, but in recent times this connection 

 has been broken. 



Under the earth is another world, the land of dwarfs or Lilliputians who are 

 about 2 feet tall. They live much like people on the earth, having houses, farms, 

 a king, soldiers, and a government. One Miao entered this world through a 

 natural cave in a mountain and remained so long that many of the people on 

 earth had forgotten him. Another fell through a hole in the floor of the emperor's 

 palace and after two or three years was able to crawl back onto the earth through 

 a crack caused by a drought. When rain came again the earth swelled up and 

 closed the crack. 



Some of the stories speak of a dark place inhabited by demons and presided 

 over by a demon king. 



The Chinese idea of three principal souls and seven lesser souls, and of karma 



