b 



O. I 



CHUAN MIAO SONGS AND STORIES — GRAHAM 



17 



ne on top and was also fine-grained inside, 

 vhen the egg was hatched it changed into a 

 tian named Pao Ch'eng Kiang (one who 

 rotects a high official). When the egg on 

 ■yp opened it changed into a person named 

 li Wang Sen. Mi Wang Sen got up and 

 /as able at once to write. He then went to 

 he heavenly land of Ntzj. Pao Ch'eng Kiang 

 Iso went to the land of the King of Heaven 

 Lo Fa Dai) to study. 



Who do you say is eflScient in writing? It 

 5 Mi Wang Sen's hand that is excellent in 

 writing. Who do you say is efiBcient in writ- 

 ng on cloth? It is Pao Ch'eng Kiang who is 



efficient in writing on cloth. When Mi Wang 

 Sen writes on the ground he makes beautiful 

 designs (artistic). When Pao Ch'eng Kiang 

 writes characters on a person's back, it also 

 makes beautiful designs (like embroidery). 



One day Pao Ch'eng Kiang wrote charac- 

 ters inside (clothes) and it was sent to Ntzi's 

 land. Mi Wang Sen also wrote characters on 

 the outside (of the garments) and it went to 

 the emperor in Ntzi's land. But when they 

 had gone halfway on the road, they sent 

 letters to their mother Na Fa Nii asking her 

 to go and take charge of the jade seal of the 

 emperor.^ ^ 



A MIAO CHANGED INTO AN AMITABHA 



\i Miao Changed into an Amitabha (330) 



Once there was a Miao who lived beside a 

 iver. When he saw that the water was high 

 le was in the habit of carrying people across 

 ,he stream on his back. 



One day, while he was beside the river, he 

 net an immortal. The immortal wished to 

 ;ross the river. At that time the water was 

 /ery high, and he ran to carry the immortal 

 icross the river. After he had carried him 

 icross, the immortal invited him to go along 

 A'ith the immortal and to become an im- 

 nortal. He was willing to go. 

 ■ After he had gone several ten of years, one 

 day he went to drink water. He fell into 

 the water and was drowned. His souls (huen 

 ind p'ei) went along with the immortal as 

 usual. After a time he arrived at the spot 

 where he used to cross the river, and he saw 

 the place where some Chinese had carved an 

 image without hands and feet and set it up. 

 He then asked the immortal, "What image 

 is thisP" The immortal replied, "It is your 



image." He said, "My image has hands and 

 feet, but this image has no hands and feet. 

 How can it be my image?" The immortal 

 replied, "Because when you carried people 

 across the river your feet were in the water 

 and your arms were about the people being 

 carried. He said, "It is not customary to carve 

 an image and worship it until one is dead. 

 Why do these people worship me?" The im- 

 mortal said, "You go beside the river and 

 look." 



He went and looked and saw a heap of 

 fleshless bones. He also went into his home, 

 and at that time his sons and grandsons were 

 all playing the liu sheng and beating the drum 

 to commemorate him. He noticed that his 

 descendants did not see him. Then the im- 

 mortal left him. He could not find his way, 

 and so he could only go around in a purpose- 

 less manner. He constantly went about help- 

 ing people. When people called him, he 

 would certainly help them. He was unable 

 (unwilling) to injure people. He left this 

 song to pass his story on to his descendants. 



A STONE THAT WAS AN IMMORTAL 



\A Stone That Was an Immortal (441) 



In ancient times in the land of the Lolos 

 there were two big stone bamboo sprouts. 

 These stones were one male and one female. 

 Every year, in the spring, the two stones slept 

 until daybreak, and then they would get up 

 and hold sex ual relations. The noise when 



^^ It is possible that the mother dove was trans- 

 formed into a woman, Na Fa Nii, which means 

 great tree tender. Mi Wang Sen is apparendy an 

 ancient Miao hero. 



they flew roared until it disturbed the people 

 below the cliff. They flew like this and 

 alarmed the people several years. 



Suddenly, during the seventh lunar month, 

 diunder struck one of the stones and split 

 it open. Now there is left only one immortal. 

 When this stone was broken, the non-Chinese 

 people of that place were destroyed. Not 

 until now did we know that this was a Lolo's 

 ancestral rock. This was the rock to which 

 the Lolos made pilgrimages up the mountain. 



