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SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS 



VOL. 123 



the winter they captured and ate small living 

 creatures. In warm weather they lived in the 

 old forests, and in winter they returned to 

 their (natural) stone caves. As to their way of 

 living, a few tens might live in one group, or 

 only a few people. We do not know how 

 long they lived in this way. 



The Ancient Miao People (4) 



After roaming all over the world, I come 

 to the home of the ancient Miao by the road- 

 side. We will speak about things on the earth. 

 Let us go into the home of a Miao gentleman 

 and reckon from the root (beginning) of 

 things. 



The ancient Miao slept on small wooden 

 beds made of wood fitted together. One night 

 the Miao gentleman had a bad dream that 

 he had broken his spindle and that the beds 

 on which the Miao slept were made of vines. 



He then dreamed that he went to plow the 

 ground and the plow was broken. The an- 

 cient Miao regarded the family as a united 

 group like a bucket that was not to be di- 

 vided, or like the water in a water jar that 

 should not be separated. 



Ancient Miao Who Ate People (188) 



In ancient times there was a tribe of people 

 called Kw'a (or Q'ua). They all liked to kill 

 people and eat them. But their group was 

 firmly bound together. When they saw stran- 

 gers from distant places they locked them in 

 a pen and drove iron needles into their 

 knees. After their legs had swollen they re- 

 garded them as fat and killed them and ate 

 them. If for a long time they had not cap- 

 tured anybody else, they even killed their 

 parents and their children and ate them.-" 



Religious Customs 



They Ate Their Parents and also Worshiped 

 Their Parents (189) 



There is a Miao tribe called Kw'a. One day 

 a family was building a roof and many friends 

 came to help them do the work. A few days 

 before this the sons of this family all went 

 away to a distant place where they were 

 strangers. Alas, after they had gone several 

 days they failed to catch any strangers to eat. 

 The day of building the roof arrived, and 

 many people came. In the afternoon the 

 sons took the knife that they killed people 

 with and ground it very sharp. Then they 

 said to their father, "Come down. Today 

 the guests have already arrived. We want 

 you to come and entertain the guests." The 

 father said, "Sons, I am still young and I am 

 actually able to build a roof to live under." 

 The sons said, "Who invited you to eat 

 people's food (probably human flesh) in the 

 past? " -^ The father could say nothing, and 

 the sons took him and killed him so as to 

 entertain the guests. 



But after three years the sons thought of 

 their father and invited their friends of that 

 place to come and play the liu sheng, beat 

 the drum, and dance. They used a peck and 

 two quarts of rice and made of it an image 

 of a man to worship. After they had wor- 

 shiped it they all seized the image of a man, 



20 This tribe or ethnic group is called l^w'a. 

 This means a dark color and may be the Black 

 Miao now called in Chinese the Ch'in Miao. 



21 In the past he had eaten human flesh in 

 other homes when covering a roof. 



each with one hand, and ate it. Then they all 

 departed. 



In Ancient Times When the Miao Could Not 

 Play the Liu Sheng or Beat Drums, They 

 Made Ceremonial Offerings (30) 



In ancient times the Miao did not know 

 how to make offerings to demons or gods. 

 They only knew that when parents died they 

 must certainly receive ceremonial offerings. 

 Their method of making ceremonial offerings 

 was as follows: If anyone had several sons 

 each son killed either a pig or a cow. If one 

 were very lowly, even he must kill a chicken. 

 By one means or another a life must be given. 

 Each person must sacrifice a day and a night 

 before the parent could be buried in peace. 

 Speaking of blowing the liu sheng or beating 

 drums, there was nothing of these. Only 

 there was one family that began doing so. 



For there was a family that had seven sons. 

 The father died in the sixth moon in the 

 summer. Each son had to offer a sacrifice a 

 day and a night. When they had made offer- 

 ings only a day, on the dead person were mag- 

 gots that crawled out into the house. The 

 sons were helpless so the oldest son said, 

 "This way we can hardly protect the body of 

 our deceased father." The second son said, 

 "Each one of us can make a bamboo tube and 

 blow it and walk around the corpse, and one 

 person take leather and make a drum to be 

 hung in the center, and let the one in the 

 center beat the drum and we six other broth- 

 ers walk around and tread on the maggots. 



