NO. I 



CHUAN MIAO SONGS AND STORIES — GRAHAM 



53 



What the Liu Sheng Says When Played the 

 Fourth Time to Guide the Departed 

 Soul to Heai/en (431) 



The soul nourishes one's body. When one 

 dies, he must return to the mountain. 



The filial son must sweep the house clean. 

 The friends and guests will come. The uncles 

 and your sisters will arrive. They will see 

 you dead in the coffin. You will be unable 

 to talk to them. They will all feel sorry 

 about it. When you hear the sound of the 

 drum and the liu sheng, there will be 70 or 

 80 liu shengs escorting you to the grave (on 

 the mountain where the Ch'uan Miao used 

 to be buried) . The sounds of 92 drums being 

 beaten will escort you to Ntzi's place. When 

 you have gone, only your orphan sons and 

 daughters will remain, weeping.^ 



What the Liu Sheng Says the Last Time It 

 Is Played at the Funeral Ceremony (432) 



It is daybreak this morning. The dead per- 

 son will go out. The dead person will go 

 out of the door. The earth will welcome 

 you to Ntzi's house. The earth will take 

 you to Ntzi's heaven. The earth will take 

 you to the demon's place. Let Homng Bo 

 Sua go. Let Hmong }e Sua go. Hmong Bo 

 Sua has gone. Hmong Je Sua has gone. All 

 the women and men have gone. Quickly 

 escort the departed soul. Let the relatives 

 and friends quickly go. 



What beats the drum? A club beats the 

 drum. What is the drum beaten with? The 

 drum is beaten with two pieces of wood. 

 What is that? That is a cliff. Your small 

 sons and daughters escort you out of the 

 door. Your small sons and daughters escort 

 you upon the mountain. Go quickly. You 

 must not look. When 12 days have passed, 

 your sons and daughters will come and wel- 

 come you back.* Then you may lie on the 

 bed and drink wine and eat rice. The song 

 is ended.^ 



The K'a Get Opens the Way for the De- 

 parted Soul to Its Future Abode ^ (657) 



In the k!a gei's hands he carries a rooster. 



^ This tune is also played three times. 



* At the Sao Ch'ieh ceremony. 



^ This tune is also played three times. When 

 it is finished the /{'a gei takes hold of the coffin 

 and leads it as it is carried outside. Then the 

 filial sons kneel outside the house. Their wives 

 light a torch just before it is taken outside, and 

 after it is carried outside, die coffin is tied up 

 so that it can be carried away and buried. 



® This and No. 658 (below) were obtained from 



On his back he carries a bow. At his side he 

 wears a sword or beheading knife. 



He stands beside the dead person's coffin 

 on the west. In his hands he holds a pair of 

 divining sticks.'' He then repeats the follow- 

 ing paragraphs. 



Three times he calls out the name of the 

 dead person saying, "Arise, arise, arise." As 

 he calls he takes hold of the dead person's 

 hand and pulls as though to lift the dead 

 person up. Then he says — 



A. "I have called you three times and you 

 are unable to reply. I pulled three times but 

 you are unable to rise. You cannot live as a 

 man, so you must live as a spirit. Your 

 head is bent down toward the great land of 

 the soul in the sky (SaO nTo-' na'' Ti*'?). 

 You wear the sky like a hat above your head 

 and your head leads toward the land of the 

 souls of the dead. I will give you nine cups 

 of wine nine times to drink. If you cannot 

 drink it all, do not give it to demons that 

 cause sickness for them to drink. If you 

 cannot drink it, give it to the souls of the 

 dead to drink. You give it to your ancestors 

 for three generations. Xau^ lo'^ Xau'^ (drink 

 some). 



B. "When the spirits have drunk, I will lead 

 on the road to heaven. I will offer some 

 meat for you to eat. If you cannot eat it all, 

 you must not give it to the demons that cause 

 sickness or to the demons that cause death. 

 You must give it to your ancestors for three 

 generations. 



Xau^ lo'^ Xau^, "When you have finished 

 eating you must go and stick to the corner 

 of your grandmother's clothes. When you 

 have finished eating, you go and stick to the 

 bottom of your grandfather's felt rug." 



Then he repeats the following words: 



"So, so. If I roam all over the world it 

 stirs my mind. I will go unto the road of 

 Ngeo Go (OgAu^ go""). Speaking of the earth, 

 I have gone all over the sky. I went to Ga Ye 

 K'o's (ga* Se^ k'o*°) residence. When Ngeo 

 Ga came at first, she got a flat ground. When 

 Ga Ye K'o first came he got a flat in the sky. 



"I will lead you to Ngeo Ga's dwelling. I 

 will also lead you to Ga Ye K'o's (medicine 



Mr. Hsiung Cheng-ts'ai, now deceased, who lived 

 at Wang Wu-Chai, ^^^. and was over 60 

 years old. He was a simple farmer who was 

 saturated with the customs and ideals of his 

 people and was said to know over a thousand 

 folk songs. When the mo, or priest, is performing 

 the ceremony of opening the soul of the deceased 

 to go to paradise, he is called a f{'a get, or one 

 who opens the road. 



"^ Made of two halves of a bamboo sprout. 



