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SMITtlSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS 



VOL. 123 



this altar and went home to farm before they 

 got food to eat. 



Words Sung on the First Day of the New 

 Year while Offerings Are Being Made ®° 

 (638) 



The first day of the new year has come. 

 Your descendants have cooked new rice. The 

 new year will become 10,000 years (for the 

 descendants). We offer to you a wooden 

 spoon (in which food is given) so you can 

 eat the New Year meal. Heo lo hai (Xau lo* 

 Xai, meaning come and eat and drink). Let 

 the female and male ancestors for three 

 generations come together to eat the New 

 Year feast. Heo lo hai. When you have 

 eaten, you must come and increase the 

 strength of your descendants in order that 

 they can plow and sow the fields and the 

 mountain wildernesses so they can have food. 

 If they have food and clothes, then we will 

 first make offerings to the three generations 

 of female and male ancestors. Heo lo hai. 

 When you have eaten, you must come and 

 add many domestic animals and cause the 

 crops to grow, and cause the old forests and 

 uncultivated hills to grow (trees and grass), 

 and cause many sons to be born, and 

 many grandsons. When the descendants have 

 planted their crops and made clearings in 

 the wilderness, you must cause your descend- 

 ants to get things to eat and drink, and they 



will make offerings to the three generations 

 of female and male ancestors. Heo lo hai."^ 



Offering Wine to the Ancestors on New 

 Year's Day ^- (639) 



My grandmother and my grandfather, to- 

 day is the first day of the New Year. My 

 three generations of female and male ances- 

 tors have come to drink New Year's wine. 

 When you have drunk wine, you must lead 

 your descendants forth to be scholars and 

 civil officials and lead them to be military 

 officials. After that you must look after your 

 descendants so that they can raise many 

 domestic animals. When you have drunk, 

 you must make their descendants very numer- 

 ous. You must cause the sons and grandsons 

 to have food and drink. You must cause the 

 descendants to succeed so that they have 

 meat to eat and wine to drink. Then they 

 will first come and make offerings to you 

 three generations of female and male ances- 

 tors so that 3'ou will all conae and get (wine) 

 to drink. When you have drunk and gone 

 you must not nourish diseases (lest they come 

 and injure us). You must not nourish groans, 

 you must not nourish quarrels, you must not 

 nourish crimes, but let the descendants farm 

 and get food and drink. They will first make 

 offerings to the female and male ancestors 

 of three generations so that they may come 

 together and drink.^^ 



THE THIRD DAY OF THE NEW YEAR 



Words Sung while Maying Offeritigs on the 

 Third Day of the New Year ^^ (640) 



My grandmother and my grandfather, the 

 third day of the New Year has arrived. The 

 three generations of female and male ances- 

 tors have already been here three days. The 

 big hill is trampled down.*'^ Now we in- 



^^ Obtained by the farmer-priest Hsiung Tzu 

 Niang near Wang Wu Chai. 



First a pot of new rice must be cooked. Fresh 

 water and new tea leaves must be used to make 

 tea. The tea must first be offered to the ances- 

 tors. When the tea has been offered, then they 

 offer rice and meat. The priest repeats diis song 

 while making the offerings. 



^1 When he has repeated to this point, he calls 

 the names of the ancestors one by one, beginning 

 with the oldest, inviting them to come and eat 

 and offering them food. Sometimes the offerings 

 are thrown on the ground, and sometimes they 

 are placed in a bowl on a table. Always the male 



vite you to come and eat die biscuits you have 

 left over. I am going to report to you so 

 that you may depart. You will return to your 

 places and stand among the reeds and sit 1 

 among the flowers. You go and dig up grass \ 

 roots to nourish your lips (to eat) . You must ' 



is called on first, then his wife, then another male 

 of a nearer generation. 



*'- Obtained from Hsiung Tzu Niang of Wang 

 Wu Chai. 



63 When the priest has chanted to diis point 

 he must mention the three generations of female 

 and male ancestors and invite them to come, and 

 make offerings to tiiem, from the oldest and even 

 including the sons and daughters who are dead. 

 After he has finished these offerings, the living 

 descendants may eat breakfast. 



^* Obtained from Hsiung Tsu Niang of Wang 

 Wu Chai. 



^^ The grass on the hills is trampled down by 

 the people enjoying themselves on the hill at New 

 Year time. 



