SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS 



VOL. 123 



Offerings at Tuan Yang in the Fifth Moon 

 (643) 



My grandmother and my grandfather, to- 

 day is the fifth moon feast (festival), tuan 

 yang. We invite you female and male an- 

 cestors for three generations to all come to- 

 gether and eat the tuan yang meal. Xai, 

 Xai, Xai. 



When you have eaten it, cause your de- 

 scendants to be students and civil officials. 

 When you have drunk, go and cause them 

 to be soldiers. When you have eaten, cause 

 the domestic animals of your descendants to 

 be very numerous. When you have eaten, 

 cause your descendants to multiply and cause 

 them to have clodiing and food and drink. 

 They will then first make offerings to their 

 female and male ancestors for three genera- 

 tions so they can come and drink. When 

 you have eaten, you go. If you are thirsty, 

 you change to wind and rain and come first 

 and come and reveal it to us. Do not become 

 severe illnesses and come to injure us. You 



must protect your descendants so they will 

 have food and drink before they can make 

 offerings to you. Xai, Xai, Xai."*^ 



Finding the Sl{y and the Earth '^^ (356) 



In most ancient times there was a man 

 named Niong Glo Bo Glei (foundation black 

 feed or female dog). He slept until midnight, 

 then arose and went to find the sky and the 

 moon. When he had found them he bit them 

 with his teeth. He bit them until the sun 

 and the moon fell into the pool of water. 



Then there was a Chinese who heard about 

 this. He went to rescue them. He saved the 

 sun and the moon alive. The shadows of 

 the sun and of the moon moved back and 

 forth in the pool of water. He again went 

 and rescued them, and the sun and the moon 

 ascended into the sky. When they had gone 

 up into the sky, they shone on the people on 

 the earth. Then the people of the earth se- 

 cured a good (satisfying) life, for they had 

 the grains to live on. (They would not grow 

 without sunlight and moonlight.) 



THE CEREMONY OF EATING NEW GRAIN 



Song Sung at the Ceremony of Eating New 

 Grain (644) 



Xai, Xai, Xai. We are making offerings to 

 our female and male ancestors of three gen- 

 erations. Your descendants have harvested 

 their crops and have not yet tasted them, and 

 today is a propitious day. We will first come 

 and make offerings for the female and male 

 ancestors for three generations to all come 

 together and eat. When you have eaten, all 

 of you come together and eat (the) new 



(grain). When you have eaten, you go and 

 remove quarrels, and add to the power of 

 your descendants to do farming and to make 

 clearings in the deep forests. Let your de- 

 scendants have food and drink, and they will 

 come and make offerings to you. Let them 

 farm and have food and drink, and they will 

 come forward again and make offerings to 

 the female and male descendants for three 

 generations before you can have things to 

 drink.^- 



NATURE SONGS 



The Insects and Birds Report that Spring Has 

 Arrived to Cause People to Farm {Plow 

 and Sow) (549) 



The weather is cold in the winter. The 

 earth is cold during two months in the winter. 

 Today it is the new spring in the first lunar 

 month. The New Year meal has been eaten. 

 In the winter the insects and birds are all 

 sleeping with hands and feet folded. When 

 the spring has arrived and the weather is mild 



^° The X of Xai is a rough H. The expression 

 is said to mean "come eat and drink," or "we 

 are making offerings to you." 



When the above has been chanted, the officiator 

 must call by name, as elsewhere described, the 

 departed ancestors for three generations. 



and the earth is warm, the insects clap their 

 wings and come early. When they clap their 

 wings the daylight is about to come. Then 

 the birds get up and sing, calling to Ba Na's 

 industrious son to get up early and go to the 

 edge of the land and do his early farming. 

 The insects get up and call to Je Ji's indus- 

 trious son, and he goes to the wilderness to 

 sow the soil. Then the birds sing industri- 

 ously and urge the industrious son's planted 



"1 Sung at New Year, Tuan Yang, and die 

 fifteenth day of the seventh lunar mondi. 



''2 The name of the deceased ancestors for 

 three generations must be repeated, and each called 

 upon to come and eat and drink, as described 

 elsewhere. 



