98 



SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS 



VOL. 12^ 



above. The blackness of the place comes 

 from below. The mother and the children 

 carry hoes to clear out the ditch. There is 

 a husband whose outstretched hand is like 



the back of a bear. His veins are dark like 

 ink. Three claps of his hands will break 

 things in two. When he bends his arm once, 

 it is as efficient as a battle.^^ 



Ridiculing Men or Women 



A Song of People RidictiUng Each Other 

 (161) 



If a house is dry, it is a good place to hang 

 up a drum. A big place on the clifT is a good 

 place to shut up cattle. We have ability. We 

 do not fear lest people will come and deceive 

 us. If our hands are clever and our bodies 

 strong, we do not fear lest people will come 

 and tread on us. 



When the bamboo tube is open it can swal- 



low walnuts. (If I open my mouth, I can 

 swallow you.) When the walnuts split open, 

 then they look toward the moon (so it may 

 help us). Cloth says, "Cloth will wrap up 

 bean soup." The bean soup says, "I will stick 

 to the cloth." You say that those red-colored 

 clothes are good. I will burn them with fire. 



The bag in which dry food is placed, I will 

 put into the rice boiler and boil it. 



You must not speak your big words. My 

 small words still have strength.^'' 



LOVE SONGS 

 Sorrow for a Dead Sweetheart 



The Sorrow of a hover Whose Stveethcart 

 Died (337) 



Na Bo Niang Jin came down to hoe the 

 garden. She drank out of a small spring of 

 v/ater. Then she became sick with an illness 

 from a dragon's stomach.^*' Then her stom- 

 ach pained her. Her lover (not her husband) 

 came to see her. He asked her why she was 

 so yellow and thin. She answered, "When I 

 went and hoed the garden I drank water out 

 of a little spring and my stomach swelled up. 

 Then I went to a pool of water and picked 

 up water with my two hands and drank it, 

 and so my stomach ached. It ached one day, 

 and then ached another day. Day after day it 

 pained me, and it has made me yellow like 

 yellow silk and lean like paper. I am afraid 

 I will die." 



Her lover said, "My partner, what would 

 you like to eat?" She said, "I do not want to 

 eat meat, and I do not want to drink wine. 



8S The meaning is that the tadpole's tail and 

 tlie frog's buttock are attractive. You men sing- 

 ing songs to us women make yourselves likewise 

 attractive (sarcasm). The club is the song the 

 woman is singing. The men are likened to dogs. 

 The lighted bamboo to entice demons is likened 

 to women singing songs to entice men (demons). 

 The powerful husband means other women friends 

 helping her sing ballads. 



89 There are contests in singing in which there 

 are two sides, each ridiculing and trying to out- 

 wit the other, and each taking its turn. This 

 is only one part of one of these contests. 



^0 The dragon spits the illness out of his 

 stomach and it is swallowed in die drinking 

 water. 



The ten kinds of medicine I secured have all 

 been used up. I have eaten up (taken) a 

 hundred kinds of medicine. I do not want to 

 eat any of die things my parents have. The 

 things I want to eat I do not have." Her 

 lover said, "Do you want to eat fish?" She 

 replied, "Here on this high mountain, where 

 can fish come from?" "Since you want to 

 eat fish, they will come from my hands. You 

 just wait until I have prepared some food 

 for myself, and I will go into the stream be- 

 low and net fish." 



After he had said this he prepared his din- 

 ner and then went into the stream to net fish. 

 He went upstream and netted three times, and 

 downstream and netted one time. He caught 

 only two small yellow fish and one small 

 spotted fish. Then he returned. 



When he had come halfway back he met 

 two distant travelers who danced and played 

 the liu sheng. One played a large I'm sheng 

 and the other played a small liu sheng, and 

 they walked and danced together. In their 

 hands they carried a slice of beef. One of 

 them both played the liu sheng and sang 

 songs. When the lover saw this, he neither 

 smiled nor wept, and with his head bowed 

 low he walked along. As he walked he met 

 (bumped into) these travelers from a distant 

 place. 



He asked the travelers, "Good friends, 

 where are you going to perform the Tso Chai 

 memorial ceremony?" They replied, "Don't 

 you know, Na Bo Niang Jin who lives on 

 the high mountain is dead." Then he asked, 

 "Is she dead, or merely pretending to be 



