NO. I 



CH UAN MIAO SONGS AND STORIES — GRAHAM 



99 



dead?" They replied, Niang Jin is truly 

 dead. We have already eaten the meat and 

 have already played die liu sheng, and have 

 drunk up all the wine. Do you still not know 

 about it?" Then he did not ask any more 

 questions. He immediately threw the fish 

 into the creek and ran forward regardless of 

 everything to the top of the high mountain, 

 and he saw that on Niang Jin's bed there 

 was no sound of groaning or breathing. He 



ran and asked Niang Jin's mother and her 

 mother said, "My daughter has left your 

 good fellowship and deserted your good af- 

 fection." He said, "Heaven, really, my loved 

 one has truly died." He also asked where 

 she was buried. Her mother said, "She is 

 buried in the yellow soil in the great moun- 

 tain. She is buried below the big terrace in 

 the banana forest." He said, "This banana 

 forest is the place of my sorrow." 



Sung by Young People 



A Love Song ^i (375) 



In a bad year the hen eats rice husks. In 

 a plenteous year the chicken and the swallow 

 pick up broken bits of rice to eat. 



There was a man named Lan Gin Sen 

 (blue gold born) who enticed Ngeo Go 

 (young girl gold), and they went to herd 

 their pigs together. The girl enticed the man 

 to go with her to herd the sheep. The man 

 could not get enough of sitting beside the 

 girl. Her mother married her to a family of 

 Miao in a Chinese village in the great forest 

 on the mountain. 



Lan Gin Sen pretended to be selling things 

 and went to the place where the girl was. He 

 watched for some time but did not see her 

 come out to cut grass for the pigs or the 

 cows. He then picked a leaf of a tree and 

 blew on it, much like a bird singing. The 

 mother of the husband heard it and said, "For 



many years before you came here I did not 

 hear this kind of a bird singing." Ngeo Go 

 said, "I constantly work with my husband 

 beside the creek. Can it be that I secretly 

 have a friend and your son does not know it?" 

 Then the mother could find nothing to say, 

 and Ngeo Go gathered her jewelry up and 

 returned to her mother's home. There she 

 stayed one night with Lan Gin Sen. 



When daylight came, Lan Gin Sen told 

 her to go back, "lest your old mother-in-law 

 and husband find out about it." 



A Love Song ^2 (384) 



Oh heaven, Nts'ai Ngeo Niang, you are 

 like a leaf floating on water, that floats about 

 without foundation (or root). Speak a few 

 words to me here. Return home and sleep 

 awhile, and you will certainly dream that I 

 am standing beside your bed. 



Sung by Disappointed Lovers 



A Song of Disappointed Lovers ^^ (8) 



The day is clear. His face is like a peach 

 blossom. He does not wash with cold water. 

 He waits until it rains and uses rain water. 

 This small brother's face is truly pretty. It is 

 finer than white clay. I, the girl, wait until he 

 comes near my home to seek me, the flower- 

 like sister. He sees that the mother takes her 

 daughter to the ninth turn of the ninth hill. 

 A father takes her daughter and releases her 

 on the ninth road in the deep forest. Her 

 mother was planning this year to marry her 

 to somebody else. The father was busy with 

 his daughter who was being married this year. 

 So the loving husband, after sleeping until 

 midnight, arises and cannot see the girl, and 

 walks a step. This year the beloved girl tries 

 to get away to return to her childhood home. 



^^ Sung by young people when at leisure. 

 ^- Sung by young people, especially lovers. 

 ®" Sung on festive occasions, as when there 

 are guests at feasts. 



The dear girl again, since the year has been 

 completed, thought of preparing silk cloth- 

 ing for him to wear. So she took the silk 

 garment and put the brass buckle on it.^* 



When she had gone halfway she met on 

 the road her lover who was to go along with 

 her. She opened her mouth and asked, 

 "Older brother, where are your golden gar- 

 ments with tinkling ornaments? Your dark- 

 blue cloth and gray gown, where are they?" 

 He replied, "I am only going along among 

 the three mountains for a walk, and I have 

 only my ragged clothing to wear. I have only 

 dirty and ragged clothing to pull together. 



"Today happily I received what you made 

 with your own hands for me, the dear things 



^* It it a Ch'uan Miao custom that when a 

 daughter has been married out of a home she can- 

 not return on a visit to her former home until 

 a year is completed. 



This woman's lover who accompanies her is 

 apparently not her husband. 



