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SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS 



VOL. 



123 



tain where there are some flat rocks. But 

 tlie foxes and wildcats were very kind and did 

 not eat me. I was not afraid. I only feared 

 that if I went home I would be beaten by 

 my uncle's wife. But that is not strange. The 

 most wonderful thing is that one night I 

 heard a wicked demon shouting. His voice 

 was like that of a pig. Next day others went 

 and looked at the place where tlie demon 

 was shouting that night, and it was in the 

 garden of my uncle. 



Now a year has gone by, and my uncle's 

 family has been taken away by the demon 

 (they have died). Afterward when the ts'ao 

 tu memorial service was being conducted by 

 my uncle, many guests came. They hung up 

 a big drum and played the liu sheng, and all 

 gladly danced until midnight. Because there 

 were too many guests and the house was 

 small, those who were dancing pushed people 

 and pushed my uncle's house down. The peo- 

 ple inside cried out like thunder, and with 

 those conducting the memorial service all ran 

 outside the house. Alas, the wine and the 

 meat were crushed, and the guests did not get 

 to eat and drink it. My uncle's family after 

 this had perished like winter snow (after 

 melting). 



Poor me, I am very poor. My illnesses are 

 many. When the sky is clear my body aches. 

 When it rains my body still aches. I cry out 

 because of my bitterness. Truly these illnesses 

 were caught when I as a little child suffered 

 from the cold wind, the rain, and the dew. 

 Heaven, why does Ntzi not want me to be 

 alive.? Why, at middle age, did he take my 

 beloved wife through death, leaving with me 

 only two sorrowful sons? I do manual labor 

 for others to get food so as to raise them. 

 Ai-yah, Ntz'f has no mercy. After I became 

 old he took away my older son (by death) 

 and only my younger son is left. Ai, I am a 

 helpless man. I am a sorrowful man among 

 bitter sorrows. 



I leave this song for all who have sympathy 

 with me so that they can weep with me. Ah. 



The song is ended. 



Parents Who Persecuted Their Daughter 

 (197) 



The mice came from the ridge to eat the 

 wild blackberries. While they were eating, it 

 sounded like people moving. The small girl 

 in her mother's home was singing. She knew 

 many songs. 



The mice came from the ridge to cat the 

 wild blackberries. At the same time they 

 gnawed the stalks of grass. The mice were 



unhappy (bitter). The little girl was also 

 unhappy in her heart. She thought, "In my 

 parents' home my body is confused in my 

 heart and liver. My mother has scolded me. 

 I will go and sleep on the cliff. My father 

 scolds me like smoke rising from a fire. The 

 smoke pursues the smoke, and the smoke 

 breaks in two. My father and brothers come 

 back home from pursuing me at night to 

 sleep. I, the pretty girl, come back and sleep 

 in the chimney near the stove. 



The smoke pursues the smoke. The smoke 

 becomes separated. My parents and brothers 

 come back home to sleep. My mother scolds 

 me saying I am not clean. I get up and find 

 a hemp rope. My father comes and scolds 

 me because I am not clean. I pick up a hemp 

 rope as usual. I hang myself in my home on 

 a beam of the house, my affection has ceased, 

 and my life is gone. 



Then the father and her brothers hurriedly 

 went and called the old go-betweens. In the 

 family of her husband the older brothers of 

 her husband came and cried out like thunder. 

 Her father-in-law's older brother shouted so 

 loud that die earth was about to move. The 

 husband's older brother said, "One of your 

 own folks died in your house." Her father- 

 in-law's older brother said, "Your daughter 

 died in your yard." Then the husband's older 

 brother said, "All we want now is your ani- 

 mals (given to you for the girl)." The father- 

 in-law's older brother said, "All we want is 

 our small animals (given for the girl)." 



When they had finished, after they had 

 gotten many animals, they drove them into 

 the road and they were as numerous as 1 

 mosquitoes. 



The song is ended.'^^ 



Song of a Pretty Woman Who DisU\es the 

 Rich (217) 



Let him turn over his hand and cut the 

 rice. (He is well-to-do and so has a sickle to 

 cut the grass with.) 



Let his brother bend his hand to use the 

 new sickle. (Because he is rich he can buy 

 a new sickle.) 



His brother's wings have power. 



He lives near a man who owns fields. 



The three friends you live near are rich. 



Such as I, when they turn over their hands, 

 have no sickle to cut with. 



^^ It is probable that this girl had been en- 

 gaged and the parents had received the usual 

 gifts in domestic animals, but that she had not 

 yet gone to the home of the groom. 



