124 



SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS 



VOL. 123 



The daughter wore a silk belt. The two 

 ends of the belt had two fine embroideries. 

 It was made of black, white, and green 

 threads. 



One day the parents' daughter came out to 

 pick bamboo shoots. She had tied on herself 

 a woven blue cloth belt. The two ends were 

 buckled together like a precious lookingglass. 



Instructiojis to a Son (555) 



The wheel must turn around before the 

 thread can be wrapped around it. The daugh- 

 ter is brave. She is not so brave as her 

 mother. The son is brave. The son is not as 

 brave as his father. In farming you must first 

 prepare a fire clearing.®^ It is very good to 

 prepare a clearing by fire and thus have food 

 to eat. It is better to feed domestic animals 

 and get food to eat. 



Killing a Tiger with an Arrow (266) 



Mang Ntzi (a big courageous man) came 

 behind the mountain. He carried on his back 

 a crossbow made of bamboo. Hmong Ba 

 came onto the ridge. He carried on his back 

 a bamboo bow. 



Mang Ntzi carefully strung his crossbow 

 and then set it on the old tiger's path. They 

 both set their weapons well, and returned and 

 rested well. They slept until next morning, 



then went to see whether die tigers had come 

 or not. 



At midnight the tigers had come and had 

 run into their bow and their crossbow, and 

 the poisoned arrow had pierced the old tiger's 

 liver. The brass arrow had pierced the heart 

 of the striped tiger, and the striped tiger could 

 not walk, but fell into a dry ditch. 



When the two men saw tliis they were very 

 happy (happy and then again happy). They 

 saw that the old tiger was as stiff as fire- 

 wood. Then they pulled up their sleeves and 

 skinned the old tiger and also the striped 

 tiger. They took the meat of the tigers to eat. 



When the tigers' meat had been eaten, they 

 took the skins and bones to sell. They first 

 tried to sell them to Chinese from below, 

 but the Chinese would not buy them. Then 

 they carried them to the emperor's capital. 

 They saw that the capital of the emperor was 

 bright like gold. 



The great officials of the emperor came to 

 buy the skins to wear when they were in the 

 emperor's throneroom and in the emperor's 

 palace. The two men received silver and 

 gold and brought it home. All the people in 

 their families were very glad. 



So, yah. After this our children and grand- 

 children will all want to learn to place bows 

 and crossbows on the mountains and hunt 

 game and capture tigers so as to get gold and 

 silver.^^ 



V. SHORT STORIES 

 HUNTING A LARGE ANIMAL 



A Large Animal (530) 



Roaming all over the world inspires one's 

 heart. I go to the road of a Chinese woman. 

 Speaking of the earth, I have traveled all over 

 the sky. I went to the home of the Chinese 

 man. 



At that time the Chinese family had no 

 sons. Then the Chinese woman led the Chi- 

 nese man away. The two of them again went 

 and traveled all over the world. Then the 

 Chinese woman gave birth to a son. The 

 name of the son was Tsu Je Ntseo Ni. 



On another night another son was born to 

 them. The name of this son was Je Tsu Sua. 



s^ An early custom that still prevails in some 

 parts of West China is that of securing farm- 

 land by first cutting dov/n the forests and then 

 burning up the wood after it has become dry. 

 This gives rich land to farm for the first few years 

 but is very destructive to the forests. 



^^ In the Ch'uan Miao region there are now 

 many leopards but very few tigers. 



These sons gradually grew up. When they 

 had grown up, one day they saw a big animal. 

 The name of the big animal was To Tan (or 

 do dan).*^ They followed behind after it 

 and found 13 of its footprints. They again 

 followed after it and found that it had passed 

 twelve cliffs. Then the To Tan went up onto 

 the cliff. The two of them went through a 

 big forest. The forest was very wide, so tliey 

 came back for the night. 



Next morning, at daylight, they seized a 

 little cold food to eat, and when they were 

 through eating they fed their hunting dogs. 

 When the dogs had eaten their fill, they 

 turned the dogs loose in the deep forest to 

 chase the aniinal. When they bit it and 

 barked, they frightened the big animal so that 

 it came leaping out. The roar of the wild 



87 The Miao do not know what kind of an ani- 

 mal this was, and believe that it was larger than 

 an elephant. The initial letter of both words is 

 a dental t. 



