NO. I 



CH UAN MIAO SONGS AND STORIES — GRAHAM 



129 



farmer. I do not know about farming meth- 

 ods. I only took the sprouts and put them 

 down lighdy, and do not know why they 

 have grown so well." Then she said laugh- 

 ingly to her husband, "I suspect that the 

 reason they are so good is that the sprouts 

 took great pity on me. I do not know any 

 other method." 



Next year that family dug the ground up 

 fine (and planted) according to the woman's 

 method, and their grain was better than other 

 people's. Other people asked them, and they 

 told the way the woman had done it. Then 

 other people used the same method, and their 

 grain was also very good. Afterward they 

 propagated the method, generation after gen- 

 eration, up until the present. Therefore we 

 say, "If lazy people do not work diligently, 

 aged Heaven pities them." And we have 

 left this song to commemorate it so that our 

 descendants will know about it. 



Seeding Sacred BooI(S, or Why the Miao Beat 

 the Cowskjn Drum during Memorial 

 Ceremonies (299) 



In ancient times there was a Miao who with 

 a Chinese went to the Living Buddha to get 

 sacred books. The Living Buddha gave each 

 of them one book. The two came to the bank 

 of the river. Because the weather was very 

 hot, the two men went to bathe in the river. 

 The Miao man's sacred book was eaten by a 

 western cow (a fabulous cow or buffalo) . The 

 Chinese man's sacred book was partly eaten 

 by a fish.^^ 



Then the two men went back and asked 

 the Living Buddha about it. The Living 

 Buddha said, "I have already given them 

 to you. The Miao's sacred book was eaten 

 by a western cow. You may kill a cow and 

 take off her skin and make a drum to wor- 

 ship your gods." Then he said to the Chi- 

 nese, "You go and find a wooden fish and 

 beat it, k'o, k'o, k'o, and use that to worship 

 your gods." 



When the Miao heard this, he went back 

 home and skinned a cow and used the skin 

 to make a big drum. When anybody uses it, 

 the big drum must be hung up and the liu 

 sheng must be blown (played) in worshiping 

 the gods. 



Today the Miao people perform in this way, 

 and this song has been composed to commem- 

 rate or explain it. 



^1 The legend of a lost book is found among 

 the Ch'iang in western Szechwan and among 

 several ti"ibes in Burma. 



Spiders Taught People to Weave Cloth (334) 



In ancient times we wore three leaves and 

 animal skins. 



One day Na Bo Ntsang Rong (woman 

 middle old forest) went to pick tree leaves to 

 wear and fruit to eat. She took her daughter 

 with her to help. They found a tree on which 

 was a great deal of fruit. They, mother and 

 daughter, kept watch over the fruit-bearing 

 tree several days. 



One day they finished eating the fruit on 

 that tree. Next morning a spider wove a big 

 web on the tree. The flying insects came and 

 bumped into it. Then the spider came and 

 entwined the insects in its web and ate them. 

 The girl went and broke the net of the spider. 



In the evening the spider again came and 

 wove the web, and next morning that web 

 was again finished. Then the mother said to 

 her daughter, "See, we cannot equal the 

 spider. When we have eaten the fruit up, we 

 are helpless. When we have worn our cloth- 

 ing through, we are also helpless. See, he 

 can weave nets and catch flying insects and 

 is able to bring silk and weave a net. My 

 daughter, now the weather is cold. We had 

 better quickly go and gather grass (with 

 the bare hands, since they had no sickles) 

 and learn from the spider how to weave nets 

 to wear and to make things with." 



Her daughter was very open to suggestion, 

 and went and pulled grass and brought it 

 and tied it together. Each of them wove a 

 grass garment and put it on. They also went 

 and picked (pulled) vines and tied them 

 together into a net to use to capture wild 

 animals and birds on the mountains. 



They taught others to do this way, and after 

 many days they made up this song to pass 

 on to their descendants. 



The First Flics (391) 



In most ancient times there was a lazy 

 woman who was unwilling to work. Her 

 husband had to get food ready for her to eat. 

 She was good looking, so her husband loved 

 her. 



One year, because the weather was un- 

 favorable, there was no grain crop. The hus- 

 band went out on a high mountain and dug 

 up roots to eat. 



To their surprise, one day when he went 

 out the Lolos bound him and took him away. 

 After more than a month he broke loose and 

 came back home. His wife had starved to 

 death beside the stove. Because his house was 

 poor, when it rained she was covered with 

 water. There were maggots on her. 



