NO. I 



CH UAN MIAO SONGS AND STORIES — GRAHAM 



131 



dare to take you. Now I have a daughter in 

 my home. I will bring her and I request you 

 to teach her to embroider." She said, "You 

 are my landlord. I do not dare refuse. I will 

 teach her." Then the Chinese went back 

 home and brought his own daughter to learn 

 how to make embroideries. During the night 

 the wife of the Miao released a small colored 

 insect. When the daughter of the Chinese 

 saw it, she realized that it was very pretty. 

 Then as she looked at it she fell asleep. 



That night the Miao woman embroidered 

 a living pearl (precious) and a pair of flying 

 hawks and a living dragon. At daylight she 

 picked up the living insect. Then the Chi- 

 nese girl awoke. When she awoke, she saw 

 an embroidery that was alive. She thought 

 that this could never have been embroidered. 

 Actually she could not embroider, and at 

 night she fell asleep. From this time sleep 

 had entered the world, and to this day young 

 girls like to sleep a great deal. This sleep is 

 shut-the-door sleep. (It comes at night when 

 the doors of the house are shut.) 



W/iy People Have to Wor\, or A Lazy Woman 

 Caused Calamities (398) 



In ancient times, when the sky and the 

 earth had been completed, the races of men 

 were numerous. At that time people could 

 get food without planting and could have 

 clothing without weaving. 



One day there was a man and his wife who 

 went into Ntzi's house. They saw that Ntz'i's 

 flowers and fruits were numerous and beauti- 

 ful. Then they got some seeds from Ntzi" 

 and brought them back home. Ntz'i said to 

 them, 'Tou take these back home. You must 

 first plant the flower and the fruit seeds well. 

 Step three steps before planting one plant 

 (hole)." Actually that woman, when she 

 had reached home, took the flower and fruit 

 seeds and dumped them all down onto the 

 ground. 



After a few days those seeds grew and the 

 plants covered the ground all over, but the 

 flowers could not bloom or the trees bear 

 fruit. When the man and his wife saw this, 

 they wanted to go to the sky and ask Ntzi but 

 had no way of going. So every year they had 

 to hoe the plants twice before the seeds could 

 ripen. They had to hoe in this way year after 

 year. If they did not, there would not be 

 any good fruit. These flowers and fruits have 

 been passed on down to the present. Because 

 of these things men must suffer always, and 

 we all hate those two people. 



The Origin of the Custom of Prohibiting 

 Miao Wives from Going Upstairs (421) 



Formerly one's ancestors could not go to 

 distant places to find food. They constantly 

 lived in the place where the opposite roof 

 beams come together. Moreover, they would 

 protect their descendants so that when they 

 farmed they would have food, else the de- 

 scendants could not conduct the ts'ao chien 

 ceremony so that the deceased ancestors could 

 go to Ntzi's land (heaven). Therefore they 

 did not want women to go upstairs, because 

 there are times when the bodies of the women 

 are unclean, and they feared that they would 

 defile the souls of the ancestors. If a woman 

 secretly went upstairs, then a child which she 

 bore afterward would be stupid, or she might 

 see some Strang things upstairs. 



Formerly there was a family into which a 

 bride had just come. Her mother said to 

 her, "You must not go upstairs." So the 

 daughter-in-law did not dare to go upstairs. 



It was very easy for the daughter-in-law to 

 climb upstairs. When she got upstairs, from 

 the juncture of the beams above a big old 

 snake came down and wound itself around 

 her. But the snake only squeezed her and 

 did not bite her. She was so frightened that 

 she could not speak. At night her mother-in- 

 law and her husband returned and could not 

 find her. Later they climbed upstairs and 

 saw her, bound, upstairs. Then the mother- 

 in-law promised a cow to the ancestors, and 

 immediately that snake was not to be seen. 

 From that generation to this, this custom has 

 continued to be observed. 



Why People Shoot off Guns and Cannons 

 When It Is about to Rain (459) 



In ancient times there was a Miao man who 

 shouldered his gun and went hunting. One 

 night he dreamed that a man came who had 

 a rooster's head and whose hair was gray and 

 said to him, "Tomorrow you must certainly 

 help me." Then the old man went away. 



On the second day he arose, but he did not 

 know what omen this was. That day as 

 usual he carried a gun on his shoulder and 

 went into the forest on the side of the cliff 

 to look for wild animals. He went to the 

 edge of a cave in a great cliff. Suddenly the 

 sky and the earth became black. It thundered 

 and lightened. Then he looked carefully and 

 saw that in the cave a group of large and 

 small warty toads had come forth. In a 

 moment he saw that the toads were spitting 

 vapor out of their mouths. Then he under- 



