NO. I 



CH UAN MIAO SONGS AND STORIES — GRAHAM 



141 



been here?" The son replied, "I have not been 

 here." The father then said to the boy, "My 

 son, now we can begin to set traps." The 

 son said, "Yes." The father said, "I will set 

 traps from here up to that iiiOuntaintop and 

 then I will call you. You set traps up to that 

 mountaintop and call me." After saying these 

 things they separated and each went to set 

 traps. 



When it was nearly dark the son reached 

 the mountaintop and saw that it would soon 

 be dark. He became afraid and called to his 

 father, "Father, father," but the father did not 

 reply to him. "Papa, papa," but still diere was 

 no reply. Then he felt his way into a cave and 

 hid and began to cry. 



He cried half the night and then became 

 tired of crying and slept. At daybreak he 

 again began to cry and said, "The horizon is 

 red (from the rising sun) . My mother's heart 

 is evil. The horizon is red. My father's heart 

 is evil. They actually brought me here for the 

 wolves to eat." 



He cried like tliis all morning, and he re- 

 turned to the cave and cried some more. In 

 the evening when it was becoming dark and 

 the birds were returning to their nests to sleep, 

 he heard a tiger and a leopard roaring. He 

 still sat in the cave hiding and crying. He 

 wept and cried, "Heaven, heaven, save me, 

 a poor boy who is about to die." He called 

 thus a long time until it was very dark. Sud- 

 denly he saw a girl who said, "Open the door, 

 open the door." He then ceased weeping and 

 became angry and said, "At this late watch, 

 at midnight, I wonder whether you are a 

 person or a demon. I won't open the door 

 for you." (He had rolled a rock up to serve 

 as a door at the mouth of the cave.) The girl 

 answered, "I am the one you called to be 

 with you (when he called heaven). I am 

 Tsi Ma Niang Tsai,^*^ who came to save you. 

 Don't be afraid." 



When he heard these words, he opened the 

 door, and later he went to sleep. He slept 

 until daylight when the girl got up and pre- 

 pared a fire. But the boy still slept. He 

 waited until late in the morning when he 

 arose and looked. He saw the beautiful 

 woman standing beside him. He did not dare 

 ask her anything, but leaped toward the door 

 saying, "Heaven, you will kill me. Why am 

 I living with somebody's daughter? This is 

 wrong, this is wrong. I am fated to die, I am 

 fated to die." 



When he had said this, the young woman 



89 ts9 ma- paO tsai, said to be a girl who lives 

 above the clear sky. 



seized him. She said to him, "Why have you 

 so little courage? The aged one in heaven 

 (ITo- je) sent me to be your wife." When 

 he heard this he thought, "A person that is 

 born in this world will finally die. If this 

 young woman does not come, who will come 

 to be a companion to me?" So he did not 

 leave, but sat there awhile with the girl. 



The girl then said to him, "You go and 

 bring water and we will cook breakfast." The 

 boy said, "Since I live here all alone, where 

 will we get rice?" The girl said, "I myself 

 have some." The boy then took a small tea- 

 pot and went to bring some water. The 

 woman then took a grain of rice out of her 

 vest (short undercoat) and put it in the vessel 

 and boiled it. In a short time the rice grew 

 until it was a potful of rice. The girl then 

 shook the garment and shook out a small 

 slice of meat, and put it on top of the vessel 

 and boiled it. The two did this every day. 



One night the woman said to him, "To- 

 night you can sleep well. Do not lift up your 

 head and look. My father and older brothers 

 will come and build a house for us to live in." 

 That night there was thunder and the wind 

 blew very hard, and there was a heavy rain. 

 At midnight the rain ceased and they saw a 

 star very high in the sky shining down, and 

 from the sky it came down, and the boy 

 heard the sound of many axes (or hatchets) 

 and saws. He then lifted up the garment 

 from his face and looked. Suddenly a piece 

 of wood flew and hit his eye and he wept out 

 loud. The woman then took her skirt, wet 

 it with saliva, and rubbed his eye a little, and 

 told him to cover his face with his skirt and 

 sleep nicely and not look. He then did not 

 dare to look any more. 



Next morning he got up and looked. When 

 he saw the house that had been built, he ran 

 away. He said, "We are living in some other 

 people's house. Let's go, let's go, lest they 

 come and chase us." The woman said, "Why 

 are you afraid? Didn't I tell you about it 

 yesterday?" Then he knew his wife had built 

 this house for him. Before long they became 

 rich. 



Daily he could not bear to leave his wife. 

 He would not do a bit of work. So his wife 

 said, "This is not right. A person after all 

 must be industrious." He then said to his 

 wife, "I am unwilling to leave you." The 

 wife then said, "Are you unwilling to leave 

 me? Then I will paint my picture for you." 

 Then his wife painted her picture for him and 

 let him take it with him and hang it up in 

 the field where he was working, so that all 

 day he could see her. He took this picture 



