144 



SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS 



VOL. 



123 



Next morning the old man had a painful 

 illness and could not get up. He took an egg 

 and requested the tuan kimg to look at it. 

 The tuan \ung saw that the idols were 

 angry with him and intended to harm him. 

 He told the man to quickly perform the 

 proper ceremonies to the idols, and then he 

 would recover. 



He then requested the tuan ktmg to per- 

 form the ceremonies for him, and he recov- 

 ered. He therefore composed this song to 

 teach people that it is all right to beat up 

 Chinese idols, but not to protect them. 



Silver That Was Five Li Away (698) 



There is a marvelous affair that has come 

 down about O Chih of ancient times. He 

 made a small image and wrote one sentence 

 saying, "Five li from here there is silver." 



At the time that he made it, there were not 

 many people living in that place. Because he 

 did this, many people moved to his locality 

 to live, for people everywhere heard about 

 what he had done, and dreamed of coming 

 and finding silver. Moreover, they dug over 

 that entire hill, so that he got a big piece of 

 land to farm. 



Later he used silver and made a large 

 image. On the one hand he could in this way 

 entice other people to dig up the soil for him, 

 and on the other hand he could worship the 

 image (as an idol). 



There was a poor Miao who went to cut 

 grass, and he walked in front of that big 

 image and said, "Great image, you are able to 

 help O Chih get rich, and O Chih himself 

 worships you." He also said, "Five // from 

 you there is silver, but I, this Miao, do not 

 have much time to go and dig up the ground 

 and look for the silver. Today I invite you to 

 eat my sickle for cutting grass. You must 

 quickly help me find silver. Otherwise I will 

 take you and throw you away." 



After he had said this, he hacked at the 

 body of the image with his sickle. When he 



struck the image, the body of the image 

 turned out to be real silver, and the Miao 

 used his basket for carrying grass and carried 

 the big image home. With his sickle he 

 gradually cut it up. 



He cut a great deal of silver from that big 

 image, and exchanged the silver for much 

 silver money and food. After that other 

 people saw that the great image was gone, 

 and O Chih said, "Because he helped me get 

 rich, he has gone back to heaven." There- 

 after nobody would come to that place and 

 dig up the ground. 



The Miao people saw that this great image 

 had been chopped up by a person, but could 

 not help himself, so the Miao do not like to 

 worship idols, and made up this song to com- 

 memorate it. 



The Miao Do Not Dare to Worship Chinese 

 Gods (545) 



Once there was a group of Miao in a forti- 

 fied place. They lived on a mountain. That 

 year, in the winter, a heavy snow fell. The 

 boys in the fortified place went for a walk. 

 They took the white snow and made a big 

 snowman. 



An old man in the fortified place came 

 out and saw it. He said, "This snowman is 

 truly like a Chinese god (idol). If he is able 

 to protect us in this fortified place so diat 

 we are not harmed by the Chinese, some day 

 all of us in this stronghold will kill a pig 

 and worship him." 



Not long afterward the weather was clear, 

 and the snowman was melted by the sun- 

 shine. But all the people in the fortified place 

 became sick with a fever. Then they all said, 

 "Chinese idols ^ we must not worship. It is 

 like this snowman to whom our man spoke 

 a few words of reverence, and then he made 

 all of us in this stronghold ill." Therefore 

 the old man made up this song saying, "My 

 descendants, you must not wantonly worship 

 Chinese idols, lest they come and harm us." 



TABOOS 



A Woman Cut off a Cow's Tongue (543) 



Formerly there was a Miao woman. Her 

 name was Bo Ts'eo. At that time she bor- 

 rowed a cow from Gai Glo to feed (raise). 

 She fed it a long time. 



^ Many of the simple, uneducated people in 

 West China regard an image of any kind as a 

 real, living thing. It was therefore natural that 

 these people should regard the image as alive. 

 The Ch'uan Miao name for a Chinese idol is 



One day she led the cow out on a hill. The 

 cow ate another person's corn and young rice 

 plants. Then Bo Ts'eo pushed down and cut 

 off the cow's tongue with her sickle. Other 

 people did not know about this. They only 

 saw that the cow was unable to eat grass. 



glang miao. Glang means demon, miao means 

 eyes winking. When a Ch'uan Miao sees an idol, 

 it looks as if the idol winks, and it is regarded 

 as a winking demon. 



