NO. I 



CH UAN MIAO SONGS AND STORIES — GRAHAM 



157 



day, when the guests were being feasted, the 

 beggar came and ate with them. 



That day the daughter of the Chang family 

 saw the beggar. She waited until the beggar 

 was through eating and she went and said 

 to the beggar, "Do not go until the guests 

 are all gone. I have something to say to you." 

 After the guests had gone she said to the 

 beggar, "I want to go with you and be a 

 beggar. " The beggar said, "I have nothing. 

 Why do you want to go with me?" The girl 

 said, "Never fear." Then the beggar waited 

 for her there. 



The girl went back and put on her clothes. 

 The mother learned about it and beat her 

 and took off her clothes. The girl was wear- 

 ing only an old garment. She stole an ingot 

 of silver from her mother. Then she went 

 with the beggar, and they lived in a big 

 crevice in the cliff. 



Next day they went and sat down in front 

 of a family's front door, and the beggar fell 

 asleep. Only the woman was awake. 



She saw that there were two old people 

 below the wall. The two old people were 

 white (wore white clothing). Later there 

 came out two people wearing yellow clothing. 

 The two couples came out by turns three 

 times. Then the girl wakened the beggar 

 and said to him, "Let us go and see what 

 there is below the wall." Then they lifted 

 up a stone on the left, and there was a jug full 

 of silver. Then they picked up a stone on the 

 right, and there was a jug full of gold. Then 

 they picked these up and carried them away 

 on their backs. 



The girl said to the beggar, "You may 

 take my silver and exchange it for money, 

 and we will go and buy some clothes to 

 wear." Then they went to the home of a 

 poor family to rest. Then they asked what 

 was the name of the family living over there 

 in the tile-roofed house. The poor family 

 said that was the home of the Li family 

 (Giai in Ch'uan Miao) and inside there were 

 many demons. The beggar asked, "Would 

 they sell it?" The poor people said to him, 

 "They want to sell it." Then they bought 

 that house to live in, and also bought the land 

 it was on. 



The day they bought the place they invited 

 the parents of the girl to come to a feast. 

 But her family did not believe it. The person 

 who went and invited them said, "They first 

 bought the house, and then also bought the 

 land. You had better go." Then her family 

 came and visited there several days. Then 

 the mother said to the daughter, "If I had 

 known that you were to get such great hap- 

 piness, I would not have beaten you." After 



she had said this, the mother and her daugh- 

 ter wept awhile. 



Then the mother went back home, prepared 

 some clothing and skirts for her daughter, 

 and sent them to her. The beggar bought 

 food and wine and feasted the parents, and 

 it was finished. 



A Cloth Merchant Got a Wife Who Was a 

 Tiger (305) 



Once tlaere was a cloth merchant who went 

 to do business. He arrived on the bank of a 

 river and saw a Miao woman sitting near a 

 stone. The merchant went away. 



After he had gone a few days he returned, 

 and that woman was still sitting there. He 

 then enticed her to be his wife. 



There was a theatrical in town, and he 

 thought of taking the woman to see it, but 

 she would not go. Later, after he had urged 

 her some, she went. 



When she was at the theatrical, the woman 

 was very much afraid. She said, "I will stand 

 in the rear." Later the actors said to the 

 merchant who was her husband, "If you do 

 not get rid of your wife, your life will be 

 hard to save. If you do not believe it, 

 tonight you watch her." 



That night he watched her. The woman 

 slept awhile, then got up and combed her 

 hair. She shook her head and took it off and 

 put it on her knees where she held it between 

 her knees. He then saw two big tusks come 

 out. Later the husband asked the actors to 

 kill several black dogs and rub the blood on 

 the house. Later the actors beat the gongs 

 and drums, and the woman called to her 

 husband to save her. Then the husband took 

 a hoe and scraped off the dog blood on the 

 house. Then the woman crawled out and 

 ran up on a big mountain. She then made a 

 date for her husband to meet her, but her 

 husband would not meet her after that, and 

 she went and changed into a tiger.^^ 



!'■ The blood of black dogs is believed by the 

 Ch'uan Miao to have power to control or to 

 exorcise demons. The scraping off of the dog's 

 blood made a hole through which she could 

 escape. Some Ch'uan Miao, when afraid of getting 

 fever, kill and eat a black dog, smear the blood 

 on the door, and take seven wooden knives made 

 of a certain kind of wood, rub the blood of the 

 dog on the knives, and then hang the knives up 

 outside the house. Sometimes they take a nest 

 of big hornets and hang it up on the door or in 

 the bedroom. They believe that when the demon 

 sees the sections he tries to count them, which 

 keeps him busy until daylight when the rooster 

 crows and he is frightened away. Demons are 

 believed to fear daylight and the crow of a 

 rooster. 



