i6o 



SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS 



VOL. 



123 



The Sufferings of a Girl Who Was Married 

 into a Family on a High Mountain (301) 



In ancient times there was a Miao family. 

 They married their youngest daughter Nts'ai 

 Ntsai (girl youngest) into a family on a high 

 mountain. There the crops could not ripen. 

 In the fifth or sixth lunar months there was 

 still snow. She could not live there, and 

 secretly returned to her mother's home. 

 When she arrived at the bank of the river, 

 she saw that the water had arisen and was 

 dashing against the rocks. She also saw that 

 the brigands had come upon the big road in 

 a band. She wanted to cross the river but 

 could not. She thought of going back but 

 the robbers blocked the way. The brigands 

 carried small ropes in their hands, and the 

 thieves carried hemp cords. She called her 

 mother {ma), but her mother did not reply. 

 She called her father, but he did not reply. 



At that time from a deep forest on the cliff 

 a striped tiger leaped out. The woman said, 

 "Tiger, ah, come and eat me so that the rob- 

 bers cannot come and bind me, and the 

 thieves defile me. I might as well close my 

 eyes and let you come and eat me." 



The tiger leaped down from the forest. He 

 bowed his head and meowed saying, "My 

 daughter, do not fear me. I am the father 

 who gave birth to you. I will not bite you." 

 The daughter said, "If you are my father, 

 what evidence have you.?" The tiger said, 

 "Before, when I died, I wore on my hand a 

 silver bracelet. I will show it to you." When 

 she had seen it, the tiger said to her, "Today 

 I knew that you would come here. I cer- 

 tainly came to await you." Then the father 

 carried her on his back across the river and 

 she escaped the brigands. She composed this 

 song to commemorate it. 



The song is ended. 



A Wife's Punishment for Killing Her Hus- 

 band (236) 



Ngeo Ntseo La said to her husband, "Let 

 us go up on the high mountain and do our 



farming, Je Tsong. We must go and plant 

 or we shall have nothing to eat." She again 

 said, "Let us go and sow our crop in the 

 upper forest so we can have food to eat." 

 Then Je Tsong went up on the high moun- 

 tain with her to farm. 



They went and lived in the forest. They 

 slept until the third watch of the night. Ma 

 Da raised his hand to kill Je Tsong. Je 

 Tsong's blood flowed like fish blowing bub- 

 bles. It even dyed Ngeo Ntseo La's three 

 thicknesses of clothing and her three pleated 

 skirts. 



Next morning the woman took her clothes 

 and went to the spring at her brother's home. 

 She also took the clothes to the irrigating 

 ditch of her brother to wash them. 



Who came early to look at the water in the 

 irrigating ditch? It was Je Tsong's brother 

 who came early to look at the water in the 

 irrigating ditch. 



You again ask, "Who came to look at the 

 water in the irrigating ditch?" It was Je 

 Tsong's brother who came early to look at 

 the water in the irrigating ditch. 



Je Tsong's brother came and saw three dark 

 spots in the water where she was washing. 

 Then he asked her, "Why are you washing 

 clothes here?" She was unable to say any- 

 thing. But then she tried to say something to 

 deceive him. She told things that were untrue 

 to explain it. She said, "Last night we slept 

 until midnight, and some brigands came up. 

 They stretched out their hands and stabbed. 

 They stabbed until Je Tsong's blood spurted 

 out like bubbles from a fish's mouth, and it 

 discolored my clothing. Then I brought my 

 clothes here to wash them in the ditch." 



Then Je Tsong's brothers came to look at 

 the footprints of the one who stabbed Je 

 Tsong. They were not a robber's footprints. 

 They saw that the footprints were Ma Da's 

 footprints. Then Je Tsong's brothers took the 

 wife and hung her from a beam upstairs. 

 They beat her like a dog or a demon. Then 

 she realized that it was truly hard to escape. 



