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SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS 



VOL. 123 



two said, "You were living in the Lolo coun- 

 try. How could you have lived here?" 



Then the woman said, "At that time, when 

 I lived here, because the times were bad 

 there were no crops, and so I carried my 

 Ntseo Go and Ntseo Gan down here to dig 

 roots and was carried away by brigands to 

 the Lolo country." She again said, "Are my 

 two sons still living?" Then they answered, 

 "Our home is not far from here. At that time 

 our mother was carried away by brigands. 

 You talk as if you were our mother." 



Then she said, "How long ago was your 

 mother taken away by brigands?" They said, 

 "It is now 16 years." She again said, "Is your 

 father still alive?" They said, "Our father, 

 our mother told us, had died seven months 

 before we were born. We certainly have no 

 father." Then she asked, "What are your 

 names?" They said, "The older is Ntseo Go 

 and die younger is named Ntseo Gan." She 

 then said, 'Tou are truly my sons." Then 

 the mother and the two sons wept loudly. 



Then the two sons said, "We did not know 

 that we bought our mother with our silver 

 and brought her back." They said, "You are 

 our mother. Why did you not say so earlier?" 

 Their mother said, 'Tou two have grown up. 

 I could not recognize you. I could only 

 wonder what you two were buying me for." 



Then the two sons put their mother on a 

 horse and they led her to their home. They 

 both said at the same time, "Now we have 

 our mother. Let us again go and hire some 

 one to care for our mother." 



The song is ended. 



There Is a Land of Pygmies (JLiliputians) 

 under the Earth (240) 



In ancient times there was a man. He 

 meditated daily. He said, "The sky is very 

 high. At one look a person cannot see all 

 the earth. Under the world there are prob- 

 ably other people living. I can go in through 

 an empty cave." So he alone went into a 

 dark cave near his home. 



Before he had gone very far, he saw a 

 bright light. There was another sky and an- 

 other earth, and the people there were very 

 small. Their houses were all made of reeds, 

 and were only a little over a foot high. The 

 food of 100 of them was not enough for him 

 alone, and therefore it would be impossible 

 for him to live there. The talk of these people 

 was only as loud as a little chick's peeping. 

 There were many of these litde people. When 

 they were all together, ordinary people might 

 well be afraid of them. 



The man finally came back home and said, 

 "The people under the earth are very short, 

 but there are more of them than there are 

 people on earth." 



When his friends heard this they went with 

 him to find them. They hunted for several 

 days but did not find them. He left this song 

 to commemorate the people under the earth. 



A Case of Adultery (250) 



Formerly there was a man who committed 

 adultery with a woman. The man and the 

 woman were lovers. 



That day the woman had said to him, "To- 

 night my husband will not be at home. Come 

 and we two shall enjoy happy conversation 

 together." He asked, "How had I better 

 come?" She said, "You make a hole in the 

 roof of my house and come through it. But 

 when you come, you count 12 bamboo trees 

 and at the twelfth you come down to the 

 roof." 



That night he went and made a hole in the 

 roof of the house. Then he went in. As the 

 woman had told him to do, he counted die 

 12 bamboo trees and then let go and leaped 

 down onto the roof. He fell into a privy hole. 

 The old folks in the house said, "Probably 

 the pig has fallen into the toilet," and they 

 quickly came with lamps to see. Then the 

 would-be committer of adultery climbed out 

 and ran away. After that the woman was no 

 longer friendly to him. 



There is a saying that harlots have no 

 conscience, and young men should not go and 

 have dealings with them. 



An Orphan Who Became Rich (257) 



There was an orphan who had nothing to 

 eat or drink. Every day he hoed in the field. 

 He sighed and said, "Yo, yo, I have nothing 

 to eat or drink. Other people have others 

 with whom to celebrate the New Year. I 

 have not. I have not even a pipeful of tobacco 

 to smoke." Then he took a drink of water. 

 When he was through drinking he again 

 sighed and said, "Other people have folks 

 with whom to celebrate the festivals. I have 

 not. I have nothing to celebrate the New 

 Year with. I will sit down by myself and 

 sing a song." 



1. Ble len dang na nio la Ngeo mao ya 

 ning. 



2. A ni rzuang tsai niao lo i p'ang. 



3. Rzuang ntseo niao lo bi sua. 



4. Bong teo rzuang tsai sliiung lo sang 

 ntsai. 



5. Bong ndeo rzuang ntseo shiong lo tsai 

 niang. 



6. Di ngeo mao ya nL 



