NO. I 



CH UAN MIAO SONGS AND STORIES — GRAHAM 



171 



When he saw the snake he took the stifE 

 bow in his hand and bent it and placed a 

 poison arrow in position. Wlien the snake 

 came out he shot it. Then the snake crawled 

 out and twisted around. Then there was 

 another flash of thunder, and this time the 

 snake could not think of running away any 

 place. 



After a while, when the cloud disappeared, 

 he awoke and lifted his head and looked. He 

 was more than 10 li away from the cliff. 

 Then he ran to the foot of the cliff and 

 looked. He saw the great snake had been cut 

 into nine pieces. The soil on the ground had 

 been colored red by (the blood of) the snake. 

 Then he saw that his poison arrow had hit 

 the snake's belly, and knew that he had 

 helped the thunder, and knew that the thun- 

 der had saved him (by lifting him away out 

 of danger). Then he made up this song to 

 commemorate the event. 



A Miao When Drun\ Frightened a Tiger 

 until it Fell Down a Cliff (462) 



Formerly Bang Gai, when he was young, 

 would drink wine when he went into the 

 village. When he was drunk he would speak 

 and chant in a disorderly way. He con- 

 stantly carried a large liu sheng, and on his 

 fingers he wore several rings made of copper. 

 On his waist he hung a gourd to put wine in. 



One day he went into the village. He drank 

 some wine, and it was dark when he started 

 away from the town. When he had gone 

 halfway, by the side of the road was a great 

 cliff. He slept alone there until midnight, 

 and a big tiger went past the place. When 

 he saw the man sleeping there, the tiger smelt 

 him with his nose. Then the man gave a 

 kick with his foot and shouted loudly, and the 

 tiger was frightened and leaped backward and 

 fell down the cliff below. 



He did not go down and look until morn- 

 ing. Then he saw that the tiger had been 

 killed by the fall. Then he went home and 

 called the people in his home to help him 

 skin the tiger and sell the skin. Then he 

 boasted that his soul was truly great, because 

 he was able to frighten the tiger until it fell 

 down the cliff. 



A Story of Two Old People (506) 



Formerly there were two old people who 

 had no sons. In their ditch behind die house 

 they had a god which they constantly wor- 

 shiped, burning incense. 



One night the god revealed himself to them 

 in a dream and said, "Tomorrow you shut 

 up your small chickens. I will go through 

 your house." 



Next morning the two old people got up 

 and looked. They did not see anything ex- 

 cept a small angleworm which went out of 

 their house. Just as it got out of their door 

 it grew large and changed the dry ground in 

 front of their door into a rice field. The two 

 old people had enough to eat all their lives 

 from this rice field, and this god changed 

 into a dragon. 



The Calendar (the Yellow BoolO (553) 



What Miao are good Miao? The people who 

 live here are good Miao. What weather is 

 good weather? The first month of the lunar 

 year is good weather. Who has seven sons? It 

 is Lo Ni (a person who moves quickly) who 

 has seven sons. He said, "When the weather 

 is good, the snow is everywhere." He said 

 that he could fell all the trees in the world. 

 He told his fifth son Vu No to go and in- 

 form people about the early spring. This son 

 traveled over the flats, villages, cities, big 

 mountains, and big peaks and returned to his 

 home. Lo Ni said, "Who do you say can 

 carve out books? ^^ Lo Ni (I myself) can 

 carve out books. I divided four sheets to the 

 four corners. I also divided four sheets to the 

 four directions. One sheet was spoilt and flew 

 into the city of the Chinese. The Chinese 

 looked at it and meditated. He could not 

 understand it, and he then sent it to the 

 emperor. The emperor took it and made it 

 into a sheet of paper as thick as your finger- 

 nail. Then the emperor called this his yellow 

 book. This was the calendar.^* 



A Thousand Piculs of Rice Was Necessary 

 to Get Silver (697) 



In ancient times a member of the O Chih 

 clan had a great deal of silver money. He 

 therefore did as follows to amuse himself. 

 He used a kitchen jug and put in it a jugful 

 of silver and placed it in the middle of a cliff. 

 On top of it he wrote several big characters 

 saying, "A thousand piculs of silver are neces- 

 sary before you can hit this jug of white sil- 

 ver." That silver was suspended there several 

 decades, and there was nobody who had 1,000 

 piculs of white rice and so was willing to go 

 and strike the jar. 



One day there was a Miao who by chance 

 went to cut grass. He used his carrying stick 

 for carrying grass on his back and punched it 



23 In early times words were often carved on 

 wood or bamboo. This might refer to the early 

 bamboo books, or books carved on wood. The 

 Miao words are nTeo nTai, strike books. 



^^ In China the official calendar showing lucky 

 and unlucky days is called the yellow book. 



