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SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS 



VOL. 123 



that can protect the nation." Later the em- 

 peror came and took this precious thing. 



This precious thing did not use spears and 

 arrows, but only ate sulfur and powder. One 

 day when the robbers arrived they saw a 

 warty toad go out to fight them. They there- 

 fore did not pay any attention to it. Then 

 the warty toad opened his mouth widely and 

 blew out some smoke and burnt the whole 

 mountain and destroyed the robbers. The 

 people named the warty toad Lai Ge Bao *^ 

 because he was able to do away with all 

 precious things. 



A Warty Toad Obtained a Good Wife, Be- 

 came Human, and Became Emperor (605) 



In most ancient times there was a yinyang 

 professor who lived with his wife. He noticed 

 that his wife was pregnant. 



He then went away to look at the ground 

 (find a lucky place for a grave) for a family. 

 His wife at home bore a son, and his son's 

 ears were as big as those of a cow's. She took 

 this son and beat him to death. 



Later her husband came back and could not 

 find this son. So he asked his wife, "Where 

 is the son you bore?" She replied, "The son 

 I gave birth to had ears as big as a cow's ears, 

 so I beat him to death." Then her husband 

 scolded her hard for a while. Her husband 

 said, "In the future, no matter what queer 

 thing you give birth to, you must not kill 

 him." 



After her husband had gone away, she gave 

 birth to a warty toad. She disregarded what 

 it was and fed it. 



Later, on the woman's father's birthday, the 

 toad heard that his mother was going to 

 give a birthday present. His mother was 

 afraid to have him go along with her, and 

 told him to go and look after the cows. His 

 mother then arranged things nicely and de- 

 parted. 



When she had just started, the warty toad 

 came following. His mother said, "You 

 mustn't go. I am afraid that your girl cous- 

 ins will laugh at you." He replied, "Never 

 fear." Then he followed to the home of his 

 grandfather, and stayed there several days. 



When they came back, the girl cousins 

 escorted them halfway home. The warty 

 toad asked, "Who are escorting us?" His 

 mother replied, "They are your cousins." He 

 said, "If they are my cousins, I want one of 



45 The Ch'uan Miao word for immortal is 

 nAn' tJ'a•^ That for warty toad is na** gai*. The 

 "precious things" in the last sentence means 

 swords, spears, bows, and arrows. 



them to be my wife." His mother said, "Your 

 form is exceedingly dirty. I fear that your 

 cousins will scold you." He replied, "I am 

 not afraid." 



Then the toad ran and said to his grand- 

 father that he wanted a cousin to be his wife. 

 His grandfather said, "You can speak about 

 it to your uncle, for she is his daughter." 



He went and spoke to his uncle, and his 

 uncle could not easily refuse, so he thought 

 about a plan to kill him. 



One day his uncle went to gather wood and 

 told him to come along and cut wood. The 

 wood was on the cliff. When the dry tree 

 was about to fall, the uncle told the toad to 

 go and carry it. When the tree broke ofF, it 

 pushed the toad down over the cliff. They 

 thought he was dead, and came back home. 



At night the toad came home carrying that 

 wood. He said, "Now I should have my 

 cousin for a wife." His uncle said, "We have 

 a big stone jar. If you can carry it back, then 

 we will give the cousin to you for a wife." 

 He said, "You take me there so I can carry 

 it." Then he put the big jar on his head 

 and carried it back. 



The toad then said, "Now I want my cousin 

 for a wife." His uncle replied, "Over there 

 we have several dry ricefields on a great hill. 

 For tens of days there has been no water in 

 them. You go and help us so that they will 

 have water, and we will give your cousin to 

 you for a wife." 



After they had finished speaking, the warty 

 toad went to bring water onto the fields. In 

 the afternoon his cousins carried food for 

 him to eat, but could not see him working 

 there. They saw only many hoes working in 

 the fields. When the cousins looked at him, 

 he ran up a tree to amuse himself. Then they 

 brought the food back home. 



In a short time the warty toad returned. 

 He said to his grandfather, "You go quickly 

 and look after the banks of your rice paddies 

 lest they be broken down by the rising water." 

 Then the grandfather said, "All my folks were 

 not able to bring water. Were you able to 

 go and get the water to come?" His cousins 

 on one side came up and said, "When we 

 took dinner to him, we saw many hoes work- 

 ing in the ricefields, and the water has filled 

 the rice paddies." His grandfather ran and 

 looked, and actually the fields were full of 

 water. 



The warty toad said, "Now I want my 

 cousin." His grandfather said, "Now you can 

 give this cousin to him, and also give a horse 

 to his cousin to ride. Give a stone pesde to 

 the girl." She said to the warty toad, "When 



