NO. I 



CH UAN MIAO SONGS AND STORIES — GRAHAM 



183 



we go we will go together, and I will carry 

 the stone pesth." 



The husband and his wife and the horse 

 went along together. In a little while his 

 wife on the back of the horse took the stone 

 pestle and struck down at the warty toad with 

 it, but she did not hit the warty toad. 



The warty toad said, "Why did you throw 

 the stone pestle down?" Then the warty 

 toad picked it up and returned it to her. 

 They again proceeded awhile, and the wife 

 again threw the stone pestle at him, but 

 missed him again. At night they arrived 

 home. He had gotten his cousin for a wife. 



After the warty toad came home, he was 

 unwilling to go to work because he was 

 unwilling to leave his wife. His wife then 

 said to him, "I will draw a picture of myself 

 so that when you see my picture it will be 

 as if you saw my face." 



When he was plowing a field he hung her 

 picture on the corner of the field. When 

 he plowed that way he looked at the picture 

 and smiled. When he plowed back this way 

 he again looked at the picture and smiled. 



Later the picture was blown by a great 

 wind to Peking. It was picked up by the 

 emperor. Then the emperor looked at it. He 

 said, "Where is there such a pretty woman in 

 all the world?" The emperor then sent run- 

 ners to go everywhere and investigate. They 

 searched until they reached the place where 



she was, and they stole away the wife to be 

 the wife of the emperor. The warty toad was 

 helpless, but followed along behind after his 

 wife. 



He followed them until they arrived in a 

 big fiat. When the warty toad arrived he 

 turned somersaults. When he had turned over 

 a somersault, he turned into a young man. 

 When he turned a somersault back again, he 

 turned again into a warty toad. When the 

 attendants of the emperor saw it, they told 

 the emperor. The emperor came out and 

 looked, and the wife said to the emperor, 

 "If you will put on the clothing of the warty 

 toad, I will believe you more." Then the 

 emperor took off his clothing and gave it 

 to the warty toad, and the warty toad took 

 off his skin and gave it to the emperor. The 

 emperor put on that skin and the emperor 

 turned over one somersault, and that skin 

 stuck to him. When he turned a somersault 

 back again, he could not take off that skin. 

 Then the emperor turned several somersaults 

 in succession, and his whole body changed 

 into a warty toad. 



Then the woman said, "This is a wild ani- 

 mal. Quickly kill him." The attendants then 

 speared him to death. The warty toad went 

 and sat on the throne of the emperor, and 

 the husband and his wife lived together all 

 their lives until they became old, and they 

 ruled over the people. 



DUMB CREATURES THAT SHOW GRATITUDE 



An Official with a Good Conscience, or an 

 Ant Requites Kindness (43) 



There was a man who went to take the 

 government examinations. While he was 

 walking he saw a pair of ants that had fallen 

 into a creek. He picked up a strip of bamboo 

 and made a bridge for them to walk to 

 shore on. 



Later he went and took the examinations. 

 When he went to pass in his examination 

 paper the examiner saw that one of the char- 

 acters on his paper had one stroke wrong and 

 an ant was correcting it for him. The ex- 

 aminer then asked him, "What odd thing 

 have you done to make anything take such 

 an interest? Quickly report to me so that the 

 examiner may pardon you." He answered, 

 "I have committed no sin and have had no 

 affairs except that a few days ago, when I 

 came to the examinations, on the road half- 

 way from here I saved a group of ants." The 

 examiner then understood and said, "In this 

 examination your good conscience saved you 

 from your mistake. Because you treated an 



insect mercifully, I will give you first place 

 in the matter of a good conscience." *^ 



A Tiger Recompensed Kindness (263) 



In most ancient times we Miao lived in the 

 deep forests. One night a tiger came into a 

 cave where we were living. At that time the 

 weather was cold, and we had built a fire to 

 warm ourselves by. The tiger came and 

 warmed himself by the fire. When he had 

 warmed himself a long time, we gave him 

 one of our small children (so he would not 

 eat a grown-up). The tiger was very man- 

 nerly. He received the child in his arms. For 

 a short time we were afraid of the tiger and 

 then handed him two other children. But 

 the tiger did not eat them. 



After a time the tiger stretched one paw 

 before my bed, and I was not afraid of him 

 but took courage and took hold of his paw 

 and stroked it. Suddenly I touched a bamboo 



4^ This is probably a Chinese story learned from 

 the Chinese by the Ch'uan Miao. 



