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SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS 



VOL. 123 



splinter that had stuck into his paw. Then 

 I carefully pulled it out of his paw. He 

 warmed himself a little longer and when day- 

 light came he left. Then I knew that he had 

 come to request me to cure him. 



Afterward, when more than a year had 

 passed, I went to the home of my relative to 

 visit. The day I came back I was drunk with 

 wine. I fell down by the road in a forest on 

 the mountain. It was very cold then, and in 

 the forest was snow and ice. 



That night the same tiger came to the spot. 

 When he saw that I was lying down and did 

 not wake up, then the tiger lay down and 

 embraced me. I slept until midnight, and I 

 realized that there was a creature that was 

 warm like a rug that was embracing me. 

 When I moved he growled so as to frighten 

 me, so I did not dare move any more, and I 

 lay there until daylight. Then the tiger leaped 

 away and I came back home. Then I remem- 

 bered that a year before I had taken the 

 splinter out of his paw, and so this year, dur- 

 ing the winter, he came back and protected 

 me. If he had not, if I had frozen to death, 

 I am afraid that some wild animal would 

 have eaten me. 



So I made up this song to commemorate 

 the event. 



A Tiger Requites Kindness (267) 



Once upon a time there was a Miao tuan 

 ktmg who went about everywhere healing dis- 

 eases and driving out demons. One day he 

 went into a deep forest, and suddenly he 

 met a woman who blocked his road and said 

 to him, "Sir, please come and help my hus- 

 band, for his foot has been pierced by a 

 thorn." He said, "Where is your home?" She 

 answered, "Our home it not far from here. 

 If you will not go with me, my husband will 

 come and bite you." He did not dare say 

 much to her but could only go along quietly 

 with her. She led him a long time until they 

 came to a cave in a cliff, and then he saw a 

 big striped tiger lying there who could not lift 

 up one foot. 



The woman said to him, "Please begin to 

 heal him." Then the tuan kjung dropped 

 some spittle on the tiger's foot. He pushed 

 aside the toes and hair of the tiger's foot and 

 looked and saw a pair of scissors that had 

 stuck into the foot. Then he pulled out the 

 scissors and washed the wound with cold 

 water. 



That night, when it was dark, the woman 

 said, "Tonight you may sleep here and go 

 away tomorrow." He saw that the forest was 

 already dark, so he did not dare to go. He 



therefore stayed with them one night, and 

 next morning the woman escorted him down 

 the mountain. The woman said, "Thank you. 

 This year, at New Year's time, we shall come 

 and wish you a happy New Year." 



After the scissors had been removed, the 

 tiger's foot healed. At New Year's time, on 

 the night of the thirteenth, at midnight, the 

 dogs suddenly barked. A woman had come 

 to their door outside. She cried, "Mr. tuan 

 kung, Mr. tuan \ung, thank you. We have 

 a rat here which you use to worship your 

 gods. We are going." 



Next morning the tuan \ung arose and 

 looked. There was a big fat pig outside. 

 Then he knew that the tiger had come to 

 requite him, and he left this song to com- 

 memorate it. 



A Miao Midwife Delivered a Tiger Baby 

 (705)) 



In ancient times when we cut down the 

 deep forests to live there the population was 

 sparse, and my grandmother lived in a cave 

 in a cliff in the forest. Several families lived 

 in the same place. 



My grandmother was a midwife. When- 

 ever in the cave there was a woman who had 

 difficulty in childbirth, they would have to 

 ask her to go and deliver the child. 



One day the old woman went out to gather 

 firewood and suddenly met a big black-striped 

 tiger that was kneeling down below the road 

 terrace, like a cat trying to catch a mouse, 

 and was wagging his tail. When she saw it 

 it almost frightened her to death. 



But the tiger did not bite my grandmother, 

 and the old woman said to the tiger, "What 

 strange affair have you? Please get up." The 

 tiger then stood up. The old woman again 

 said, "What do you want me to do? You may 

 go ahead first." The tiger led the way in front 

 step by step, and the old woman followed 

 him. When they had gone along awhile, 

 they arrived at a big cave in a cliff, and the 

 old woman saw a female tiger just giving 

 birth. The newborn baby was unable to 

 come out but was caught in the vagina of 

 the mother tiger. Then the old woman knew 

 that it was for this reason that she was called. 

 She then used her hands and extracted the 

 tiger baby. The female tiger licked it clean 

 with her tongue, and both the mother and the 

 baby lived. 



The old male tiger then ran away, and my 

 grandmother, traveling alone, went out of the 

 woods and came back home. She realized 

 that she had done a good deed for the tiger. 



To their surprise, that year on New Year's 



