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SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS 



VOL. 123 



and the tiger died at once. Then the hus- 

 band tiger went up, and with one blow he 

 cut the tiger into two pieces. 



The Httle tiger said, "I have not offended 

 you. Why are you so fierce.? I will also come 

 and eat you." Then the little tiger also 

 climbed up by means of the belt, and he 

 struck it with the back of the sword, and the 

 baby tiger fell down crying out and ran 

 flying away. 



After he had killed all the tigers, he came 

 down and told his wife to go away quickly. 

 But she said, "You have no conscience. You 

 have killed all my people. I will not go with 

 you." He said, "If you will not go, I will 

 also kill you." She said, "Do not kill me, 

 but let me go and pay my debts to the de- 

 mons, and then I will go with you." He 

 replied, "All right." 



Then she leaped upon the clifl, and came 

 back changed into a yellow tigress and ran at 

 him to bite him. He cried out, "You animal, 

 your heart is truly wild." He struck with his 

 sword and cut her tail off. He also looked 

 and saw that half of her skirt had broken off. 



Then the woman said, "Don't kill me. Let 

 us go back home." They two slowly went 

 back home, and already three years have 

 passed. 



A Wife Was Captured by Tigers and Was 

 Changed into a Tiger and again into a 

 Woman, or. Why the Ch'uan Miao Wor- 

 ship the Door (25) 



There was a woman named Hmong Ts'i 

 Nts'ai Nyang Tsa ^^ and a man named Dong 

 Pl'ai Hmong Zwang^ These two, husband 

 and wife, were happy and cheerful every day. 



This woman was truly beautiful. There 

 was no other girl on earth so beautiful as she. 

 She was an orphan girl. She treated Dong 

 Pl'ai Hmong Zwang as her older brother, but 

 Ngeo Geo had already been married to an- 

 other man. She came back to visit in the 

 home of Dong Pl'ai Hmong Zwang. They 

 could not find anybody to escort her back 

 home, so they asked Dong Pl'ai Hmong 

 Zwang to escort her home. Dong Pl'ai 

 Hmong Zwang's wife warned him saying, 

 "On your way do not think wantonly nor 

 wrongly judge others. After twelve days I 

 will await you." He then escorted Ngeo Geo 

 away. 



When he had gone halfway he said to her, 

 "I have something to do at home now. I 

 cannot go farther with you." She said, "You 



53 hmoO' ts9- nts'ai^ njaO" tsa-^ a beautiful 

 girl called Liu in Chinese. 



need not go then. Wait until I blow on a . 

 tree leaf before you go back." The girl then 

 took a tree leaf saying, "Leaves spring from 

 roots. Forests come from trees. If a girl is to 

 be married she must have relatives to escort 

 her. My life is truly hard. Dong Pl'ai Hmong 

 Zwang, my brother, escorting me, suddenly ■ 

 when halfway turns back. This is very hard 

 to bear." ^* 



When he heard these words, he could not 

 bear to come back from halfway, and escorted 

 her until she was near her home. Again he 

 said, "I really cannot escort you. I truly have ' 

 matters at home." She replied, "Can't you ; 

 go with me? Wait until I again blow on the 

 tree leaf for you to hear before you go back." 

 The woman in the same way again took a 

 tree leaf and blew on it. Her words were like 

 she used the first time. He could not bear it 

 and escorted her home. 



Unexpectedly, when he reached her home, 

 he was forced by the brothers of her husband 

 to remain many days so that the date his wife 

 set for him was iriissed. After twelve days he 

 walked behind the mountain and took out 

 the small bamboo flute he had with him and 

 played on it saying, "A woman had no 

 brother or sister and adopted me as her 

 brother. I was unable to go back home. I 

 fear that my wife has been carried away by 

 tigers or demons." He blew this three times. 



The sound actually entered the ears of a 

 band of tigers. The small tigers said, "Older 

 brothers, older brothers, he has a pretty wife. 

 Let us go and carry her off." The older tigers 

 said, "All right, all right. How shall we do ' 

 it?" The smaller tigers said, "What is hard 

 about it? He constantly plays his flute. We: 

 can correctly blow on flutes and quickly go ) 

 behind his house and hide in the deep forest. .1 

 We can play like him on a bamboo flute and 1; 

 vv/hen his wife comes out to look, we will take :| 

 advantage of the opportunity and carry her '| 

 away." 



The tigers prepared a flute at once and it 

 went to the hill behind her house. Then i 

 they played the flute. When the woman 

 heard it she said to her mother-in-law, "My 

 husband has returned. I will go and meet 

 him." The mother said, "All right." 



Then she put on her good clothes and went 

 out to wait for her husband. Suddenly, when 

 she got behind the hill in the deep forest, the 

 tigers struck her and knocked her uncon- j 

 scious on the ground. In a moment she re- 



5* The name Dong Pl'ai Hmong Zwang indi- 

 cates a character like a brass ring so that every- | 

 body likes him. 



