NO. I 



CHUAN MIAO SONGS AND STORIES — GRAHAM 



197 



wept. Then the mother invited them both 

 into their home. 



The father could hardly recognize them. 

 He asked, "Did only you two come back, 

 and did anybody come with you?" The 

 daughter said to her husband, "Where is your 

 father who escorted us here?" Her father 

 said, "If the relative-by-marriage came with 

 you, where is he?" Her husband said, "He is 

 outside." The bride's father then asked, "Why 

 is he outside?" The daughter replied, "He 

 said that his body was very dirty. But he told 

 us that he wanted my father's little white dog 

 to eat." Her father said, "All right. You two 

 quickly give it to him." The daughter then 

 took the dog and tied it in the forest. At 

 midnight the tiger came out and ate the dog. 



The girl's father told her to go and invite 

 her father-in-law to come in. The girl then 

 called, "Please come, father-in-law, my father 

 told me to invite you into the house to talk 

 and rest." The tiger then said, "He knows 

 we are related. You quickly go back and 

 bring some of your chickens, pork, rice cakes, 

 wine and cooked eggs and give them to your 

 guests to eat, and request them to quickly 

 depart, and then I will go into their house." 

 The daughter-in-law then said, "I will obey." 

 Then they two returned to their father's house 

 and took all the things they had brought and 

 gave them to the guests. The guests then 

 departed. 



When the guests had all gone the bride's 

 father said, "Now that day is dawning, you 

 may go and invite him to come." The couple 

 then went to invite the tiger to come in. But 

 the tiger was drunk from eating the dog and 

 had fallen into the fire pit and was asleep 

 there. 



When daylight arrived, a neighboring Chi- 

 nese woman came to get some fire to start 

 her own fire with. She saw the big striped 

 tiger sleeping at the edge of the fire pit, and 

 was afraid to go into the pit to get fire. She 

 opened her mouth and said, "Why is this 

 striped thing here?" This family did not dare 

 to say anything to her until she had taken 

 some fire and gone away, when the tiger 

 awoke and said, "This woman is detestable. 

 I am going to go and play with her a little." 

 When he had said this he went out and ate 

 that woman, and then he returned and 

 warmed himself by the fire. 



That night the tiger said to his son and to 

 his daughter-in-law, "Now I am not able any 

 longer to live with you. Tomorrow you two 

 may go to that big tree across there and dig 

 beneath it. You will certainly see three white 

 hairs and three yellow hairs." The couple 



then said to the wife's father and mother, 

 "We have been here a long time. Tomorrow 

 we will certainly depart." Her parents under- 

 stood and did not detain them. 



That night the girl's father and mother 

 arose and killed a chicken and cooked rice 

 for them to eat. Then they left their parents 

 and went away. When they had reached the 

 forest they found three white hairs and three 

 yellow hairs. Then they dug down at that 

 spot. When they had dug down just a little 

 way, they picked up three large jars of gold 

 and three of silver. Then they took the gold 

 and the silver and carried it back to their cave. 

 From this time they had an established home. 

 The old father then ascended to paradise. 



The husband and his wife had uncon- 

 sciously became old. The very ancient Ntzi ^^ 

 wanted to make offerings and asked the hus- 

 band to go up (to Hades) and play the liu 

 sheng. The husband said to his wife, "Now 

 I am very old and cannot walk. I must lie 

 on my bed before I can depart (for paradise) . 

 He said to his wife. "When I am sleeping, 

 you take my big liu sheng and put it at my 

 pillow. When forty-nine days have passed, 

 my liu sheng will certainly resound from the 

 empty spaces above. You must open the door 

 and look at me." 



When only half the time had passed by, 

 the younger sister in this stronghold came 

 to grind meal and heard the sound of the 

 liu sheng in the air and said, "My older 

 brother is very old. Why should he have to 

 do this hard work (dancing and playing the 

 liu sheng) ? It is pitiful." She then went se- 

 cretly to her older brother's bed and lifted up 

 his bedding and looked at him. She saw 

 sweat like water on her older brother's face. 

 She then took her skirt and wiped off the 

 pearls (sweat drops) on her older brother's 

 face. Alas, when she wiped in this way the 

 skin on her brother's face came off and his 

 sister did not dare to look. For forty-nine 

 days his wife waited anxiously for him. After 

 the forty-nine days had passed, he still did 

 not come. His wife could wait no longer 

 and pulled off the bedding and looked. She 

 saw that her husband had rotted, his face 

 had decayed, and he was black like smoke. 

 His wife quickly hurried after him to the 

 land of Ntzi". She reached Ntzi's place and 

 searched for him several days, but could not 

 find him. 



One day she suddenly saw two butterflies 

 flying to carry water. She asked the butter- 

 flies, "You two girls, have you seen my hus- 



s^ ntz3, the highest god. 



