SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS 



VOL. 12^ 



band or not?" The two butterflies replied, 

 "We do not know anybody else excepting 

 Ntzi's teacher of the liu sheng. Now he can- 

 not return home." His wife said, "That is 

 good. That is my husband. Please tell me, 

 young ladies, where is he now.?" The two 

 said to her, "He has gone to the stronghold 

 on the big mountain ahead for a walk. He 

 comes back once a day. He will go through 

 the oak forest over there. He is just about 

 to return. You'd better quickly go ahead and 

 wait for him." 



When his wife heard this she was very glad. 

 She went into the forest ahead by the big 

 road where sheep were pastured, and hid 

 where she could watch. In a short time she 

 heard the sound of her husband coming and 

 playing the big liu s/ietig. She waited, hidden, 

 until her husband came in front of her and 

 she grabbed her husband. She then said, "My 

 husband, why have you been here so long 

 and not returned home? What do you want 

 me to do?" Her husband then said to her, 

 "It is certainly not that I wanted to come 

 here, but it is because you people injured 

 me." ^^ His wife said, "When you have such 

 strength, how can you say anybody injured 

 you?" Her husband said, "Don't you believe 

 me? We two can make a trail in the grass 

 here." His wife said, "All right," and the 

 two walked in the grass. 



When her husband walked in the grass, 

 the grass did not bend over a bit. When his 

 wife walked past, she tread down a path. 

 His wife said, "This is not enough for me to 

 believe. After all, you must go back home." 

 Her husband said, "In front is a pool of thin 

 mud. We can walk on it." His wife said, 

 'Tes, go ahead." Her husband walked about 

 once on the mud, and the mud did not move 

 a bit. As soon as his wife stepped on the mud 

 she got stuck in it and cried out loudly. 

 "Take hold of me, take hold of me." Her 

 husband then pulled her out and he said to 

 his wife, "Now I cannot go again with you 

 down to earth, for I am a spirit.^^ You go 

 back quickly and take my decayed body and 

 bury it under the dirt in peace." 



His wife then wept loudly saying, "This is 

 undesirable, it will not do at all. You think. 

 Your sons and daughters are many, and you 

 have many fields and animals. How can I 

 take care of them?" Her husband answered, 

 *Tou can't blame me. I cannot enjoy you. 

 Give me a sickle and let us go." His wife 

 then gave him a sickle and he said, "I will 



60 When his sister wiped his face, otherwise he 

 could have come back to life. 

 ^^ The word means spirit breath. 



cut the yin and the yang roads in two.''^ lest 

 descendants hereafter be able to see each 

 other." ^^ When he had finished he cut the 

 yin and the yang road and cut it in two. He 

 then became invisible, and his wife went 

 home weeping and with an aching heart. 



When she reached home, she saw that her 

 husband's body had given birth to many mag- 

 gots. She then told her sons and her daugh- 

 ters to take his body and bury it in peace. 



After this people in Hades could not see 

 people on earth, and people on earth could 

 not see people in Hades.*'* 



A Father Changed into a Tiger and Helped 

 His Son Get a Wife (128) 



On a clear day the bitter bamboo grew up 

 in the grove and the ban chuh bamboo sprouts 

 grew on the roots of the ban chuh bamboo 

 trees. The time and the years force me to 

 transform into a tiger. The time has already 

 come for Ndzeo Dai's ^^ Gi Je Gai P'ong,^® 

 and this year he must go and change into a 

 tiger, and the year is also the one for him 

 to go and change into a demon. When he 

 had changed into a demon, he started to that 

 family to grip Ngeo Va ^"^ under his armpits 

 and bring her for his son to use.*"^ Then he 

 changed into a tiger and went into the girl's 

 house and took her under his armpits and 

 took her to his son for a wife. When Ngeo 

 Va arrived, she wove cloth on the loom. Her 

 husband Ndzeo Dai was still not as high as 

 her waist. 



Ndzeo Dai jumped back and forth and 

 laughed and smiled at her. But Ngeo Va 

 hated him like the bitter medicine Huang 

 Lien (coptis teet'a, Wall, a bitter medicine). 

 She wept about it. When she wept she dis- 

 turbed Ndzeo Dai's mother's liver.^^ Ngeo 



^- Severing Hades or paradise and this world. 



^^ So people on earth cannot see those in 

 Hades and vice versa. 



6* In diis story and in the minds of the Ch'uan 

 Miao, the yin signifies Hades or paradise, the land 

 of die departed souls, and die yang signifies this 

 world. The Ch'uan Miao believe that people in 

 Hades can see people on eardi and that people 

 can change into tigers and other creatures. 



65 Ndzeo Dai means a small son who is a 

 husband. 



•'^ Gi Je Gai P'ong means a father whose moudi 

 and teedi are large and strong. 



^'^ Ngeo Va means tile girl, a girl as fine as a 

 tile. 



68 The Ch'unn Miao regard the wife as a servant 

 of the husband, and dierefore speak of the wife 

 as one he uses. 



69 It is believed diat disagreeable things may 

 injure or disturb another's liver. 



