NO. I 



CH UAN MIAO SONGS AND STORIES — GRAHAM 



207 



When the sheep girl (you) dies, leave me, 

 the wildcat, to propagate my species." The 

 master heard this and called out, "Sometliing 

 is wrong. How can the sheep speak?" and he 

 killed the sheep. He placed the mutton on 

 the meat board to cut it up. The meat board 

 said, "Go slowly. You are cutting my back." 

 The master said, "The meat board is also able 

 to speak. Truly luck is bad." So he split up 

 the meat board and burnt it. Then the house 

 cat said, "Since you split up your meat board, 

 how can I eat meat?" Then he killed the cat. 

 The rat said, "Since you have killed the cat, 



we will take courage and eat things." The 

 man took a torch and burnt up his house so 

 as to burn up the rats. 



There was a crow that cawed saying, "Ah, 

 ah, don't burn it, don't burn it." He took his 

 gun and shot the crow. 



The turtledove saw it and said, "Gu, gu, 

 gu, since you have burnt your house, I will 

 not eat your grain" (because it is burnt up). 

 He shot the turtledove. Then the turdedove 

 said, "Gu, gu, gu, I will eat my bones. When 

 you burn your house, why do you shoot my 

 tail?" And the man got so angry that he died. 



One Should Not Be Selfish or Covetous 



One Who Was Not Too Covetous Became 

 Rich (102) 



He was very superstitious. One day he 

 went to the village to reckon (consult) the 

 eight characters (/V^)'''' The man who 

 did this then said to him, "You will find some 

 silver." When he heard these words, he was 

 very attentive. The man who reckoned the 

 eight characters said to him, "Although you 

 find it, you must not use this just for your- 

 self. You must divide it with others, and that 

 will be all right." He then remembered these 

 words very carefully. 



Daily he thought about the silver. One 

 day he went outside and looked to the east 

 and to the west, and he saw a shoe of silver 

 (an ingot, or ten ounces). He remembered 

 that he must not use it just for himself and 

 must divide it with others. But at this time 

 there was nobody with him. He looked below 

 and saw a worker plowing the field. Then he 

 gave half the silver to the laborer. 



The plowman said to-' him, "This is your 

 wealth. Why do you divide up with me?" 

 He said very little in reply and went away. 

 Then the plowman plowed the middle of the 

 field, and his plowshare caught on a board 

 and turned it over. He then lifted up the 

 board and under it was a stone jar filled with 

 silver. He thought, "That passer-by, when he 

 found a shoe of silver, gave some to me. 

 Can it be that I will use (or need) all this 

 myself?" Then he tied up his cow (the plow 

 animal) and ran after the other man. He 

 called the other man back and they divided 

 up the silver. From this time on the passer-by 

 was a rich man. 



"^Consulting the eight characters as a means 

 of divination is a Chinese custom here practiced 

 by a Ch'uan Miao. 



One Should Not Be Selfish, or A Selfish Man 

 Came to Grief (149) 



There were two pig merchants who drove 

 away a herd of pigs to sell. W^hen they were 

 halfway, they saw a big pig trough full of 

 silver. They talked the matter over and said, 

 "It is fine that we have found this silver. Alas, 

 we are traveling now, and it is not convenient 

 to take it away." So they discussed the matter 

 and took the silver and hid it. They said, "We 

 will drive the pigs along and sell them. Then 

 we will return and divide up the silver." 

 When they had finished speaking, they took 

 the silver and hid it well, and drove the 

 pigs away. 



When they had gone halfway, one became 

 selfish and pretended that his stomach ached 

 so that he could go no farther. He said that 

 he would go back home and get cured. He 

 came to the place where they had hidden the 

 silver, and he found that not a bit of the 

 silver was left, but only a pig trough full of 

 clear water. He was not pleased, and drank a 

 few mouthfuls of the water. In a little while 

 his stomach began to pain him. That night, 

 when he came and spent the night where 

 they had stayed before, his stomach pained 

 him very much worse. He arose and relieved 

 his bowels upstairs. Next morning, when he 

 realized that he had relieved his bowels in tlie 

 bed and on the floor upstairs, he was ashamed 

 slipped out and ran away. 



When the host arose he found that the pig 

 merchant was gone, and he saw small grains 

 of silver everywhere upstairs. The host did 

 not dare use that silver. Later the one who 

 sold the pigs came back to the place where 

 they had hidden the silver. The troughful 

 of white silver was there as usual. He picked 

 up the silver and carried it off. He went to 



