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SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS 



VOL. 123 



the inn where they had formerly spent the selfish man did not have any. So the one who 

 night. The host gave the small grains of silver got the silver wrote this song to teach people 

 to him so that this man got all the silver. The of future generations not to be selfish. 



One Should Not Steal 



One Should Not Steal (150) 



The mother of a certain family had died. 

 The brothers were all clever at stealing. Only 

 the youngest brother was unwilling to steal. 

 His wife reproved him and said, "You see that 

 your older brothers are thieves, and they have 

 everything. Why don't you steal.'' Do you 

 want our whole family to starve to death?" 

 He did not dare to discuss it much with his 

 wife. He said, "Let me go this time and try 

 stealing." 



That night he went to a home that had 

 only a few quarts of rice. He went in and 

 stole that rice. But when he was coming back 

 along the road he thought, "When people 

 have only this small amount of rice to live on, 

 if I steal it will I actually make them die? 

 My mind can hardly endure it." He then 

 took the rice back to that family. 



He again came halfway back. He thought, 



"The door of that house was opened by me. 

 I am afraid that others will improve this 

 opportunity and steal there." So he again re- 

 turned and pretended that he had been caught 

 on his way after dark, and went to that home 

 and sought a light. He called to that family 

 to open the door, and when that family arose 

 and closed the door he went away. 



To his surprise, that night when he went 

 into a deep gulch he found a small creek full 

 of silver. Then he carried that silver back 

 home. But his wife thought he had stolen 

 it from others. He said, "This silver is not 

 stolen. I borrowed it from others. We had 

 better use it well, and later we can return it." 



The husband and his wife did not dare use 

 it wastefuUy, and from this time they became 

 very rich. The husband left this song to teach 

 the Miao people that they should not steal, 

 for Ntzi is able to give things to you. 



Good and Evil Recompense 



A Good Man Prospered, a Bad Man Suffered 

 a Calamity (151) 



There were two men who went to sell pigs. 

 One of them had an evil heart. When they 

 had driven the pigs above a perpendicular 

 cliff, he pushed the other over the cliff. But 

 the other was not injured. He fell halfway 

 down the cliff and was stopped by a vine. 



He sat there until daylight and then heard 

 a tiger talking to a monkey. The tiger said, 

 "Let us sing songs." The monkey said, "All 

 right." Then the tiger sang saying, "If any- 

 body understands, he only needs to use the 

 two man-loads of coal and the cliff will be 

 burnt up." Then the monkey said, "If any- 

 body is able like me to pick the lin-tzu-ts'ao,''^^ 

 and he takes it and treats the eyes of the 

 daughter of the emperor, then he will become 

 a prime minister." 



When the Miao heard these words, he 

 thought in his mind about it. Next day there 

 was a shepherd boy who came to cut grass. 

 The man asked the boy to pull him up the 

 cliff. He then said to those near him, "If any- 



^* S^^' 3 kind of grass that enables one 

 to live forever. 



body is willing to ask me to, I will take water 

 out of the cliff and save die people on the 

 plain." Then they asked him how much 

 money he wanted. He said, "I only want 

 300 taels of silver." So they prepared three 

 hundred ounces of silver and requested him 

 to do it. He carried 200 catties of coal and 

 burnt the cliff, and the cliff was ruined by 

 burning, and water ran out. He then car- 

 ried his silver back with him. 



The odier Miao went and sold the pigs and 

 came back. When he had come halfway, 

 thieves robbed him clean. He also feared that 

 the one that he had injured would pursue 

 him, but he did not pursue him but only 

 thanked him saying, "If it had not been for 

 you, I would not have had this happiness." 

 That one asked him, "How have you been 

 able to get rich?" He did not deceive the 

 other at all, but told him the circumstances. 



The other (the evil) one leaped down the 

 cliff upon the vine. But the tiger and the 

 monkey were not able to (would not) sing 

 songs lest somebody should spy on them. 

 There was nobody who came near that place, 

 and he hung below the cliff a few tens of 

 days. Then the vine broke and he fell, and 

 his body was broken into fragments. 



