NO. I 



CH UAN MIAO SONGS AND STORIES — GRAHAM 



209 



Be Kind to Your Wife 



A Song That Teaches (85) 



In very ancient times there was an orphan. 

 Both his father and his mother were dead. 

 He was very poor, so be built a house of reeds 

 in the forest to Hve in. He could only weep 

 day after day, for he had nothing to eat or to 

 wear. He lived alone three days and wept 

 three nights. His crying moved the heart of 

 the old dragon king. The dragon king then 

 sent his daughter to look after him. His 

 daughter came at night and called to him to 

 open the door. He said, "I do not know 

 whether you are a person or a demon, so I 

 will not open the door for you." The girl 

 replied, " I am not a demon. I am truly a hu- 

 man being. Because you are very poor, I have 

 come to save you." He then opened the door. 



The girl then came in and stayed with him. 

 At night she covered the orphan with her 

 dress and skirt. Next morning when they 

 arose the girl told him to carry water to cook 

 food with. The orphan said, "I am so poor 

 that I have no rice." The girl said, "Don't 

 you bother about anything else, but bring the 

 water, I have rice." He then brought the 

 water. Then the girl took from the corner 

 of her garment half a grain of rice, and put 

 it into the cooking vessel. In a short time 

 from that half grain there was a pot full of 

 cooked rice. She also found a pig's hair in 

 the corner of her garment. She threw it into 

 the pot and in a short time had a pot full of 

 meat. Then the two ate. 



Then the woman said, "To-night you go to 

 sleep early. My older brothers will come and 

 build a house for us." Of course, he went to 

 sleep earlier and slept until midnight. Then 

 the wind blew and the rain fell. In a little 

 while he heard the sounds of hatchets and of 

 carpenters. He then lifted up his head and 

 looked. Suddenly a fragment of wood struck 

 his eye and be began to cry. His wife then 

 took the edge of her skirt, wet it with her 

 saliva, and rubbed his eye, and his eye became 

 well. His wife then said, "You must not 

 look," and the orphan went to sleep. 



Next morning he arose and looked and saw 

 that there was a building with many yards 

 and fields all around it. He was living in a 

 tile-roofed house with a heavenly well and 

 buildings on both sides. He was afraid and 

 said, "We are wrongly living in some other 

 person's house." Tiien the woman said, "Have 

 you forgotten? Last night when I told you 

 to sleep my older brothers built a large house 

 for us to live in." Then he understood. 



Afterward the orphan did not take respon- 

 sibility but lived with the woman several years. 

 He thought wantonly. In the stronghold 

 where he was living there was a daughter of 

 Yang Leo (jaO Iau), Nts'ai Ngeo Go, who 

 made love to him. He went into the strong- 

 hold every night to see the girl and did pleas- 

 ing things. Nts'ai Ngeo Go said to him, "Now 

 your wife is not right. She has leprosy." He 

 answered, "How can that be.''" The girl said, 

 "Don't you believe it? Today you may go 

 and look at her legs. You will certainly see 

 that the skin is coming off her legs." The boy 

 said, "What shall I do?" The girl said, "It's 

 all right with you. I don't want you. I am 

 afraid that you will infect me." The orphan 

 said, "If I do not want her, will that be all 

 right?" His sweetheart then answered, "It will 

 not do. I am not good. You had better keep 

 her." He answered, "This is also wrong." 

 The sweetheart then said, "If only you have a 

 conscience we two can certainly secure ever- 

 lasting happiness." 



He believed this, and when he returned 

 home he said to his wife, "Tonight I do not 

 want you any more." His wife said, "Why 

 don't you want me?" He said, "You have 

 leprosy." His wife said, "How can it be that 

 I have this disease?" He said, "If you do not 

 believe it, take off your leggings and look." 

 The girl took them off and looked. When 

 she grasped her leg, a piece of white skin 

 came off. The man said, "If this is not lep- 

 rosy, what is it?" The woman said, "It is 

 not. It is the flesh and skin of my leg." 



The orphan made up his mind that he 

 really did not want her. His wife repeatedly 

 talked to him, but he actually did not want 

 her. Then the wife said, "If you do not want 

 me, my cattle, horses, and every kind of 

 domestic animals, fields, and land, all these I 

 will take away." The boy said, "I do not want 

 a thing of yours. All you need to do is to 

 carry it away and it is yours. Otherwise it is 

 mine." The girl then stood up and called, 

 "My clothing, my food, my house, let us go." 



In a moment all these things went out 

 together. The woman then returned and 

 looked at him and said, "Do you want me?" 

 He said, "I will tell you in one sentence, I do 

 not want you." When the girl heard this she, 

 weeping, flew ahead and the cows, horses, 

 sheep, money, and the rest all followed after 

 her. He saw that there was nothing left, and 

 then he pursued the woman to take some by 

 force. He was only able to seize one sheep. 



