210 



SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS 



VOL. 123 



He turned around and saw diat he had no 

 house excepting the grass hut that he had at 

 first. 



He stayed in the straw hut alone one day, 

 and at night he again went to see Nts'ai 

 Ngeo Go. When the girl saw dried teardrops 

 on his eyelashes and his mouth twitching and 

 different from what he used to be, she scolded 

 him saying, "You thing that drives away 

 wives and that becomes filthy, what do I want 

 with you?" And she spat on his face. Then 

 he thought about his having chased away his 

 wife, and he began to weep. He then went 

 to the dragon pool and every day he looked 

 at the water in the pool and wept. 



One day a big warty toad sat behind him 

 and called, "Guest, why are you crying?" He 

 then told him about his whole life. The toad 

 said, "You sit here a long time. When I have 

 drunk up all this water, I will take you there 

 (to his wife)." 



In a little while the toad had drunk all the 

 water. The toad said, "You must hide under 

 my armpit and I will take you there. You 

 must not laugh at me." 



In a short time the water in the pool was 

 drunk up. The toad then grasped him under 

 his armpit and took him along. In a wink 

 he saw a great palace, and his wife was there 

 weaving. When he saw his wife, he laughed. 

 When he laughed the toad's stomach was torn 

 open, and when the water had flowed out 

 the pool of water was there as usual. 



He then wept awhile and the toad said to 

 him, "You must not cry. Quickly take a 

 needle and thread and sew up my abdomen. 

 But you simply must not laugh until you have 



seized your wife, and I will leap out and go 

 away, and then it will be fitting (right)." 



Of course this time he did not laugh, and 

 the toad squeezed him under his armpits and 

 slowly went to where his wife was. He then 

 seized hold of his wife. 



His wife said, "What do you want here?" 

 He then told his wife in detail what had 

 happened. His wife said, "When I urged you 

 not to listen to people's talk, you would not 

 believe me. Now I cannot look after you." 

 He then wept and wanted his wife. His wife 

 said, "Because I now have another husband, 

 I cannot go with you. You must not blame 

 me as though I were without conscience." He 

 took hold of his wife and would not release 

 her. His wife said, "Don't you believe me? 

 I will open the door and you can secretly take 

 a look." He replied, "I will look." The wife 

 then opened the door with her hand and he 

 saw a man outside. His body was like a 

 tiger's body, his head was like an eagle's head, 

 and he had two wings. When he roared it 

 was like thunder. He was tending a herd of 

 sheep behind a hill. 



The orphan said, "If you do not go with 

 me, what shall I do?" The woman then said, 

 "I will give you a chicken's wing. Take it 

 back with you. In cold weather, wherever you 

 are cold, just brush yourself there and you 

 will be warm. He actually took the chicken 

 wing back with him. Not long afterward 

 winter came and he tried using it a little, and 

 his whole body became warm. Unexpectedly, 

 when it suddenly became very cold, he felt 

 that his neck was a little cold. He then swept 

 his neck with the feathers and his head fell 

 off. 



BUDDHIST TALES 



A Kind Boy Who Became an Immortal (15) 



The son went to gather wood. His mother 

 gave him corn biscuits to eat for dinner. 

 When he came to the forest he met a beggar. 

 He saw that the beggar was very hungry, so 

 he himself did not eat, but gave his food to 

 the beggar. That night when he came home 

 he told his mother, "Today I did not eat any 

 lunch because I met a very hungry beggar in 

 the forest and I gave him my biscuit to eat." 

 His mother said, "Tomorrow I will give you 

 one more. You may give one to him and eat 

 one 3'ourself, and that will be all right." 

 When he went next day there were two beg- 

 gars and he gave his two biscuits to the two 

 beggars to eat. At night he came home and 

 said to his mother, "Today there was one 

 more hungry beggar and I gave to them both 

 and did not eat myself." Thereafter until 



the eighth day it was like this, and there were 

 eight beggars and he did not eat any lunch 

 himself. He gave his biscuits to all the eight 

 beggars to eat. Then the beggars of the eight 

 days said to him, "You have done good deeds. 

 We will give you a pair of straw sandals. 

 Take them and sell them to Mr. Lu Yuen 

 Wai." When Lu Yuen Wai had looked at 

 the straw sandals he asked how much silver 

 he wanted for them. He said, "I want one 

 hundred dollars." Yuen Wai said, "I will not 

 buy your sandals." Then the eight beggars 

 said to Yuen Wai, "It is all right if you do 

 not want them." To the boy who gathered 

 wood they said, "You may put them on and 

 go with us to be a beggar. When you take 

 a stick and stand it up beside a flower, the 

 flower will not bear fruit. Only the willow 

 beside tlie river will be able to grow large (as 



